Hi all,
I moved in to my first house last year and I was a tad green around the ears and have since found a number of issues that may have been avoidable.
The latest seems to be the lack of ventilation at the rear of the house due to an extension.
The house is a 1930s two story semi with a raised floor. The extension is single story across the width of the house (approx 2m in depth) and has a solid floor butted up to the raised floor. From what I can gather, the extension is likely to be about 10 years old.
I've finally got round to decorating the rear room that backs on to the solid floor and after lifting the carpet could smell a musty smell. By chance, I noticed some loose boards due to an aerial being fitted and lifting them to refit. After lifting, I spotted water droplets at the end of a joist near the party wall - this joist is the closest one to the solid floor. The ground is also damp (although there is a high water table and we are at the bottom of a shallow hill). I assume this is being caused by the lack of ventilation at the rear of the property... I've prodded the joist with a screwdriver and it's solid so I'm hoping I'm not too late to rectify the issue. The joist sits on brick with what looks like a rubber sheet and possibly slate between it.
There is probably a 9" gap between the end of the extension and my neighbour's fence that has an original airbrick, given that this is down the side of the extension and has a fence opposite to it, I can't imagine there is a lot of airflow.
If this is the case, what would be my options - would I have to excavate the solid floor to install ducting to provide the air flow or are there some less dramatic fixes (ie, periscopic ducting from the top of the extensions?).
I moved in to my first house last year and I was a tad green around the ears and have since found a number of issues that may have been avoidable.
The latest seems to be the lack of ventilation at the rear of the house due to an extension.
The house is a 1930s two story semi with a raised floor. The extension is single story across the width of the house (approx 2m in depth) and has a solid floor butted up to the raised floor. From what I can gather, the extension is likely to be about 10 years old.
I've finally got round to decorating the rear room that backs on to the solid floor and after lifting the carpet could smell a musty smell. By chance, I noticed some loose boards due to an aerial being fitted and lifting them to refit. After lifting, I spotted water droplets at the end of a joist near the party wall - this joist is the closest one to the solid floor. The ground is also damp (although there is a high water table and we are at the bottom of a shallow hill). I assume this is being caused by the lack of ventilation at the rear of the property... I've prodded the joist with a screwdriver and it's solid so I'm hoping I'm not too late to rectify the issue. The joist sits on brick with what looks like a rubber sheet and possibly slate between it.
There is probably a 9" gap between the end of the extension and my neighbour's fence that has an original airbrick, given that this is down the side of the extension and has a fence opposite to it, I can't imagine there is a lot of airflow.
If this is the case, what would be my options - would I have to excavate the solid floor to install ducting to provide the air flow or are there some less dramatic fixes (ie, periscopic ducting from the top of the extensions?).
