Serious damp issues on whole wall of house

DucatiSteve

Hi,

We are looking into buying a house that has some serious damp issues on one of the walls. The upstairs bedroom has damp meter readings that are off the scale; the wall itself is very lumpy and you can see from outside that it has large patches of discoloration.

We're struggling to find quotes online for how much this would cost to fix; I'm assuming it's a problem with the roof tiles, so those may also need work.

Has anyone had experience with this before?

Cheers,

Steve

AnotherJoe

Without knowing what's causing it, it's impossible to tell. Might need. new roof, might be blocked gutters.

Mr.Generous

Another possibility is penetrating damp, if it's had some cavity insulation or something that has bridged the cavity damp could be getting straight through. Driving rain can be a problem. Whereabouts is the house, and how old?

G_M

* new roof - £5000?

* a few slipped tiles - £200?

* a leaking upvc gutter- £100?

* a worn iron gutter past its use-by date - £750 to replace?

* worn pointing requiring complete keying out & re-pointing - £2000

* a few bricks needing re-pointing - £300?

* damaged external cladding needing complete strip-back & re-clad - £3000

* touch up small damaged area of cladding - £378?

* lack of internal ventilation - new extractor fan - £52

* lack of internal ventilation - opening windows when bathing - £0

* lack of internal ventilation - drying clothes outside instead of inside - £0

ie until you know the cause, you can't know the cost!

DucatiSteve

Thanks for the tips. I should have been more specific - the house is about 100 years old and is in south east london (Bromley).

I'm pretty sure the problem is with the roof and I know that can cost up to 5k, I was more interested in knowing how much it costs to fix/replace a whole bedroom wall as I suspect it's been subjected to internal leaks for several decades now.

Worst case scenario without further investigation, it sounds like this could cost about 10k to fix.

eddddy

DucatiSteve wrote: »

I was more interested in knowing how much it costs to fix/replace a whole bedroom wall...

Do you mean an external wall?

It's very, very unlikely that you'd need to replace an external wall - or if it was necessary, no mortgage lender would touch the property with a bargepole.

Once the source of the damp has been found and cured, and the wall has dried out, you'd probably just need the old plaster hacked off, and the wall re-plastered.

Here's an indication of the cost of re-plastering: https://local.which.co.uk/advice/cost-price-information-plasterer-plastering

vw100

I had a similar issue on a external wall, had black mould and could feel moisture on the wall especially after wet weather, it was a external facing side wall. When I hacked of the plaster all the way to the bricks, the bricks were sound and clean. It turned out it was the roof tiles, so I got them replaced for that section, approx. 10 tiles. Will have to wait and see this winter how it goes, but since spring this year not had any mould or moisture on the wall.

However the roof probably has about 5 years life init when it really needs to be replaced.

bxboards

Has the damp external wall been rendered? Can you see any cracks? Often external walls in old houses are rendered with sand and cement - this is the worse thing you can do, as over time the cement will crack and water will get behind with no way out, ultimately coming into the interiors.

It could also be a missing tile issue - either way, once you find the cause, it shouldn't be that expensive to fix. The lumpy wall will need to be stripped back to stone / brick, and replastered after the remedial work is done.

It's very hard to advise - whatever you do, do not let anyone try to inject anything into the walls to fix it, many damp proof 'specialists' are salesman selling completely inappropriate 'treatments'

ska_lover

Do you absolutely HAVE to buy this place? it sounds a ball ache

DucatiSteve

We don't 'have' to buy it, but I really love it.

We are considering a couple of others but this info was really helpful - thanks!

PhilE

Any damp problems like this should have been inspected and solved by the vendor, with documents to prove it.

If they haven't done this, I would wonder what else is wrong with the property and stay away.

If you really, really like it get a full structural survey done and offer below asking to compensate for repair fees.