First time buyer - Home survey - advice needed

David_Hopkins_2

Hello,

I am a first time buyer have just had a home-buyers survey on a house.

The survey returned a few red marks and I was wondering if someone could give some advice on what I should do next.

The items I need advice on are:

Chimney stack:

• Several bricks are spalling.
• Damp was found internally in the roof space possibly due to poor weatherproofing or a defect within the stack stacks.

External main walls

• There is some cracking around a number of the window and door openings on the front and rear of the property. We believe this may have been caused by a combination of old movement and normal thermal/moisture changes. They appear longstanding in nature as there is no evidence of any recent movement. Nevertheless, open cracks will require repair to prevent possible water ]ingress and further damage as a result of frost action.
• High damp meter readings were recorded internally in the lounge and rear reception room.

Any help would be great.

Thanks,
David

AdrianC

David_Hopkins wrote: »

Chimney stack:

• Several bricks are spalling.
• Damp was found internally in the roof space possibly due to poor weatherproofing or a defect within the stack stacks.

External main walls

• There is some cracking around a number of the window and door openings on the front and rear of the property. We believe this may have been caused by a combination of old movement and normal thermal/moisture changes. They appear longstanding in nature as there is no evidence of any recent movement. Nevertheless, open cracks will require repair to prevent possible water ]ingress and further damage as a result of frost action.

These all sound genuine, and should be easy enough to confirm visually ("spalling" is when the face of the brick starts to crumble and fall off). None should be immensely hard or expensive to sort - but the chimney brickwork isn't trivial.

High damp meter readings were recorded internally in the lounge and rear reception room.

But that's likely the usual backside-covering. Is there any sign of damp on the decor? It may be real - in which case, it's usually easily solved, as it's often down to too-high ground level (soil built up against the wall) or damaged gutters/downpipes.

Cakeguts

Was the house valued at what you offered? If so the survey is telling you what will need repairing.