House purchase built above damp proof and air bricks including neighbours! Advice please

Kat88

Hi,

We’ve just had our homebuyers done and had the verbal feedback. The surveyor has said the biggest issue is that the house damp proof layer and air bricks has been built over more or less at every side. In front and at the side it is by the driveway block paving. At the back a conservatory and more paving and the other side the neighbour has built a path above the DMP! The house is over 100 years old and the damp readings didn’t pick up anything. However there is vinyl in the kitchen and he suggested lifting it and the floorboards to check as there was a slight ‘bounce’ in the flooring...

Now vendors have said on viewing they dug down maybe foot or so and made sure the damp proof was protected with a membrane I think but obviously that is just their word. I sincerely doubt they will let a surveyor rip up the floor and I wonder in summer if it would be useful anyway... surely better to look in winter?

The added issue is the neighbours path. I understand they don’t speak and the neighbour was clear it was their path with the surveyor but of course we need to check a right of access.... getting them to lower their path I suspect, will not be possible so we may need to look at remedial measures...

Does anyone have any experience of this and advice? And has anyone tried to remedy it? Any thoughts on costs?

Doozergirl

The vendors are talking rubbish. If all the ground levels have been raised by subsequent building work, there will be no protection as the damp proof course is horizontal.

It isn't hard or particularly expensive to put right as you only need to cut back about a foot of the paving around the house, dig down to the correct level 150mm below DPC, expose the air bricks and tidy it up with some gravel. It's a day's work or so.

The problem is the neighbour's path because that isn't within your control. That is for your vendors to sort out with them.

It doesn't need chemical injections or any other type of snake oil that 'damp proof specialists' will sell you, it just needs to be returned to the way it was and allowed to dry out. The bouncy kitchen floor could be an issue though - rotten joists won't heal themselves.

Kat88

On the neighbours path it is built over the DMP level but the air bricks are exposed (4) so is that really a big deal? Agree about the remedial work with gravel... I assume the gravel could go up to the house so there wouldn’t be a massive gap left between the paving and house once dug out (I.e it would be filled in with gravel). We are planning to extend so may be able to do some remedial work at that point. The neighbours did not seem friendly at all to the surveyor so I imagine this is going to be a headache. Vendor admitted ‘they keep themselves to themselves’ ....

I suspect the answer will be no to getting some floor boards up and as I said before I wonder if winter is a better time to do it , in summer it may not be obvious? Anyone had a damp survey in these circumstances and it’s been useful?

Doozergirl

Yes, it is still a big deal. The airbricks ventilate the subfloor beneath the floorboards. The DPC prevents damp creeping up the walls above the floorboards! I'm not sure how the airbricks aren't covered but the DPC is?

You don't fill it to the top with gravel, there will be a drop down, but it's up against the house, so no one walks there and it isn't a risk.

Slinky

B*gger the airbricks, the alarm bells should be ringing about the unfriendly neighbour. Your vendor doesnt get on with them and they were unhelpful with the surveyor. Go and introduce yourself with a friendly little chat before commiting yourself further, especially if you are planning something they may object to..

iammumtoone

As above the damp course is fixable the neighbours are not.


They have built a path which could damage the house and the house owners seemed to be unable to stop them - do you really want to live next to people like that.

Kat88

I agree about the neighbours but ultimately need to find out if there is a right of access. They have been there 10 years but the extension they have is from the 90s so I imagine the path has been that way for a long time. I took a look myself today and you can see 4 air bricks only one is slightly buried under the path. It looks like our vendors have built the block paving for the drive roughly two bricks up from the previous floor level...

Kat88

Can I add a photo somehow to show you?

It’s a 1920s house not sure if that explains why the DPC is lower than the vent bricks?