Suggestion with house that needs work

MR1988

 Hello MSE!

 I need a little bit of help regarding a possible purchase. Please bare with me as I have no experience with this nor do I know anyone personally to help me with it.

 Me and my partner were looking into buying a house for quite a while now. We are first time buyers so we don't really have any experience with houses or possible mistakes with buying a house. We don't want a newly built house and rather buy an older one and do some work on the house ourselves, sort of like an ongoing project to do in our free time.

 We found a house with some potential recently but to be honest it looks like it requires a lot of work even before moving in. We do like the area and space that comes with the house which is a big plus for what we are looking but I'm really worried about the work required and if it can be fixed. We seen the house yesterday ourselves and it looks worse than the actual listing photos. House is fairly cheap open to offers above 80k so we don't mind having to invest another 20k or so to have it fixed to the point where we can move into it.

Here is the listing link: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109500371#/ 

House is late 1920 from what we were told. I started reading online and came across all kind of scary stuff to look out for in old houses (Such as asbestos, lead pipes etc.) stuff which I have no experience of dealing with. For sure we looking at also changing roof and it looks like the inside needs redoing completly. Possibly plumbing and electrical as well.. There's mold everywhere, litterally in every room, kitchen etc. which am afraid it's really hard to get rid of. Been told not to bother with it as it might not be possible to get rid of the damp walls/mold anymore and that it will keep reappering even after being fixed.

I uploaded some photos I took while viewing the house (I hope that posting them here is not against the rules and if it is please take them down or ask me to take them down.)

What would you suggest based on your experience? Will this be a money sink and not woth getting into?

Teapot55

Structural engineers are good.

Some will do a ‘walkaround’ a property with you & tell you the awful truth. (About £50? but you don’t get a written report). 

It isn’t always bad news, but if it is, you need to know, especially if it’s something urgent or something you definitely can’t tackle as a diy project, like a roof or subsidence. 

UnderOffer

Eek that’s a lot of damp. I personally wouldn’t be keen especially as a FTB. We did buy a 1930s house which required a lot of renovation, double glazing, redecorating, new kitchen and bathroom etc., we had no experience at all but all was achievable as the house was sturdy and nothing sinister lurking underneath the dated wallpaper. 

I’d probably look for something else unless you have a large contingency budget to help with the renovation. 

purplebutterfly

I am a FTB with no building knowledge so can only show you what came back on our survey about the 1920's house I am buying.  This might help with your asbestos worries.

It certainly it hasn't put us off at all.  

"Some ceilings within the property have a textured finish. Some textured ceiling finishes can contain asbestos and should not be drilled or sanded without protective equipment and/or specialist advice. Any such materials that do contain asbestos are harmless unless airborne fibres are present. At the time of the survey some areas of flaking, powdering or similarly damaged material were noted indicating that a risk currently exists. This is a very common issue properties which have undergone renovation in the 1960's and 70's.Painting or plaster skimming of textured surfaces normally ensures that any asbestos fibres are securely encapsulated and will not present any risk to health if undisturbed

Asbestos containing materials were commonly used in the construction, conversion and refurbishment of houses in the 1950’s-70’s, though the use of asbestos was not completely prohibited until the late 1990’s. Many houses therefore include materials that contain asbestos and are lived in safely and without risk to health. However you should be aware that there are health risks when asbestos containing materials are drilled or sanded and you should consider this when carrying out any alterations, repairs or renovations." 

I can't help with anything else other than to suggest you get a full EICR (electrical inspection condition report) from a registered electrician, if you do decide to go ahead with the purchase.  This will give you an idea of what the electrics are like and how much it might cost to get things fixed.

It's a really lovely house with a great garden and I can see why you want it.  If that had come up in my area I would have booked a viewing immediately.  

Do you have somewhere you can stay while any building work is going on in the house?  

babyblade41

Looks like basic renovations 

Find out where the damp is coming from... don't get any chemical companies in to cure it as A) it won't and B ) it won't stop where water is coming in from. 

You will need to have a look how good or bad electrics are .. worse case scenario is full rewire... get that done first as it's messy if you are living there 

Over board ceilings if textured ..I had some skimmed and over boarded.

New kitchen new bathroom so the above will all done by trades.

My current house was a lot worse and nearly finished ready to go to market in a couple of weeks... 2 years in total but with Covid it was pretty quick 

FreeBear

Looks like solid brick walls - You will always suffer from some damp due to condensation unless you can afford to keep the heating turned up in the colder months (that is going to cost). The obvious thing to do is insulate the walls - Internal wall insulation would be my choice, but that is going to eat up a good chunk of your budget. It would also give you a chance to replace the vintage radiators with more modern ones which would be a little more efficient.

The existing mold can be got rid of with a good scrub with bleach, but unless you resolve issues with condensation, it will return.

Looks like someone has started on renovation work - You need to ask whey they haven't finished. Is it because they have run out of money or uncovered bigger problems that are outside of their ability to fix.

MR1988

Thank you everyone for your insight! Really helpful!

We are considering to put in an offer and if it goes through we will have a proper survey done/structural engineer take a look at it.

Biggest concern is having to pay rent where we live at the moment while also having to pay mortgage and bills with the house if we are to buy it until all work is done and we can slowly start moving into it.

I've been asking around some friends who spoke to their parents who are a bit more experienced in the trade and they did mention that mold/dampness can be taken care of if finding out where the water coming in. They did say it might be because the place was not getting proper air inside. What I find strange is that if water coming in from somewhere how come the whole house has mold? Or it's enough for mold to get inside and keep spreading?!

It's hard to get answers to our questions since we are not dealing with the vendor directly and rather we have to ask the agency since they don't know all the details themselves. I understand the bathroom was originally downstairs where the boiler is in the photos. But they moved the bathroom above and converted one room to a bathroom because the lady living there had problems with her hip so wanted the bathroom on same level with the bedroom. Which also makes me wonder, if work has been done on that bathroom, was it done properly and walls got cleaned before tiling it or did they just cover the mess which means we would have to strip down all the tiles and re-do everything.

Thanks again for all the replies, really appreciate it.

We still on the fence with it because of all the possible problems that might arise but we do like the area and space the house provides a lot.

Irishpearce26

A lot of this looks like superficial and cosmetic. Agree with others find the source of the damp before you do any work. It looks like a house that needs work anyway so im sure you have built that into your plans.

Cakeguts

It is an ex local authority house.  You might like to make sure that it is possible to get a mortgage on it.  I see that some of the ones in the road have had brick walls put in and no render which might suggest that it is non standard construction.

deannagone

You might get a clue if you check how sound the roof is (go into the attic) whether the gutters are working/blocked and check if the level of the ground outside the property is sufficiently below the damp proof course.  But I'd start with the roof.  

I did live in a house, when we started to refurbish the bathroom we discovered mould under all the tiles, then we found out a shower water pipe was leaking, had been for years (and it had been regrouted before we moved in so didn't have a clue).

Splatfoot

It must have been a hot day when streetview was done as there are numerous older gentleman only half dressed 😁 ..but as Cakeguts said, I would make sure it was standard construction as a first point.