Old sandstone house - damp floor issues

stuart45

The slates could well be your DPC. The small wall type thing is the sleeper wall.

Doozergirl

I would go back to your surveyor with a view to complaining.

To be told that floors are solid and then discover it's a rotten wooden one isn't on.

I'm also surprised that they didn't mention that the DPC looks breached. Just the proportions of the doors and windows from outside looks 'off' from here. It looks like the ground level has been built up around it from original - hence you have issues.

If they've mentioned damp readings then they also probably told you to have someone look at it? Surveyors act as signposts to other professionals. It's a working document rather than a document you look at and then file away.

Robby1988

Not a great advertisement for RICs if a qualified surveyor has basically reported "nothing too much to worry about here". Defiantly look into complaining here although i'm not sure you'll get too far with it just being a Homebuyers Report.

Is this your first step on the property ladder? You could honestly spend a bomb on that house an still not get it exactly right, sorting out that criminal cement strap pointing all over the house with proper lime will be a fair wedge in itself.

I don't normally condone this, but i'd botchit and scarper and leave it for somebody with money to burn. Repair any bad areas of pointing as is. Fill in the wooden floor with concrete like the builder said, then have mastic asphalt laid on the existing cement floor. Tank the walls that are part underground & then decorate so it looks decent. Then when you can afford to, move and hope whoever goes for it doesn't get a building survey by a competent surveyor. The problems will come back.

Charlieepie

Thanks - I couldn’t for the life of me remember the name of the wall!

Yes I’m currently in the middle of the complaints procedure with them - I’ve gone after them for the floor and also the fact they haven’t mentioned the shocking condition of the pointing (it’s the wrong material but also has just plain fallen off in places). The DPC being breached is something I haven’t considered, but I will definitely put it in my next letter to them (they are currently fobbing us off so it’ll be going up the chain soon. Really I wanted to go straight to the Ombudsman but you have to go through them and I think the dispute resolution service first). Really I just want SOME money back on it.

Yeah they did, hence why we asked the then-owners to get the previous damp-proofing contractors out to check it was ok. This was before we knew that chemical DPCs are next to useless in sandstone houses - I am a lot wiser to it now, however, a bit too late. They then said it’s all fine and moisture readings will have been condensation. Condensation has almost certainly been a factor in other bits as I dont think they ever opened the windows, we had some damp in the attic room which has completely gone away now that the velux window is on vent, but it’s that doesn’t account for the floor!

I think you’re right in the ground level being built up, particularly now I’ve found slate under the floor - I guess when it was originally built it won’t have had the pavement and the road will have been lower. It explains why our extension is slightly higher up then - there’s a slope up from the kitchen into it - the road and pavement must have been in place by then.

I think I might try and get a local old property builder out to come and give us a paid survey/opinion on what we could do that will help our issues and not harm the house and see whether a potential solution would be in our budget. Heritage house look good but we’re in Cumbria and their closest office looks to be the midlands - that’s a lot of travel costs I’m sure they’ll include in their bill.
Really, I’m hoping we get told the kitchen floor isn’t bad enough to justify ripping the kitchen out and re-doing the floor but I guess we’ll see! I wish the vinyl was easier to pull back to evaluate the damp but it’s all under skirting and kitchen units so I’ve no idea how damp most of the concrete is under the vinyl. The only bits I’ve managed to get to is the bit at the boundary with the extension (a tiny tiny bit damp), the bit under the fridge (can see but can’t touch - no obvious damp on that or the wall) and the bit near the front door (very damp). Hmm...

Or, I could botch it as suggested. However we’re in a 3 year fixed term mortgage and we only started off with a 5% deposit, AND we live in an area where houses are a bit of a pain in the bum to sell quickly. So I wanted to stay for a little bit just so we’re not at risk of owing the bank money if we were to sell! Had a reasonable(ish) quote for the pointing so we’ll be getting that done when weather improves, I suppose laying a concrete floor and tanking could be an option, and then actually getting the vinyl up in the kitchen to see if that needs tanking or whether the only really damp bit of floor is that bit by the door. Decisions.

stuart45

Is it in Bristol?

Charlieepie

Nope - West cumbria! Nice and rainy, which I don’t suppose helps.

Robby1988

Take the plunge and get that vinyl up to see where you stand. I'd be getting the floors sorted before spending money on having the walls pointed, it's the most disruptive job so I wouldn't want it lingering over my head. Working on the floors I appreciate is daunting, but once its started it'll come together quite quick.

Charlieepie

Yeah I’m quite keen to get the floors sorted - more keep it would seem than my OH, who is extremely hesitant to rip the kitchen out!! I see where he’s coming from really - there’s absolutely no evidence of any damp on any of the walls in there (that we can see - obviously, there’s one entire wall covered in kitchen units we can’t get behind). Which to me suggests the floor in there isn’t causing damp walls. Going to try and get some of the vinyl up this weekend and see if it’s all a bit damp or if the hallway is much more damp than the rest of it for whatever reason. Even then the hallway walls are ok it’s just the very bottom of door frames, stairs and skirting that has suffered.

Could a (sort of) fix for our living room, assuming the rest of the floor doesn’t need replacing too, be to lay a concrete or limecrete floor, but replaster the living room in a breathable lime plaster and have the mortar properly done outside, so walls both side can breathe? I know laying nice waterproof concrete floor will push moisture into the walls but other than raising the whole floor level (our ceilings are high) and having some new airbricks put in, I don’t know what to do. I’m assuming this is what some of our neighbours have had done at some point.

GraceF125

His advice was to rip the wood floor out and lay concrete, as there are no air bricks and the floor level as it is isn't high enough to install them and have them ventilate to the outside - certainly when you walk down the street, the rest of the houses on the road have air bricks but they also have a substantial step up to their front doors that we don't have suggesting the floor level is higher than ours

You can get telescopic air brick vents:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/telescopic-underfloor-vent-black-220mm-x-215mm/12025

https://www.timloc.co.uk/ventilation/underfloor-ventilation/telescopic-underfloor-ventilator

Charlieepie

Hmm I didn’t know that, could look into them. Not sure how to retrospectively install though given the thickness of our walls? Suppose I could just look at the bits under the window as these are thinner.
We’d still need a new floor though, so it’s whether we risk laying wood again when it could rot, given the breached DPC and wet below floor wall. I’d hope getting the pointing done will help but doubt that wall will become bone dry.