How to rid lovely 130 house of 'damp' cold feel for survey

[CheryTree]

Our house is gorgeous and well cared for and we've brought our family up here. Now wanting to move to be nearer them.

Buyers are having a survey - level 2 we believe- and we want our ovrly house to present at its best though accept some things will be flagged in a house this age.

The outside walls often feel cold on chilly days though no obvious evidence of damp. There's no bare brick walls inside. If we whacked the heating up for a few days prior to the survey, and opened the windows to ventilate, would this warm up the walls and lessen any negative readings?

And are there any small things we can do to help our house present well for survey purposes? Any suggestions / advice would be great. TIA

That should say 130 year old house

Can you beg borrow steal or buy a dehumidifier? Our house is half the age of yours, also not actually damp, but has a much better feel since we’ve been running a dehumidifier now and again

If it's not damp, there is not point of worrying about it.Also level 2 survey will be conducted by professional so this heating idea will not work anyways.

Our house is of similar age. We don’t have the heating on often and have no sign of damp or cold.

Honestly, I think trying to hide things isn’t fair on potential buyers. They need to know what they’re taking on.

We’re preparing for sale atm. We’re busily putting right any potential problems as we’ve been sold a pup by less than honest vendors in the past and it’s hugely annoying.

A good surveyor will pick up on any issues anyway so really, just be upfront.

A good surveyor is unlikely to be taken in by such subterfuges.

A surveyor will likely find damp in any old house and a buyer needs to accept that to some extent. Any. On FTB will not be too worried at this unless the whole wall is sodden but it may spook an FTB if the chimney breast has a little bit of isolated damp.

With regard to presentation, just tidy things up and finish all them off jobs that need doing like filling holes in walls, removing weeds from guttering etc.

IMO you are best off closing the windows and dehumidifying like crazy.

Also try to keep your living humidity down as much as possible, so no pans on the boil for ages, running steamy showers without extraction - keep the bathroom doors shut and the extraction on.

It will probably take some time to dehumidify if it is generally damp, maybe a couple of weeks.

You can hire industrial strength dehumidifiers but probably a bit pricey and cost a lot in electric.

My guess is a surveyor will be able to tell the difference between a damp house due to high humidity and damp due to failure of the dpc etc.

If there's damp in the walls then it will be caused by an external problem. A good surveyor will see that.

If the damp is more in the air and caused by cooking, laundry, ineffective bathroom ventilation, then a dehumidifier is your new best friend.

@CheryTree I understand your post as saying the house isn't damp but the walls do feel cold. Some houses, especially the older ones, will experience this. So you do not need humidifiers or think your DPC has failed (many older houses do not have one and do not need one). My suggestions would be the house needs to warm up and not cool, which means having your heating on at a lower temp for longer periods leading up to the survey. That will act the same as if your house has had sun streaming into the windows all day, the house generally feels warmer.

The surveyor, unless a specialised period property one, is likely to use a hand held damp meter, they are useless and always show "damp" when there is not any. The report will then say "to have further inspections done for damp" or similar words. Some buyers will get spooked! If the extra reports are done, even if not needed, make sure they are done by an independant damp specialist not a company who sells damp products and DPC - it is a scam.

Every morning, even with the heating on low and long, open the windows for a few minutes to refresh it.

schloss That's very helpful practical advice - we'll certainly do that.

I love this comment ❤️

Our house is exactly like this - albeit a few years older. We do have some little patches of damp but it's mainly just that the walls feel cold. We only bought last year and it didn't put us off at all, it's part and parcel of having an old house. I love it in summer too.

Presume it has solid walls? Its pretty common in houses of that age.

Heating on low 24/7 is the best option.

Yes, solid walls Ilovemyshed

Having the heating on is subterfuges? Really?

@CheryTree how did the survey go?