What’s up with this brickwork?

[OpthalmosVerde]

Lockdown house hunting clueless FTB!

I love this place from what I can see of it, so much potential and priced fairly as well. But looks like it’s been on the market for a while and changed agents so it’s piqued my interest as to why that might be. Had a look on streetview where you can see the front of the house clearer - what’s going on with the brickwork to the right of the front door? Is that something that has been fixed or in need of fixing?

Thanks for anyone who has any insight! I’d definitely view this place if it’s still available when we can get going.

That looks like a rainwater good leak, the damp
patch is under the cill and then running down the brickwork.
Make sure you get a damp check internally to ensure the joists aren't affected.

is the fireplace behind that?
agree with pp, this needs to be investigated by a surveyor.
if the building is listed don't touch unless you won big in the lottery.

It’s not listed as far as I can tell. So that is damp? Thought so. Hopefully just on the outside. No fireplace the other side, I think from the photos there’s a bookcase against that wall though so you can’t see the state of the inside wall in the internal pics. So something is wrong at the windowsill and allowing water to trickle down the wall? I guess the windowsill would need repairing and then the brickwork - repointing? Or possibly a lot more serious if it’s not just the outside of the wall? Hmm.

Agree if we got that far we would get the most thorough survey possible, it’s an old property and long term we’d want to remodel the back to open it up into the garden and make the kitchen a more sociable space. It’s got so many things I like though, it’s quirky, really good amount of space inside, garden is a good size but a complete blank canvas, off-street parking, the location is almost literally a stones throw from our favourite dog walking spot. I’m kinda hoping that we’re going to buy once and buy right tbh.

Ooh pressed post. Meant to say Thankyou very much for the replies! Building maintenance side of things is my biggest worry about this whole house buying thing as I feel completely clueless. Design, decor, gardening, basic DIY I can do. Serious structural building stuff is scary though.

First photo, my thought is that there's been some repointing done to solve a damp issue caused by water running off the porch roof.
Second picture looks like the wall is shaded and has dried slower than the surrounding walls after rain.
How much of an issues either of these things are will be evident when you can get inside the house for a viewing.
Disclaimer:the kids have been on my phone and the screen is filthy and scratched.

Looks like a single skin wall and the water from above is washing down the front. What's higher up? Leaky gutter perhaps? It also looks like a recessed area with little air flow or light which will make it cold and wet anyway. Deffo check for damp inside!

Yes the front of the property is north facing so wouldn’t dry quickly. But lovely aspect at the back...... sigh.

It's not a disaster, it might just need some attention to sort it. Extend the front porch (I assume that's what it is on the left of the pic) across the front and the rain is kept off the front of the house from that level. Apply a rain repelling coating to the rest and you could be OK but it needs to be checked and thought through

It looks like possibly they have done some repointing looking at the pics. Clearly there is an issue but like others dp said it should be sortable

Can you put a link up, then we can see the whole place?

You need a structural engineer report.