Help ! To proceed with house needing work or forget it

[GoinSouth]

I'm really in need of some urgent sympathetic advice and support please - just can't seem to make decisions by myself these days (menopause thing? I don't know, anyway....). So.. we got the offer accepted on the house - a 1900s miners terraced. We've had a full structural and an independent damp survey. (The only thing we saw when we initially viewed the property was some damp - obviously didn't know the extent of it. )

Full structural brought up quite a few issues - main four issues being: 1. advised to have the roof covered - nothing between timbers and slates. 2. Repointing; 3. Damp sorting out and 4. Have a fire wall built in the loft. Approx cost for the four above £16k ex VAT. (Prices propably at top end estimates.)

Next were the smaller recommended jobs i.e. changing door locks, refelting back porch roof; replacing corrugated iron roof on shed; possibly a new kitchen if damp repair works mean having to pull out units; chimney work, minor guttering works. (With new kitchen - estimated these additional works could be about £8-10k.)

We have renegotiated offer price to include the cost of the four main works to be done and vendor accepted (her previous buyer pulled out mid way through - no idea why). However to get all these works done it's going to leave us very short in savings for anything else (we're using a large amount of our savings for our deposit so that, at our age (50s), we can have a very small mortgage which we can pay off quickly. The alternative if we don't go ahead with this property is that we try to find a more modern house but in the current market any decent house is at the top of our budget and due to competition, almost always there's a bidding war and we simply don't have the financial flexiblity to compete like that. Saying that, what we might end up spending on this current property is probably slightly less, or equivalent to what we would have to offer on a more modern house, that's possibly smaller.

So.. do we proceed with this house and try to get the work done and stick within our budget, or forget it and try to get something more modern and just pray that eventually someone will accept our offer?

Neither myself or hubby are DIY-skilled, or know anyone in the trade, and he's concerned that once builders start knocking about with plaster etc ref the damp, they're going to find more problems and the house will start costing more and more ££. (Though to be fair, the damp survey didn't seem to indicate that there would be any surprises.)

WWYD? Thanks and please, kind responses please - nerves somewhat fraught!!

We took on a fairly large mortgage in our 50s (not ridiculous but went from mortgage free to a mortgage). Partly because we knew that we both have reasonable prospects of earning a bit more before we retire, have investments we can cash in, and could always downsize if something unexpected happened. We are confident we can pay off before retirement.

That meant we went for the refurb house rather than waiting for a 'done' one. #

It's hard to get trades, but if you ask around you'll probably get recommendations if you are prepared to wait for decent ones.

It made sense for us to weigh up future finances, we had a contingency if the house was worse than we thought (it was). But it's been a good move.

Also even while interest rates will go up, they aren't forecast to go up much, so it's still cheap borrowing.

Honestly that actually sounds like a pretty concise list of jobs for an older house. If you've negotiated the main jobs off the asking price I'd be quite pleased with that.

The only thing I'd be concerned about is the damp - but it sounds like you need repointing and guttering repairs, both of which are common reasons for damp, so if you think it could be related to that (right area etc) I wouldn't be too worried. We had bad damp upstairs when we moved in (wallpaper peeled itself off, no steamer needed!) but the roof was ancient, gutters leaking & flank wall needed repointing. No issues once it was fixed.

Our house was built in 1907. We've been here 4.5 years and still working our way through the survey list got all the big jobs done now though (new roof & gutters, new boiler, new windows, repointing, chimney breast that had been removed without adequate supports fixed...).

Now extending the galley kitchen so we can fit a table in there & then we can finally do the cosmetic bits!

We've put down a big deposit and having a very very small mortgage, hence not having much left of our savings. We may be able to postpone getting the roof covered - priority is to sort out damp. It's just contained to the ground floor, fortunately, and guttering has a couple of issues (no end stops) so water falling onto ground. Damp survey guy said house had medium damp issues mainly due to lack of ventilation.

I think we're looking at the whole picture and panicking but I guess we should just get a list together, prioritise the crucial works and then work from there - taking each issue at a time.

Thanks for comments so far - will be happy for any other WWYD contributions :-)

If you can afford to borrow a little more on the mortgage now and get the big jobs sorted straight away I'd do that - we've had to go very slowly as we were mortgaged to the hilt, had £10k to replace the roof and guttering and then had to save and remortgage later to do more.

It would have been cheaper to only pay for some things once i.e. if we had been able to repoint at the same time as the roof we'd have only paid for scaffolding once, but unfortunately it wasn't an option.

It's unlikely that the whole building is going to need repointing - that's quite rare. Plus don't let anyone anywhere near it with cement pointing/tanking etc. if damp is from ventilation it's easy to sort. Don't let anyone inject a DPC.

The roof sounds original- it will be fine but it is better to have it under felted. But it's not an urgent job provided it's not leaking.

Perhaps read up about old houses and works to them?

Hi OP - I posted the other day as the house we're in the middle of purchasing turns out to have quite a few issues, identified on the buildings survey.

Two of the main issues were guttering and damp, but similar to you, confined to the downstairs.

We had a minor panic about it all, and spoke to our builder (we're having an extension built as soon as we purchase). We've decided not to worry about it and are going ahead as planned. The extension work we're planning will address the guttering issue and the majority of the damp anyway so in practical terms, it's not really going to cost us much more.

I think the thing to remember is that these surveys will throw up every little thing. Older houses won't be perfect so it's a case of figuring out what's an essential and what's a "nice to have done". We also need a bit of repointing (we were quoted £75 per metre) but that can wait as it's not urgent.

OP, that sounds like a pretty reasonable and non-scary list. However, may I politely but firmly suggest before you spend any money on any of the works suggested by the damp company in particular, you take some time to read up on old buildings and how they work - and DO NOT INJECT A DAMP COURSE, and repoint in lime not cement. You will thank me in 15 years!! Heritage House is a good website, the Victorian House Haynes manual is also excellent, and there’s a Facebook group called Your Old House UK which is full of helpful knowledgeable people - might be worth posting there with some pics and the report sooner rather than later.

@ All.. thank you for all your very helpful comments - we'll definitely take on board some of the recommendations and have calmed down (well me) somewhat.

I think we're going to wait to do the roof as there are no leaks as far as we are aware, and the timbers are ok. Obviously hubby will have to keep an eye on this once we're in and have bad weather.

Meantime, couple of questions please: Thanks ref the lime to do the repointing. There's also some chimney work to be done. Who puts up the scaffolding - the builder or is it something we have to supply ourselves?

Noted the various links and yes, I've see the Heritage House website and the independent damp surveyor advised not to have anything like the damp proof course done.

I'll start drawing up a project spreadsheet and getting things down, prioritising and costing.

Thanks again all.. appreciating the hand-hold :-)

Oh.. just remembered - has anyone had to have a party fire wall built in their loft? I may add this as a separate thread.

There's such a lot of info on line and so many DIYers.. the man I married is not, unfortunately, a DIY AT ALL! So basically I'm leading on the purchase of the property and all the works to be arranged. (A bit begrudingly admittedly.. makes her wonder what the purpose of being married is if she's doing everything herself... everything! ;-)

Who puts up the scaffolding - the builder or is it something we have to supply ourselves

We had a company do an "investigation and repoint" i.e. they got up there, checked it, knocked out the loose stuff and repointed with lime.
They arranged scaffolding as needed (they didn't need it for all areas; some was minor and done from a ladder, but the flank wall was the main issue and scaffolded).

Some companies wanted to do the whole lot and clean the brickwork but that is cosmetic & can cause issues. I like my 110+ year old bricks as they ate.

@GoinSouth can I ask how you found your surveyors? I'm looking at a house with a damp issue.

A fire wall is a break point and fire resistant

Old houses used to have joining lifts but fire spreads between the houses and burglars!

Just needs bricking up or boarding with fire resistant boarding

[quote nervydote]@GoinSouth can I ask how you found your surveyors? I'm looking at a house with a damp issue. [/quote]
Just googled, 'Independent Damp Surveyor' in my area - they also came recommended via a local community website. If you have 'Nextdoor' or a similar community website ask for recommendations, and you can also check out 'Check-a-Trade' or Trust Pilot. But do get an independent surveyor, not anyone affiliated with damp course companies as they'll just try to sell your their services and products.
Good luck!