Help, serious first time buyer anxiety

HampshireH

Also bear in mind the carpet fitted wouldnt normally lay a new carpet on a damaged floor without making you aware do you could resolve it

PasturesNew

Remember this: It is what it is.

All you can now do is reduce the number of days you sit and worry about it. Get a little man round soonest and the worry stops. You will then know what it is ... and it might be "simple to fix".

As a rule of thumb.... try to save aside £100/month as a home owner to save towards "unexpected repairs over time". That's £1200/year - you might not need a penny of it for 5-6 years, by which time you've £5-6k if you suddenly need a new boiler, or the roof leaks, or you need a new window.... or the drains collapse, or the guttering needs replacing, or the bathroom needs a makeover ...

Davesnave

Did you only see this when the carpet was taken up to re-lay the next one. and is that why you're worrying after 8 years?

It will be nothing. In fact, if you only have one gap like this, your house is probably somewhat better built than most 1960s houses. By now, there's often considerable shrinkage at ceiling edges and little amounts of movement at skirting level, all perfectly normal for a property that has settled into its surroundings.


In our last house, another 30 years older than yours, we had to stuff glued-up paper mache into the gaps below the skirtings and we put coving at the ceiling edges to cover the gaps there. These things didn't mean the house was falling down, just crappily built so the developer could give everyone a wide, impressive-looking road and large gardens.

Get someone you trust to give it the once-over if you like, but I bet they don't find anything. Floors bounce all over the place long before they fail, and they don't usually fail at the edges, unless there's the sort of damp you would easily notice.

Davesnave

buglawton wrote: »

60 years ago they were building some quiet good houses, building standards were higher then than now.

No, standards and regulations in some respects were worse, but there were people who were skilled, took pride in what they did and might not even have been on piece-work.


Today, standards in terms of, say, foundations, insulation and electrical safety are higher, but often inspection and attention to detail leave much to be desired.

buglawton

Agreed, and mainly I was thinking of the way living space in the average new build has shrunk since the 1970s. Mainly due to 1980s Thatcher deregulation of building design standards.
https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/honey-i-shrunk-the-house-homes-been-getting-smaller-since-the-1970s/

If you're in the market for anything built since the 70s you are best off buying detached and with one bedroom more than you need.

bigisi

opteron wrote: »

As the house is around 60 years old, you definitely need to do a home buyer survey.

- If the home buyer survey reveals minor issues, you can ask the vendor to lower the price a bit. Roughly the amount of money it needs to get them fixed.
- If the home buyer survey reveals major issues such that a full structural survey is needed to further investigate, you'd better stay away from this property..

Might be an idea to actually read posts properly before trying to advise

hazyjo

I suppose the skirting board may have been raised slightly some stage to accommodate wooden or laminate flooring (or a shagpile in the '60s!).

Hayley20013

Thank you all for the reply’s, I feel a lot better. My mind likes to run away with itself a lot :eek: being a home owner is scary! I don’t think I like it :rotfl:

Tony_Par

Without a survey?! I got a full buildings survey on a 60 year old house. Gave me loads of information.

Hayley20013

Me again! So after talking to some neighbours, it seems a lot of the houses on this row have the same problem. All ex council and built exactly the same, the floor is big rectangle pieces of some sort of wood nailed to the joists (can you tell I really don’t know what I’m talking about here) they are running the same direction as the joists, am I right in thinking they should be laying across the joists rather than in the same direction and this could be why they are sagging in the middle? I only have one area, some neighbours have more than one as if the floor goes up and down. Yes I will eventually get someone in to look, but trying to put my mind at rest a bit for now. Also if the joists were the problem (sagging) would the ceiling below be showing some problems too as that would be screwed to the bottom of the joist?