Oh My Gawd, just had the building survey report on the 160 year old property I'm buying.

Heres_the_deal

I’ve just had a RIC level 3 building survey for a 160 year-old property. It uses a traffic light system 1: Green, 2: Amber and 3: Red. With Red meaning ‘Defects that are serious and/or need to be repaired, replaced or investigated urgently’.

I know these surveys scare the hell out of buyers, so I’ve simplified the areas noted as 'Red' down from around 5 pages:

“There are localised areas of wall bulge on all elevations and a raking crack less than 5mm above a ground floor window that should be monitored – probably historic. There is major spalling of brickwork. Penetrating damp in the re-used clay roof tiles and also in the walls.  Lots of repointing and other work on the chimney stacks”.

It then goes on to mention a floor below the wax injected damp course, thus damp on the inside lower dry wall.  This has been fixed to the outer brick wall by the dob method, not by stud.

I offered around £8k under the asking price, but factored on around £5-10k to sort some of the above issues out….before I read the survey report !

It reads like I will require a new roof, rebuild the chimney stacks and have significant repair work to the outer walls pretty much straight away. With new drywall, some form of DPC and airbricks to address the damp required soon after. Without gathering quotes that is a fair few thousand,

After carefully going through the report. I’m considering pulling out of the sale. However, I know these reports can be daunting, so thought it best to gather your opinions. Is this traffic light system common in RICs level 3 surveys, and if so, is this what I should expect of a building of this age, or should I walk away?

JJR45

160 year house is always going to read like a horror story.
Personally I would never buy an old house as I could simply not cope with the issues and ongoing repairs.

Fiesto88

Have you spoken to the surveyor? We once had a survey on a house we were buying that read as though the place was condemned, but when we spoke to him on the phone, he talked us through everything and it was much less daunting after that. He gave us his opinion that the house was a good buy and reassured us that many of the things that looked awful are actually very common. 

stuart45

Old properties are OK if you have plenty of spare cash, or plenty of DIY skills and look on owning it as a hobby. Or buy one that has had most of the work done. Old walls often bulge out. Mine have been like this for the last 20 years at least.

Mickey666

Try buying a 450 year old house! 

Look at it this way.  The OP's roof is 160 years old, meaning it has survived 160 years of all weathers and storms - what are the chances that it's suddenly going to fall down now?

My house had a substantial oak window and the frame was physically bowed outwards because the rubble wall above had delaminated and was collapsing, bearing all the weight on the window.  You can imagine the panic-stricken prose used by the surveyor to describe the 'imminent' collapse of the wall, necessitating 'immediate' repairs!  Well that was about 14 years ago and a replacement window has just risen to the top of my 'to-do' list for this year.  

Even better, I subsequently discovered that the window and wall had been in that condition for at least the previous 25 years, maybe more.  So that's at least 40-ish years that the window/wall has been facing 'imminent collapse'. 

Old houses need the right frame of mind.  Anyone who freaks out because a floor, wall or ceiling is not dead square should give old houses a wide berth.  Just bear in mind that any house that has survived relatively intact for 160 years, or 450 years in my case, will have been totally over-engineered instead of being built to the absolute bare minimum allowed by modern building regulations.  All the badly built old houses will have already fallen down, just as badly built modern ones will be unlikely to survive 80-ish years or more. 

Old houses that have survived many centuries are the 'Rolls Royce' of property, having been built so well that they have lasted so long.  Sure, they may sag in a few places and show some signs of wear-and-tear, but what do you expect?  Anyone who enjoys old buildings will understand what I'm rambling on about, those who don't probably never will.

theoretica

The other side of the argument is the building has already demonstrated an ability to stay up for 160 years, which is rather a good sign.

The chimneys have had repointing and work or they need it? 

Splatfoot

We've just bought a 120 year old house. There were a lot of 3s! We looked at ours methodically, there's a lot of damp (we could tell it was roof tile/roof gulley/pointing/guttering and drain pipe related). It also has a basement which had been looked at by a 'damp expert' who quoted 45k for tanking..... erm, that went in the bin. We are not phased because we are quite hands on. However, if we weren't, I'd probably have walked away.

youth_leader

My EA told me that my buyer's survey had 17 out of 23 reds on his when he was yet again trying  to knock the price down  - but like other people, my house had stood quite happily for 172 years and will be there for many more.

lookstraightahead

Op - I've just bought a house similar although the garden in mine was someone else's (we got it sorted). I call it our wobbly house. We have all manner of damp - looking forward to sussing out what we have and what the experts tell us we have.

FreeBear

Heres_the_deal said: It then goes on to mention a floor below the wax injected damp course, thus damp on the inside lower dry wall.  This has been fixed to the outer brick wall by the dob method, not by stud.

Oh dear, injected chemicals in the walls.... I bet waterproof render/plaster has been slapped on the walls internally - That will just push any damp issues further up the walls and a contributory factor to spalling bricks. No doubt cement mortar has been used to repoint the brickwork which has exacerbated the spalling..

If you do buy, get yourself an air hammer/chisel and a decent compressor, and then start hacking off all that cement. Plaster the walls with lime and use the same for repointing the brickwork. Whilst lime plaster won't cure any damp, it will go a long way in making it manageable. Modern gypsum plasters turn to mush if allowed to get damp, lime plaster doesn't (so forget drylining too).

ratechaser

How on earth did I ever manage to live in a 400 year cottage for 3 years without it killing me