Should I avoid houses with a cellar?

Blank11 · 28 October 2023 at 1:52PM

I’ve seen a house I like but it has a cellar. Reading online, cellars are susceptible and will be damp, but what concerns me the most is this can lead to structural issues for the house. Is a remedy for dampness in a cellar costly? I seen another house down the street slightly cheaper but the home report mentions wood boring beetle infestation around stairwell and in the cellar. Now I’ve also read online wood boring beetles are attracted to damp wood. If the cellar is always going to be damp then the issue to eradicate the wood beetles would be difficult and costly? Am I correct to avoid houses with a cellar?

daveyjp · 28 October 2023 at 2:01PM

Its not a yes or no answer. I've seen properties with damp cellars and extensive dry rot, I've seen properties with cellars and no sign of any damp.

So judge each one on what you find.

AlexMac · 28 October 2023 at 2:31PM

Are you taking about a Victorian or early 20th Century house? If so, damp cellars are common. Once in our 1905 London terraced home, when we had a sewer pipe blockage in the street outside, the cellar filled with about six inches of water from the ancient cracked pipes. But that disappeared when the outside blockage was cleared, without lasting problems. I can't recall if the house had a damp proof course? It probably did have one; a layer of slate, in the brick walls which of course were solid, not cavity. So as this DPC would be just above external ground level, (as modern plastic ones are) the cellar walls are damp by desgn (in effect they are the foundations). But we never had any rising damp problems

I'd certainly prefer a musty cellar to woodworm, but that tends to be exaggerated by surveyors who want you to spray the wood with toxic chemcals?

Or are you proposing to buy a house with a habitable room in the cellar, or a cellar you can use as living space? If the former, walls and floor should have been "tanked" (waterproofed), so damp means that's been bodged? The latter is expensive.

RAS · 28 October 2023 at 5:29PM

It very much depends. Some are completely below ground level, others are only partly so.

If you are talking Victorian/Edwardian cellars, they were often designed to be cool and moist, as alternatives to fridges. Mine has never been damp, but I don't use it as habitable room, and don't store any ferrous metal objects there. But it's a good place for a boiler and the meters. Plus produce.

My neighbours have draught proofed theirs (one is below grand level and the window bricked up) and interestingly get condensation in the summer, when the warmer air cools on the colder surfaces. Mine has a bit more circulation and doesn't have a problem.

The sensible thing is to draught proof the door to the cellar, and insulate under the ground floor boards.

The only instance of real water ingress of which I know was because some cowboys laying new pipes wrecked the drains from another house's downpipe, which then seeped into the adjacent cellar. The water board dug a huge hole to cure that.

FreeBear · 28 October 2023 at 6:41PM

As niece commented when she looked at a house with a cellar - "That's where they hide the bodies".

My response - "Well, where else would you hide them ?"

Doozergirl · 29 October 2023 at 10:03AM

I'm not sure what you've been reading, but cellars are supposed to be damp. They're underground.

All houses are partially in the ground, it just happens with cellars that you see more evidence of that.

Cellars should be left to breathe and have good airflow through airbricks, then they will be no issue at all. In many ways they are incredibly helpful as they allow you to see the bones of a house, how it is built and that the subfloor is well ventilated. In other houses it's a mystery. If there was a genuine problem, you'd be easily able to see the cause.

Trying to damp proof a cellar is actually what causes issues a lot of the time, as is trying to treat it like an upstairs room and just boarding it without realising that you're trapping moisture. There's a real ignorance in this country about the importance of ventilation throughout the home.

There's zero issues buying a house with a cellar, it's cellar conversions that I'd be more concerned about.

timehastoldme · 29 October 2023 at 12:10PM

We have a cellar, it's brilliant for storage and I'm going to miss it!

Albermarle · 29 October 2023 at 3:24PM

Cellars should be left to breathe and have good airflow through airbricks, then they will be no issue at all. In many ways they are incredibly helpful as they allow you to see the bones of a house, how it is built and that the subfloor is well ventilated.

If I remember correctly in my childhood home, a small terraced Victorian two up two down, the cellar was very small and under a solid floor, so you could not see anything of the structure of the house. I think it was just there for somewhere to store food before fridges came along.

FreeBear · 29 October 2023 at 4:12PM

Albermarle said:

Cellars should be left to breathe and have good airflow through airbricks, then they will be no issue at all. In many ways they are incredibly helpful as they allow you to see the bones of a house, how it is built and that the subfloor is well ventilated.
If I remember correctly in my childhood home, a small terraced Victorian two up two down, the cellar was very small and under a solid floor, so you could not see anything of the structure of the house. I think it was just there for somewhere to store food before fridges came along.

Often, there was a small manhole cover 300-400mm diameter at the front of the property with a chute leading in to the cellar. This was so the the local coal merchant could tip coal in without traipsing through the house.