Old house - what survey results would make you run?

Thrugelmir

Get the work costed properly. 

Unicorn_cottage

What survey did you get? Who was it carried out by? In this situation I would want a level 3 survey carried out by a COMPETENT surveyor with experience of old properties.

lookstraightahead

Unicorn_cottage said:

What survey did you get? Who was it carried out by? In this situation I would want a level 3 survey carried out by a COMPETENT surveyor with experience of old properties.

Level 3 structural survey MRICS surveyor who lives locally and has expertise in old properties. His report is very detailed.

FreeBear

lookstraightahead said: Level 3 structural survey MRICS surveyor who lives locally and has expertise in old properties. His report is very detailed.

Not if he his spouting random numbers and passing them off as quantitative levels of damp.

AnotherJoe

lookstraightahead said:

AnotherJoe said:

That's quite a wide gap ! Many would think £10k - £20k manageable but what about £100k - £200k ?!  How much is the house?
unless you know what you are getting in to in terms of spend, and clearly you dont, run a  mile (btw if this is a mid terrace what if the houses either side need work that doesn't get done and impacts on you, eg their rotten roof gets damp into your house?

The house is under £300000 so I get your point - % of work needing doing is high). Also one of the houses attached is listed. Also access is a problem as no back route. 
I think I know where I'm going. And yes you're right - I have had old houses before but never had to do anything except normal maintenance.

So even if the cost was "only" £100k thats a third of the price, and most likely wont raise the price by much if anything unless the houses next door are say £100k more ??

p.s if the house next door is listed, then if yours got listed too, UP goes the renovation cost big time.

lookstraightahead

AnotherJoe said:

lookstraightahead said:

AnotherJoe said:

That's quite a wide gap ! Many would think £10k - £20k manageable but what about £100k - £200k ?!  How much is the house?
unless you know what you are getting in to in terms of spend, and clearly you dont, run a  mile (btw if this is a mid terrace what if the houses either side need work that doesn't get done and impacts on you, eg their rotten roof gets damp into your house?

The house is under £300000 so I get your point - % of work needing doing is high). Also one of the houses attached is listed. Also access is a problem as no back route. 
I think I know where I'm going. And yes you're right - I have had old houses before but never had to do anything except normal maintenance.

So even if the cost was "only" £100k thats a third of the price, and most likely wont raise the price by much if anything unless the houses next door are say £100k more ??

p.s if the house next door is listed, then if yours got listed too, UP goes the renovation cost big time.

Lots of warning signs I know. The listed properties also need work.

daivid

Were the survey findings a surprise? Not necessarily the specific defects but the number and severity? If no then you were expecting significant work and just need to cost it up. If the findings were a surprise then I think you need to consider negotiating the price or walking away.

babyblade41

For me that wouldn't put me off if the property was detached  but as a mid terrace  it adds another level of problems .
Ok for those with knowledge of tradesman but not as a project and not a lot of know how .

Damp is usually very easily solved 

Robby1988

lookstraightahead said:

So, structural survey results are in. The house issues (mid 18th century terraced) are:
rotting timber
heavy moss on roof
Damp downstairs - high levels, like 999 by chimney and 200 at other points
plants growing in brickwork
Defective mortar joints 
cracking to render
no mastic joint by door
no dcp
lots of spalling bricks 
timber lintel 
uneven upstairs floors 

I'm not sure what most of this means. I understand rotting decking 🤣

Should I buy this house? 

Most damp problems are quite easy to fix and stuff like the high damp meter readings by the chimney could well be put down to high salt content in the wall setting the meter off.

However, the comments about cracked render, spalling bricks and dodgy pointing raise alarm bells to me because they suggest that this is a period property that has been butchered with unsuitable hard cement mixes over the years. Been there and done it. The belts & braces way to fix that is to remove all the cement pointing & render and replace with a more suitable lime mortar as it was built, so the building (including those timber lintels) can breathe as it was designed, but finding specialised tradesmen to do that is hard and will cost you. Anything else is just covering up the problem, the structure will be damp behind the cement and needs the opportunity to dry. 

My feeling quite honestly is that this is an old house that hasn't been particularly well maintained, you could have a money pit on your hands. What is your appetite for structural renovations? I wouldn't proceed without specialist consultation.

Saver84

lookstraightahead said:

So, structural survey results are in. The house issues (mid 18th century terraced) are:
rotting timber
heavy moss on roof
Damp downstairs - high levels, like 999 by chimney and 200 at other points
plants growing in brickwork
Defective mortar joints 
cracking to render
no mastic joint by door
no dcp
lots of spalling bricks 
timber lintel 
uneven upstairs floors 

I'm not sure what most of this means. I understand rotting decking 🤣

Should I buy this house? 

Im definitely not an expert, but if "Plants growing in brickwork" is referring to knotweed, I definitely wouldnt buy.