Should I buy this house? Victorian end terrace with a damp or no damp question

twitwoo

ProDave said:

Re my earlier post.

So what is it makes you want to buy this damp money pit that will always be an old cold house?  There must be something fantastic about it to make it worth all the grief.  Or is must be really cheap to reflect it's condition?

Agree with ProDave - why this house?
Is the discount worth all the time / money / hassle to get the house in a decent state?

 

FreeBear

A0911 said: When I've finished the buying process I'll have £7k left. I can't afford this house, can I? 

Got a late 1920s semi here that had very little maintenance done to it over the last 40 odd years. Fortunately, no structural defects, just tired.. Spent about £20K over the last eight years of ownership, and still have another £20K to find.

Your £7K is only going to scratch the surface on the points highlighted, and no where near enough to do it all. Being an ex-rental, I'm guessing the kitchen has one of those nasty cheap hobs with solid cast iron rings - Once you've used a couple of times, you'll be wanting to rip the kitchen out. If the heating system is getting old, you'll need a good chunk of money to replace the boiler when it fails.. Bathroom tatty ? More money to bung out..

And as you spend time living there, you'll want to make improvements to the levels of insulation just to stay warm. Being a solid stone house, you need to be careful about the choice of materials to use (cork or woodfibre boards on the walls).

propertyrental

tacpot12 said:

....................I used to own a Victorian Mid-terrace that I bought with with bad damp. I installed a chemical damp proof course, and had the walls replastered in waterproof concrete (tanked) to a height of 1 meter, except in the kitchen where the wall was painted with bitument paint already, and this was dry-lined. 

This cured the damp problems, but I should, ................................

Every time (well, nearly every) this is mentioned on the forum one or other of the more knowledgable posters responds along the lines of "never use chemical dpc" and/or 'this will solve the damp problem for a while'.

Curing the root cause of the damp is the way to go, not chemically hiding it.

A0911

ProDave said:

A0911 said:

FreeBear said:

Is this the same one you've posted other questions on ?

Removal of chimney breast and new roof, both without building regs sign-off. Dodgy cement pointing causing the stone blocks to spall. Signs of an injected chemical DPC (and possibly waterproof render/plaster on the inside), and so on.. Oh, and missing a firewall in the loft space.

To be honest, this is starting to sound like a real money pit, and if the current owner has only ever done the absolute minimum of maintenance, there is likely a bunch of work that needs doing. Personally, I'd suggest you look for something else that hasn't been messed around with and doesn't throw up so many red flags. As an FTB, you really don't want to be jumping in at the deep end without a sizeable wad of cash to pay for repairs.

It is, FreeBear. Hello! 

I had the chimney breast checked out by the SE, it is supported with steels so happy with that. Roof seems ok too, but as before, no regs. The owner says he had asked the builder to patch up any areas of blown pointing, and what said builder has done is splodged a load of cement in the whole wall. 

I agree with you, my sense is that this is too much to take on. The main concern is that the stuff I do know about is already so much - what is awaiting when I get in there and uncover 100 years of bodge jobs?

So far I know about, big jobs and small:
Roof repairs (flashings, ridge tiles, chimney repointing)
Leaking guttering
Small leak to main water pipe in cellar

One of bath taps not working at all, no idea why
Damp to ground floor
Bitumen paint needs removing from gable end
Old chimney breast removal, no regs
Replacement roof, no regs
New copings needed on roof, insufficient overhang (so water running down walls)
Extra airbricks needed in cellar
Drainage channel needs creating between patio and house
Ground floor timbers need paint stripping and treating with preservative
Whole house needs repointing in lime
Party firewall needs installing in roof
New loft hatch needs installing to do the firewall

Problem with these stone terraces is they've often been rented out, so no-one has any interest in doing the work to a decent, lasting standard. I spoke to a couple of local guys who live in rented ones last night. One, a former builder, said "honestly you couldn't give me one of these houses for free". Another said the damp was relentless. Pretty damning.

When I've finished the buying process I'll have £7k left. I can't afford this house, can I? 

Re my earlier post.

So what is it makes you want to buy this damp money pit that will always be an old cold house?  There must be something fantastic about it to make it worth all the grief.  Or is must be really cheap to reflect it's condition?

It's a great layout, good size, really fantastic location. It isn't cheap though, I'm paying peak 2022 prices for it, which makes this even more of a folly.

One of the reasons I went for this house in the first place was that the usual suspects (boiler, roof, electrics) had all been replaced in the last ten years, and no visible damp, so I hoped there wouldn't be too much to do.

I've also been looking for three years and found very little I've liked, which has been huge factor in trying to stick this one out.

A0911

twitwoo said:

ProDave said:

Re my earlier post.

So what is it makes you want to buy this damp money pit that will always be an old cold house?  There must be something fantastic about it to make it worth all the grief.  Or is must be really cheap to reflect it's condition?

Agree with ProDave - why this house?
Is the discount worth all the time / money / hassle to get the house in a decent state?

 

No. Please see reply to ProDave!

A0911

FreeBear said:

A0911 said: When I've finished the buying process I'll have £7k left. I can't afford this house, can I? 

Got a late 1920s semi here that had very little maintenance done to it over the last 40 odd years. Fortunately, no structural defects, just tired.. Spent about £20K over the last eight years of ownership, and still have another £20K to find.

Your £7K is only going to scratch the surface on the points highlighted, and no where near enough to do it all. Being an ex-rental, I'm guessing the kitchen has one of those nasty cheap hobs with solid cast iron rings - Once you've used a couple of times, you'll be wanting to rip the kitchen out. If the heating system is getting old, you'll need a good chunk of money to replace the boiler when it fails.. Bathroom tatty ? More money to bung out..

And as you spend time living there, you'll want to make improvements to the levels of insulation just to stay warm. Being a solid stone house, you need to be careful about the choice of materials to use (cork or woodfibre boards on the walls).

Yikes. Totally expect to have to spend money on any house, but £12k minimum before anything I'd want to do inside is too much.

If it could be done over a longer timeframe that would be better, but the stonework can't be left another five years, and the moisture-checking bits (copings, patio) have to be sorted else doing the repointing is (heh) pointless.

No awful cast iron rings, thankfully, but the kitchen is in pretty tired condition. I'd rather have spent the money on a new one.