Thatched cottage

[Tinkerbell36]

We are in the process of buying a thatched cottage - we had a survey done and no unexpected issues. The mortgage company then did the valuation survey and have requested a specialist damp & timber survey. The house will have damp as over 500 years old!

Has anyone else experienced this? We’re getting very nervous!

Thanks.

Lovely to stay in for a week away but not to buy due to the ongoing costs.

Well what a helpful comment Spaceman1 - that wasn’t my question and really doesn’t help!

It’s to be expected. They need to know their risk, there probably is damp but they need to know the extent and the type. Damp is not created equal!

My house isn’t thatched but it’s just under 600 years old and has no damp. Survey was the full monty and other than a rather poorly maintained roof, nothing wrong with it. My friends have a thatched house from the 1300s and it was sensitively renovated and no damp either but the previous owner put in air bricks so that could be why.

Not experienced this but have a thatched cottage and not noticed any damp and its wonderful to live in. I would imagine it will be fine.

Its worth also looking into insurance early on, we had trouble finding insurance and needed a specialist brokers, Lloyd and Whyte as all other insurers said no. Was about 600 for first year then 950 after that. That had some requirements like electrical safety check but our seller got those.

My husband is a building surveyor and we do live in an extremely old house however he says he would not touch a thatched roof cottage with a barge pole. Sorry probably not what you want to hear but every time we drive past one he says the same again.

From what I have understood in the past the insurance issues should definitely be researched first. However, you have probably done that so good luck with the survey.

My husband is a building surveyor and we do live in an extremely old house however he says he would not touch a thatched roof cottage with a barge pole. Sorry probably not what you want to hear but every time we drive past one he says the same again

Mine says that too! But then we have two separate friends who have lost thatched cottages to fire - one was from their own woodburner and another was from the neighbours, the night before.

My parents have lived next door to a thatch all my (looong) life. It’s had a new thatch once in all those years, no fires, and only 2 different families have lived there.

Make sure you get a heritage surveyor, not just a normal one. You need one that gets historic buildings and their need to breathe.

It’s really not inevitable that old buildings will have damp. Nor is it inevitable that damp will be terrifyingly expensive to repair. Or that damp has caused damage to timber / rot/ anything scary).

Our last-but-one house was thatched and not particularly damp at all. We did struggle with insurance though (this was 2011-2014, btw, so not recent) and had to go with a specialist company (Playle Russell Special Risks) and also had a chimney fire caused by the flue on the woodburner installed by the previous owners coming away from the burner itself at the back. Very scary and put me off ever buying another thatched property 🙄

DH, otoh, loved every minute of our time there and was reluctant to sell.....

This would be my worry, I would constantly be anxious that the thatch would catch fire, there have been several thatches recently in my part of the world that have been destroyed.