Cause of uneven floor?

Drem1992

I'm currently in the process of purchasing a property (3 bed semi circa 1935).
We have had a home buyers survey done, which has generally come back fine apart from the surveyor has reported that the floor is considerably more uneven with greater camber than expected in this age and type of property. This is in the 2 main reception rooms (lounge and dining room, once 2 separate rooms, now all in one). On speaking directly with the surveyor he has advised that he is unsure exactly what's causing it and that he hasn't seen anything like this in other similar properties over years of doing home surveys. He has said that the camber is most noticeable around the 2 chimney breasts (no longer working fireplaces, gas and electric fires in situ). The floor in these rooms is timber, he has suggested potentially getting a damp and timber survey to investigate further +/- structural engineer assessment. There was no mention of subsidence. The walls are completely fine as is the windows, some minor roof repairs so no indication of any major issue elsewhere.
We're currently deliberating over how significant this issue is, we're first time buyers so don't have a lot of funds for major repair work. We could pay several hundred pounds for a damp and timber and structural surveys, or we could pull out of the sale. Just wondering if anyone has any idea of what this could be and on a scale of 1-10 how bad it could be at its worst?
Concerned that the vendor may not allow an invasive survey involving removing floor coverings, if theres a very likely cause is it worth me getting a quote for a worst case scenario and amending our offer based on this?

neilmcl

The fact that it was originally two separate rooms and now just one mean's that the dividing wall has obviously been removed and with that you may get a bit of a deviation in floor heights. My reception rooms are similar, although I've since put in a partition wall with double doors albeit a few feet back from the where the original dividing wall stood and even though I have wooden flooring throughout you do notice a slight springiness in the sub-floor where the original wall was situated.

TELLIT01

I would expect a surveyor to be familiar with different floor levels between rooms where a wall has been removed, but this sounds like it has the potential to be more serious.  If the surveyor won't even give an educated guess as to the cause, and the OP doesn't have a lot of spare cash, my advice would be to walk away and find another property.

As the problem appears to be the subfloor, it really is likely to require invasive investigation, although the use of camera scopes can greatly reduce the amount of work required.