Survey Results - Damp & Asbestos

ddc79

Hi all,

I am in the process of purchasing my first home and have received my first survey that I'm working through.

It's a London property and a couple of things have come up.

1) It's an old property and while no asbestos was identified, is it worth organising an assessment? It's been recommended that I do but I don't see the point as I'm not going to do any structural work to the property and piping is relatively new.

2) Damp / Wet Rot. This has been identified and so I need to set up a specialist to do a full assessment. Do you have any recommendations with who to engage to investigate this further?

Thank you all,
DDC

Slithery

ddc79 wrote: »

2) Damp / Wet Rot. This has been identified...

How was it identified?

jonnygee2

1) It's an old property and while no asbestos was identified, is it worth organising an assessment?

No not really. I'd say just take the risk. I don't think you should get a specialist survey just because of the age of the house.

2) Damp / Wet Rot. This has been identified and so I need to set up a specialist to do a full assessment. Do you have any recommendations with who to engage to investigate this further?

Where is the wet rot, and how extensive is it initially?

Damp is normally fixable and I think someone with common sense and some help from google can often identify where it's coming from and how to fix it.

Wet rot could be more serious if it very extensive, but if that's the case it would normally be fairly obvious on initial inspection.

ddc79

@slithery - A calibrated moisture meter (Protimeter MMS2)

@jonnygee2 - near the rear door frame. The paragraph from there survey says: "Using a calibrated moisture meter (Protimeter MMS2), high moisture readings were detected as shown by the red lines in the appended floor plan to the wall section to the side of the rear door. The level of moisture is above the maximum acceptable level of 20% WME (wood moisture equivalent) and is up to 100% WME."

Thank you both!

jonnygee2

@jonnygee2 - near the rear door frame. The paragraph from there survey says: "Using a calibrated moisture meter (Protimeter MMS2), high moisture readings were detected as shown by the red lines in the appended floor plan to the wall section to the side of the rear door. The level of moisture is above the maximum acceptable level of 20% WME (wood moisture equivalent) and is up to 100% WME."

Can you actually see any signs of damp? I think you should first go back and look.

Or any signs that damp has been covered up?

If it's just a mild damp problem and a door frame that may need replacing I'd say the 'specialist surveyor' is possibly going to cost more than the repairs?

babyblade41

I'd say the building may have art on the ceiling... talk to a plasterer who can tell you how to cover them.

I have it in my house renovation and I'm having a new ceiling , cost of this plus 2 rooms fully plastered 600.00 Oxfordshire

The damp : Did you notice/smell anything? From a complete novice at damp but total pro on very old houses I'd put money on a new door .

You can spend literally thousands on surveys for this and specialist surveys for the other.

The best way is to look again and really look at the problems, I'd say that most could be fixed for a lot less than all these specialist and then you will still have to do the work if you proceed

For me I'd not be worried in the slightest