Very worrying Building Survey with high guideline budget for essential repairs

HSH_Lam

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Hi, I just received a building survey yesterday and the guideline budget for essential repairs is $45,000. I don't think we will have to budget for the repairs and am very worried. Not sure what we should do now... The property was built in the 1930s, and we want to know whether these are really "essential repairs" and get some idea of how much each item will cost. Can anyone please help?


ESSENTIAL REPAIRS

Chimney Stacks[/FONT][/FONT]
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Apply top protection to the pots and make good to the top rendered flaunchings. Install new code 4 lead flashings and soakers to the abutment upstands, carry out masonry and pointing repair.[/FONT][/FONT]


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Roof Coverings [/FONT][/FONT]
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Replace the original tiled pitched roof coverings. A building notice is to bbe served to the local authority building control dept. or the work is to be carried out by a registered competent roofing contractor. Apply preservatives to the timber roof frame when the coverings are removed and carry out roof frame reinforcement as is required.

Competent roofing contractor to strip and renew the flat roof coverings to the side and rear extensions and renew any timbers, etc. affected by rot and to check and repair/replace the structural joist supports as necessary.

Abutments upstands are to be sealed with code 4 lead flashings and the roof covering is to be suitably laid-to-falls, insulated, and vented if required, in accordance with current regulatory requirements. A building notice is to be served to the local building control dept. or the work is to be carried out by a registered competent roofing contractor.

Chartered structural engineer to design appropriate reinforcement to the distorted bay roof and replacement bay window construction.

Ensure all abutments between roofs, walls and gutters, etc. are fully sealed with lead flashings and that the flashings are suitably dressed into the rainwater fittings to prevent surface water discharge and consequential dampness defects.
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Windows/Doors

Install a new bay window construction, that has been designed by a chartered structural engineer.

FENSA registered contractor to replace the windows and doors with suitable double-glazed units.

Install a new up-and-over door to the garage.


Floors

Instruct a property care registered timber preservation contractor to pull up the floorboards and apply appropriate timber treatment to eliminate the wood boring beetle insect infestation and to protect against fungal rot attack and to carry out any further necessary remedial action prior to an exchange of contracts. Contractor to provide timber preservation warranty.

Competent carpenter to secure the loose flooring.


Electricity

Competent NICEIC or ECA registered electrical contractor to test the electrical circuitry and report as to its condition together with a quotation for rewire/upgrade in accordance with BS-7671.

Competent electrician to install hardwired smoke/heat detectors in appropriate locations.


Guideline budget £45,000
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Grezz24

Is this for a house that you are thinking of buying?

I would either walk away or reduce my offer accordingly.

Davesnave

We can't comment without context. A budget of £45k might be fine for a £600k semi detached house in Finchley, but somewhat excessive for an £80k terrace in Doncaster!

If all this has come as a big shock and there are plenty of alternatives, you might be best to walk away now. If it's as bad as it appears, anyone with some background would have had an inkling at least of what to expect.

HSH_Lam

Thanks for your replies. The property is a 4 bedroom semi-detached house in Croydon, original asking price was £625k and we got the offer down to £616k. I am not sure if the works listed in the report are really essential and trying to get some idea of the cost before going back to the seller, or deciding to walk away...

AlexMac

I'm assuming you commissioned a full survey rather than a homebuyers, as a cheap surveyor wouldn't have lifted the carpets, let alone looked beneath the floorboards? So why don't you ring and ask the surveyor you've paid for the reasons they think the bay window needs re-building and the roof needs replacing?

Presumably these major works are being recommended because the surveyor thinks they're needed, rather than as over cautious 4rse cover by them.

If you pay top price now, then have to do major replacement or repairs within a few years because of leaks or due to damp penetrating down through faulty or worn out seals and pointing on chimney and the small walls between your and the neighbours roof, you'll feel peeved?

In the case of the roof, stacks, etc: they either need replacement with associated pointing and flashing or they don't. If they are the original 80-90 year old coverings (which you seem to indicate are tiles rather than slates?) they may well be at the end of their life, which is to be expected with a building that age? But does it actually leak, and does a visual inspection from across the road with binoculars if necessary reveal any missing, slipped or dmaged tiles? And have adjacent houses already been re-roofed?

I've owned a succession of late Victorian houses, build in the very early 20th Century and each of them needed complete new roofs after about 70-90 years.

Similarly; the suggested need for bay window re-construction implies far more than the need for new timber or pastic windows; but that the existing brickwork is subsiding, or pulling away from the house; is it? Cracks, gaps or settlement should be obvious to even the untrained eye?

The garage door either works or it doesn't; replacement isn't something you do for cosmetic reasons or because it's a bit tatty? Does it? But you won't fit a modern car in a 1930's garage so I assume you might be planning to either use it for storage or convert it as I've done; by ripping out the doors and replacing them with brickwork and a window?

The flooring is as I say, surprising; did the surveyor actually pull up any floorboards to determine that there was "woodworm" in the joists (the sub-floor of what I sssume is a traditional "suspended" timber floor)?
I note that the survey merely points to the need to protect against potential (rather than existing) "fungal rot" as the latter (dry rot or wet rot) would normally only be a problem if the timbers were damp due to a failed DPC (Damp-Proof Course), earth piled up outside the walls, or insufficient ventilation of the sub-floor void (usually done by air bricks). Yet the survey does not refer to any damp or the need to treat this.

Again, I worry that this implies the survey is over cautious, but you should ask.

The Electricty assesment is 4rse cover. No house more than a few years old complies with modern regs, and a full rewire seems unlikely unless all the wiring is 80 years old; and smoke/heat detectors aren't a requirement unless you plan to let it out (although you'd be daft not to have them for your own peace of mind).

£45k seems toppy but is probably realistic now as its over 20 years since I re-roofed a similar property in South London; for I recall about £15k. Scaffolding alone will proabably cost several thou' and you can get a paint job done while it's up if you wait til next Spring or summer (by the time you complete on the sale if you go ahead now, it will be too late in the year to take the roof off; don't get them to do it before the sale- they'll find a cheap cowboy)

And as regards walking away; it depends on how much you like the house? The good news is that there is no damp (?), no subsidence or movement other than the bay (?), and no major problems with all the other doors and windows (?). And you have a report which says the house needs £45k off the price. The vendor will probably say- the roof is fine, there are no leaks and the elctrics work OK, so go whistle! But if Croydon is like SE London, the market has slowed, so they'll probably meet in the middle and knock at least half that off the price.

So chat to the surveyor. View again. Look again at the bay, the roof and the pointing. Then, the decision is yours. Are you a good negotiator?

HSH_Lam

Thank you very much for your reply, much appreciated.

Your are right that this is a building survey. There are floorboards below stairs that are not covered, and the surveyor saw the decay, so he probably didn't pull out any floorboards.

We have arranged a meeting with the surveyor tomorrow, and will probably ask for a price reduction, but I am not a good negotiator at all. Will let you know how it goes.