results of damp&timber survey

illusionek

Hello

I instructed a damp & timber survey on a Victorian 3 bed house I intend to buy. This was carried by an independent surveyor so costs are estimates rather than actual quote as his company does not carry out any work.

The overall comments are that there is no evidence of significant dampness or timber decay but the whole estimate is about £9 000, which I find to be rather high. The property is on the outskirts of SE London.

I am FTB so not really sure if it would be reasonable for me to go back to the vendor and ask for agreed purchase price to be reduced based on the survey? When I viewed property I could not see any damp, definitely not blown plaster however I expected there is some due to age of the property.

Please advise if based on below recommendations I have any grounds to revise previously agreed price and if so what would be best approach?. I dont want to upset the vendor or potentially lose the house so if I do not have solid grounds to revise price I prefer not to do it. At the same time I found £9k to be a lot so would be keen no to take the hit if possible

• External ground level reduction
• Water wicks up the walls – suggested treatment removing skirting boards and trimming the walls finishes behind them upwardly circa 50mm to ensure isolation and remove any risk of absorption and then create insolation gap. New skirting boards should be treated with Cuprinol 5 star.
• There is some blown/degraded plaster showing signs of dampness that needs to be removed to 1.2m, spoiled decoration etc however comments say no urgent/immediate re-plastering works were identified. This work has been included in estimates: ca £4k.
• Installation of additional airbricks
• Installation of roof tile vents

cattie

Whenever you get any kind of survey that indicates that financial outlay will be needed in the immediate or near future then you should always try to renegotiate a new offer price with the vendor.

The average negotiated price considered fair tends to be 50% of cost of required works. However the £9k quoted to you does seem very high, even considering your location & obviously if a vendor feels the price quoted is excessive, they might not want to negotiate on what they feel is an inflated price.

Points no. 1,3, 4 & 5 are rather common suggestions for older houses & though I have no prior knowledge of point no. 2, the suggested price of £9k to remedy issues does seem very inflated indeed.

Have you spoken to ea about this, only often they know of a trades person they can ask to look over any issues & give their opinion? Or if you had a homebuyer's report or full survey, give that surveyor a call for their opinion & see if they can indicate a more realistic price for works.

Cakeguts

Was this an independent survey or one carried out by a damp and timber company. What you need is an independent survey from a company that does not sell damp and timber work. You have to pay for the independent survey but at least the surveyor does not have any reason to try to sell you damp remedies.

G_M

1, 4 & 5 would cost almost nothing. Or nothing at all if you spent a weekend DIYing.

no evidence of significant dampness or timber decay

suggests that 2 & 3 are minimal/non-urgent, so need not be done in the short term, though you may prefer to improve the property from the get-go. Your choice.

Never heard of 'water wicks' (& google didn't help) but I assume this is some kind of rising damp or damp creeping upwards. Seems strange. If the damp proof course is sound, (and there's no suggestion it needs repair or installing) then where is this damp coming from....?

How bad is the blown plaster? If have some in my house- it doesn't worry me or need replacing unless/until I redecorate. The issue would be if the cause of it blowing (eg penetrating damp/ condensation) was ongoing, but the report does not indicate that the plaster is damp, or that there's an ongoing issue with damp.

By all means use the report to re-negotiate if you want/can, but I would not be overly worried myself.

G_M

Cakeguts wrote: »

Was this an independent survey or one carried out by a damp and timber company. What you need is an independent survey from a company that does not sell damp and timber work. You have to pay for the independent survey but at least the surveyor does not have any reason to try to sell you damp remedies.

Come on Cakey! Read the OP!

I instructed a damp & timber survey on a Victorian 3 bed house I intend to buy. This was carried by an independent surveyor so costs are estimates rather than actual quote as his company does not carry out any work.

illusionek

Have you spoken to ea about this, only often they know of a trades person they can ask to look over any issues & give their opinion? Or if you had a homebuyer's report or full survey, give that surveyor a call for their opinion & see if they can indicate a more realistic price for works.

My experience of dealing with EAs has been very bad as they have been very bullish so far and vendors seem to be very inflexible too. They do not seem to bothered with anything at all, perhaps because the property is rented out. Based on my past experience I feel I need to approach them with a firm offer rather than rely on them to be reasonable. I would not be comfortable with using their quotes as I am sure they could find someone to do all the work for half of the price but it does not mean it would be done well. A case in point would be that there was an attempt at the property to reduce ground level but the channel is not low enough and also fully filled with pea-shingle and it should not extend above the damp proof course. I had a structural survey done and based on its recommendations I arranged damp&timber survey. It confirms findings/recommendations of damp&timber survey but I did not include cost estimates in writing but when I spoke with the surveyor on the phone he advised budget of ca £5.6k for re-plastering, so even higher. Perhaps estimates are so high because it cannot be gypsum based plasters.

If the damp proof course is sound, (and there's no suggestion it needs repair or installing) then where is this damp coming from....?

How bad is the blown plaster? If have some in my house- it doesn't worry me or need replacing unless/until I redecorate. The issue would be if the cause of it blowing (eg penetrating damp/ condensation) was ongoing, but the report does not indicate that the plaster is damp, or that there's an ongoing issue with damp.

Good news is that no new damp proof course is required but there is an ongoing issue with the damp. It is caused by the ground level being above the damp proof course, hence recommendation to lower ground levels. Other reason for ongoing issue with the damp is lack of ventilation hence the reason for need to install airbricks, vent tiles in the roof and I forgot to mention that vents are also required for chimney breasts.

I am not really sure how bad is blown plaster. They surveyor who made structural survey made is sound much more urgent on the phone than it is stated on the damp&timber survey. I could not see issues with the plaster whilst viewing. When I raised it with the surveyor he mentioned that the house is very well decorated therefore it is not well visible. He also moved furniture during his inspection, so could see much more than I was able.

I dont mind doing some work myself at all but I am not good at DIY at all and since I am currently renting never had a need to have any tools. So if I factor costs of getting relevant tools and potential costs of fixing my botched DIY work then getting a builder in probably would not be much more expensive.

I know by nature I am quite panicky and always assume worst case scenario, so this is the reason why I seek external advise as I fully appreciate that if I just sent a copy of the survey with £9k estimate it would not be warmly welcome by EAs or vendors. So I am trying to understand what is seen as reasonable in general.

Cakeguts

G_M wrote: »

Come on Cakey! Read the OP!

Oops perhaps I should just go for kip in the sun in the garden. I might be more awake after that.

G_M

If the dampis caused as you say by the external ground level, then the 'wall wick' stuff seems pointless.

Spend a day digging a trench round the house, and part fill with gravel, and then let the walls dry out. Sorted.

That will sort the damp where the plaster is blown too. So then it's just a question of whether you want to improve the plaster for decorative reasons. If you're "not really sure how bad is blown plaster." then I suggest it can't be bad or you'd have noticed it!

AlexMac

As you have an independent survey, how about going in with a suggestion that you "split the difference" and try for a £4.5k price-drop?

But decide in advance whether, in the event that they hold their nerve and tell you to go forth and procreate, you will actually walk away. If as you say, you are inexperienced, as both a new buyer and due to lack of buildings savvy, the EA or buyer may smell the fear and try to tough it out. So appear as stronger or more resolute than you feel.

And even if you end up paying the agreed price (and assuming by SE London you don't mean the outer reaches, so I assume the gaff costs £350-600k) a few £k is a small % of the price, And that survey is really reassuring. The surveyor presumably isn't saying that the roof void or timbers are damp, so the fact that is hasn't had roof vents for the past 100 odd years is reassuring. And as GM says some of this is a DIY job.

If, as I hope, you do buy what sounds like a replica of a Victorian house which we once owned in SE London, I would think about what you want after you move in. Heat and ventilate it well for the summer (as an ex- rental, the damp could be aggravated by condensation, poor ventlaition, cooking and laundry) then work out how bad the damp really is. Consider whether you want any remedial work done by a specialist who will offer a guarantee (such as Bryhill of SE London, who we have used in several houses locally), or, as the DPC isn't a problem, by a general builder who wil be cheaper.

I would replace damp plaster, as it may have become hygroscopice (google it), but if it's really badly blown, it will fall off when you strip the wallpaper anyway- a cheap job to fix, and not much more if the builder takes the stripping right back to the brickwork and re-renders before plastering

The idea that you should take off the skirting and re-instate the normal gap (whereby the wall plaster usually doesn't go all the way down behind the skirting; in effect leaving a couple of inches air-space behind the skirting), or that you should replace the skirting with new stuff treated with preservative both seem OTT unless the walls are really damp- but even if you do that, it will only add a couple of hundred quid.

Don't panic! Practice negotiating before you front up the EA. Or ask your solicitor if they will do it in writing if you'd prefer them to pass on your request for a reduction; they might or might not!

ThePants999

If I got a report that included "no evidence of significant dampness or timber decay" I'd be thinking "splendid, moving on then". No evidence of anything wrong, but a £9K estimate to fix it!?

illusionek

Thats exacly my issue. It seems there is no significant issue with damp but still I am looking at about £9k bill to pay. Even if I leave plastering out of it which is single biggest item then I still need to fork out £4-5k. Unfortunately I do not feel like I have a leg to stand on as the survey says no significant issues even though the estimate appears to be high. I need to sleep on this I guess. I dont to walk away as overall this amount is still a small % of overall value but then again dont really want to feel like a fool paying for something that I should pass onto vendors.