Had a homebuyers done on a house we are buying. It reported 'high levels' of damp in the front, flank and original back walls (single story extension across the back - no damp) on the ground floor, none upstairs. It recommended a damp and timber survey which we have arranged with a company that does them for free.
I wasn't particularly concerned as our current house was thought to have damp in the survey but we have never had any problems so thought it was probably Not likely to be a big deal.
Anyway, I've spoken to the surveyor today and he was a bit doom and gloom. I asked for a bit more info on the damp and he said readings were 'high enough to mention in the report' and he wasn't able to take many readings (he took 10 total, I assume this includes upstairs) as there was a lot of stuff but in his opinion the damp was caused by render breaching the damp proof course, a damaged damp proof course, and cracked render higher up. He said that it would certainly require the render to be taken back to above dpc, injecting the walls, removing plaster to 1m and replacing with special damp proof plaster and also fixing cracked render. He said it was likely to cost thousands to fix rather than hundreds.
My initial reaction is that there is no way he could know all of that from getting a few high damp meter readings and that he is either covering his arse or on a commission from a damp company. We are obviously getting it checked out further but just wanted to sound out some others on this. Does what the surveyor said seem likely? Will the damp company be able to tell if the damp is caused by the render breaching the dpc or a damaged dpc?
Any advice on what I can/need to do would be gratefully received!
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.
Property/DIY
Advice on damp in homebuyers report
9 replies
BauerTime · 14/01/2015 15:46
OP posts:
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.