Bulge/cracks in ceiling

gcoopermax

Hi

We viewed a property yesterday and it seems to tick many boxes on our list, however we have few concerns for the ceiling. In the living room, there appears to be a bulge due to a leakage in the past. While in bedroom, there is a smallish crack on the ceiling. I have attached the photos to illustrate the issue. How much would it cost to repair this? Should this be a dealbreaker?

I wish the images were lot more clearer but hope they are good enough.

[Deleted User]

£5 should get you some sandpaper and polyfilla, with change left over.

pramsay13

The crack wouldn't concern me at all. Our house is over 150 years old and there are cracks and bumps all over the place from years of movement and settlement.
Only new cracks would concern me and even then they have to be significant.
The bulge is slightly different. If you are sure it is historic and the issue is fixed it wouldn't bother me too much, certainly wouldn't be a deal breaker.
A few hundred pounds would get it repaired.
If those are your only two issues with a house then you are laughing.

SG27

If its an old house it will be full of cracks. My house is 300 years old and cracks all over. As long as they arent more than a few mm wide I wouldnt worry.

If it bothers you just give it a rub down and repaint.

gcoopermax

A few hundred pounds would get it repaired.
If those are your only two issues with a house then you are laughing.

Of course there some other issues like lack of extractor hood over cooker, worn-out flooring on kitchen, a bit of mould on the wall over the windows, squeaky staircases and small kitchen/bedrooms - at least some of these are addressable and some (size of rooms) we can learn to live with. But about the faults in ceiling, I don't know if they would be costly to fix and whether would put off potential buyers if we didn't repair it, hence the post.

If its an old house it will be full of cracks. My house is 300 years old and cracks all over. As long as they arent more than a few mm wide I wouldnt worry.

It's a semi built in seventies and the cracks (I only observed 2) are few mm wide. Of course we would do a full survey to find if the condition is dangerous, but I thought of getting some opinions on this forum before we decide to put an offer.

Cakeguts

It it is an old lathe and plaster ceiling it will come down eventually if you leave it so it is best to get a new ceiling put up. (We had a ceiling come down in a spare bedroom once and it makes a mess.)

gcoopermax

Cakeguts wrote: »

It it is an old lathe and plaster ceiling it will come down eventually if you leave it so it is best to get a new ceiling put up. (We had a ceiling come down in a spare bedroom once and it makes a mess.)

Do you mean a new ceiling for the entire living room (5.2m X 3.5m)? How much would it cost?

Cakeguts

The bulge in the ceiling in the sitting room would be a deal breaker for me if I didn't want to do any building work. It is bulging because as you say they have had a leak. Why have they not had the ceiling repaired after the leak? Is it an artex ceiling? If it is then it will almost certainly have asbestos in it and that will make it expensive to repair which might explain why they haven't done it. Not only that but have they checked whether the water has damaged the joists in the floor above this ceiling. Judging by their attitude to repairing the bulge in the ceiling I would make and educated guess that they haven't.

All you have to do now is to find out why a 1970s ceiling has cracked in the bedroom. Has someone put their foot through it when they went up in the loft?

The people selling this house don't care about repairs. So you need to ask yourself what other repairs have they not made?

If this house has been on the market for a long time (several months) there is something wrong with it. If it is cheap and still on the market for several months then it isn't cheap enough for the problems that it has. Do you know the area well that it is in?

gcoopermax

Judging by their attitude to repairing the bulge in the ceiling I would make and educated guess that they haven't. All you have to do now is to find out why a 1970s ceiling has cracked in the bedroom. Has someone put their foot through it when they went up in the loft?The people selling this house don't care about repairs. So you need to ask yourself what other repairs have they not made?

I think partly the reason the repairs have not been made is that the house has been a buy-to-let. The viewing was during the open day on Sunday, and the offers are requested by Monday (today!) evening. Unfortunately today being a public holiday, the EA isn't contactable so we have no chance of getting answers before we make an offer. Essentially, they expect potential buyers to make an offer without giving them a single working day in which they could phone up EA and ask questions. If you don't put the offer in, someone else might and the house will be gone. You'd think the buyers should be given a chance to clarify with EA/seller few queries before they make the biggest purchase of their life!

If this house has been on the market for a long time (several months) there is something wrong with it. If it is cheap and still on the market for several months then it isn't cheap enough for the problems that it has. Do you know the area well that it is in?

House has been on a market for few weeks, but no viewings had been arranged until yesterday which was open day. The seller wants divest the house and EA priced it up at "attractive price" to get attention of buyers. I have observed the pace of the property sale in this area and properties are typically sold within few weeks of being available on the market. The property in question is a semi, has outstanding school within 100m (close enough to consider the admission for the children secured) and has an ASDA superstore with petrol station within half a mile. The area is pleasant and peaceful. And the price advertised is in line with the prices of houses sold in last year and the ones available for sale presently.

kerri_gt

Our house had two similar bedroom cracks which were clearly along the line of plasterboard, no real idea what caused them and I don't actually recall they were mentioned in the survey. We've just had the room decorated and had them filled and sanded, you can still see the lines a bit but it would have been a bigger job to have it reskimmed and not really worth to us vs what we'd already spent on the room.

Cakeguts

kerri_gt wrote: »

Our house had two similar bedroom cracks which were clearly along the line of plasterboard, no real idea what caused them and I don't actually recall they were mentioned in the survey. We've just had the room decorated and had them filled and sanded, you can still see the lines a bit but it would have been a bigger job to have it reskimmed and not really worth to us vs what we'd already spent on the room.

I don't think these are like that from the pictures. The bulge certainly isn't.