Damp Survey - Confused…

[DampConfusion]

Will try to keep this as concise as possible... I'm buying a small victorian terrace (it's Grade II listed). It hasn't been particularly well cared for and has what appears to be significant damp problems in the ground floor front room. It is solid floor construction with no cellar so there aren't any airbricks as there is nothing underneath. Seems like the original flags have been lifted or had screed over the top. The Estate Agent was upfront that basically the sellers had been renting it and they can't continue to rent it in the current condition, but don't want to fork out the £5K or so required to sort the damp problem.
I had an independent damp surveyor come to look and she’s suggested a damp course which I’m wary of. So the main areas of concern are:
1. The front wall of the house has been diagnosed with "rising damp". I personally put this down to the fact that the front elevation has at some point been repointed with cement and also you can see the interior has been replastered with gypsom which can be seen because the wall paper is peeling off. I fully thought the surveyor would recommend repointing and replastering with lime, but she's actually recommended a damp proof course (DPC). The estate agent did say that the exterior pavement/street level is higher than when the houses were originally built so that was likely causing the damp in the front. They had same problem on the house next door apparently.
2. There is damp on the chimney breast and alcoves around in the same room (it's the front lounge). She also diagnosed rising damp in this instance and has recommended a DPC. I have no idea what's causing this and I'm wondering what others might think about this.
I'm just utterly confused because I wasn't expecting her to recommend a DPC as I thought the property needed to breath and that they were generally something that was mis-sold by damp companies. I'm going to ring her to discuss in further and also have a chat with the conservation team at the council because I know they do not particularly like chemically injected DPCs on these properties (it’s grade 2 listed in a world heritage site). I think no matter the problem, there will be considerable money needing spent to sort it, but I don't want to ruin the building with a DPC. I'd like to restore the property as sympathetically as possible. Looking for advice. Happy to provide more information/photos.

 

[dishman]

A while back I came across this guy on youtube.

He runs his own conservation firm specialising in older buildings and seems pretty passionate about damp related issues and how they are often mis-diagnosed and then people are sold down a river of fixes that will never work.

I can't vouch for all that he says. But a lot of it makes sense.

It may help you in deciding on a course of action.

To put it bluntly, injection damp proofing, in his view is a big con.

 

[DampConfusion]

Thanks. Yes I think it’s a bit of a con too and I’m surprised it’s been recommended by someone independent… I’m worried about buying the property and getting stuck with a problem we can’t solve.

 

[mrrusty]

read https://www.heritage-house.org/

Of everything out there, IMHO this all makes the most sense and correlates with my own personal experience in refurbing a 1902 house.

In our house the backroom flags were direct on sand/cinders then 3 layers lino + 2 carpet. Everything sweating. Coal fire and old man living in one room. The walls were absolutely wringing with condensation, particularly around the bottom where it was coldest. Also, unused open chimneys were allowing rain to come straight down and saturate the lower chimney breasts, which combined with hygroscopic salts caused by combustion gases reacting with building materials was an additional challenge.

Floor lifted, DPM, insulation, screed. Ext walls insulated on the inside. chimneys cowled. House is now dry - no "damproofing" used at all in the walls, yet originally they looked like the worst "rising damp" ever.