The survey has arrived and whilst in most things it is as expected there is one big shock and it helps to emphasise the “amateur” in amateur property developer.
The surveyor confirmed that the house was structurally sound and that the roof had been replaced at some point. Interestingly the current roof is made from interlocking concrete whereas the original roof would have been slate. It would have been nice if the people who carried out the replacement had used slate but that would have been prohibitively expensive and we are not going to change it now.
The problem with a concrete roof is that it weighs three times as much as slate and the weight of it has put added pressure on the outside walls and pushed them out; a bit like being sat on by an elephant as opposed to a cat (there may be some differences of scale with this analogy!) Luckily the surveyor is of the opinion that any movement is historical and is no cause for concern now.
The survey goes on to say that the electrics and plumbing need complete replacement (no problem there) and mentions a handful of other items that we were aware of with brickwork, rendering and so on.
Then the bombshell hits!
The house has rising damp and does not have a damp course. This is a blow. We knew the house was damp but foolishly assumed it was because it had been empty for a long time, we didn’t even think about the possibility of no damp proof course.
In addition the survey showed that the floor sloped down from right to left as you look at the house and whilst this might not be serious it could be that due to a lack of under floor ventilation that some or all of the joists holding the floor up may have perished. It is not possible to gain access to look under the floorboards as they are covered with hardboard which is fitted in such a way that it won’t go back down again. The best case is that some may need to be repaired but the worst is that all of the downstairs floor joists will need to be replaced. This last option is unlikely as jumping up and down on the floor produces no movement so we should be ok. The problem is that we won’t really know until we lift the floorboards.
A bit of research (how did we do this before the internet) indicates that installing a DPC is not that bad in itself but it is the repairs afterwards that prove expensive (re-plastering and so on). Luckily we need to re-plaster anyway so hopefully this won’t add too much to the overall expense of the project.
We have asked a couple of damp specialist to go and have a look and provide a quote and whilst waiting for that I have asked the estate agent to ask the seller if we can take up some of the floor (hopefully this Monday) to see what is underneath. However bad it is I don’t think it will stop us wanting to complete the purchase as replacing the floors would stretch but not kill the budget. The hope is that we will know the costs of nearly all the work required by the time we complete so the budget is as accurate as possible.
We have already had window companies, electricians and plumbers round to the house to quote and should have their figures very soon. It will be interesting to see how close our estimates are.
No more surprises please!
The surveyor confirmed that the house was structurally sound and that the roof had been replaced at some point. Interestingly the current roof is made from interlocking concrete whereas the original roof would have been slate. It would have been nice if the people who carried out the replacement had used slate but that would have been prohibitively expensive and we are not going to change it now.
The problem with a concrete roof is that it weighs three times as much as slate and the weight of it has put added pressure on the outside walls and pushed them out; a bit like being sat on by an elephant as opposed to a cat (there may be some differences of scale with this analogy!) Luckily the surveyor is of the opinion that any movement is historical and is no cause for concern now.
The survey goes on to say that the electrics and plumbing need complete replacement (no problem there) and mentions a handful of other items that we were aware of with brickwork, rendering and so on.
Then the bombshell hits!
The house has rising damp and does not have a damp course. This is a blow. We knew the house was damp but foolishly assumed it was because it had been empty for a long time, we didn’t even think about the possibility of no damp proof course.
In addition the survey showed that the floor sloped down from right to left as you look at the house and whilst this might not be serious it could be that due to a lack of under floor ventilation that some or all of the joists holding the floor up may have perished. It is not possible to gain access to look under the floorboards as they are covered with hardboard which is fitted in such a way that it won’t go back down again. The best case is that some may need to be repaired but the worst is that all of the downstairs floor joists will need to be replaced. This last option is unlikely as jumping up and down on the floor produces no movement so we should be ok. The problem is that we won’t really know until we lift the floorboards.
A bit of research (how did we do this before the internet) indicates that installing a DPC is not that bad in itself but it is the repairs afterwards that prove expensive (re-plastering and so on). Luckily we need to re-plaster anyway so hopefully this won’t add too much to the overall expense of the project.
We have asked a couple of damp specialist to go and have a look and provide a quote and whilst waiting for that I have asked the estate agent to ask the seller if we can take up some of the floor (hopefully this Monday) to see what is underneath. However bad it is I don’t think it will stop us wanting to complete the purchase as replacing the floors would stretch but not kill the budget. The hope is that we will know the costs of nearly all the work required by the time we complete so the budget is as accurate as possible.
We have already had window companies, electricians and plumbers round to the house to quote and should have their figures very soon. It will be interesting to see how close our estimates are.
No more surprises please!
2 comments:
Excellent blog and very interesting read
can you add photos to the blog - would be good to see the pre and post look
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