Buying a house - Repairs needed

[leespot]

Hi All,

Sorry for a fairly lengthy first post. We're just in the middle of buying a mid 1920's semi solid brick construction, which hasn't been very well maintained by the current owners. We didn't get the Home Buyers Report but did decide on a structural survey - this came back as saying the house is solid, but needs work. I know it might be a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but I am after ball park prices (if at all possible) for the work that I know we'll need to do straight away. Here goes...

1. Garage Wall - one of the side walls of the detached garage is in need of (fairly urgently )rebuilding. This wall faces into the next door neighbours garden / patio area. Surveyor suggests due to no guttering ever being fitted to the roof (apex roof) and water soaking into the mortar over the years.

2. Lounge floor (suspended timbers) has some excessive bounce (there is a damp problem too) and its possible that some of the joists will need replacing. Lounge is 16' x 12'. Initially I thought replacing joists in a room was a massive problem, but after reading lots of other posts it seems very common?? Expensive??

3. Lintels - front of the house was DG about 2 years ago, paperwork all present for this. There are another 6 windows that we would like to replace but they have no lintels above them. Obviously all different sizes. We're starting with the smaller windows first (bathroom) as we're having this ripped out and a new one installed. Big job?? Expensive job??

Thanks in advance for the replies!

Cheers,
Lee

 

[Newboy]

None of the works you have described are major but you won't get even ball park figures in a forum. Get three quotes from local recommended companies then you have a starting point for meaningful negotiations.

 

[leespot]

None of the works you have described are major but you won't get even ball park figures in a forum. Get three quotes from local recommended companies then you have a starting point for meaningful negotiations.

Thanks newboy - I thought that might be the case. When we first got the list of repairs back we thought it was going to be full on major rebuilding, but that doesn't seem to be the case (happily!)

 

[Newboy]

When you ask for quotes, give the contractors a very clear & identical brief then you will have a proper comparison and (hopefully) no surprises later on.

 

[leespot]

Thanks. I was going to list what we wanted doing (similar to above), so that they can all quote without any misunderstandings etc. We're lucky enough not to be living in the house while the work is done, so would like it all done at the same time so would probably make sense to have one company / builder doing it all?

 

[Newboy]

Would make a lot of sense and should reduce the total cost

 

[^woody^]

Knock £3k off the sale price to cover the floor and garage wall.

The lintels are nothing to do with the sale, but would add about £300 per window

 

[leespot]

Knock £3k off the sale price to cover the floor and garage wall.

The lintels are nothing to do with the sale, but would add about £300 per window

Thanks Woody. We got £5k knocked off for the floor and the garage so hopefully we should be OK. I'm guessing the lintels might as well be done at the same time as the windows need doing?

 

[^woody^]

Yes. Bare in mind that the lintel replacement will not be covered by FENSA when they change the windows, so should have it's own separate application for building regulations.

Make sure they put cavity trays in too.

A good guide to good window installers is how they mention work to lintels without you prompting them.

 

[leespot]

Cheers. Our house is solid brick - we wouldn't have any cavity would we?

 

[^woody^]

No. But that too would be a good question for the installers.

 

[leespot]

can't wait to see what they come up with when we get them in to give us a price then!