Fixing damp problem

It'll be a fortune to remove the paint and or render.

Really you need to get a proper Ric's surveyor to have a look.

He certainly doesn't have a fortune, so is there any point in getting a surveyor to have a look if he can't afford to replace the paint/render? Is the surveyor likely to say anything other than "render's OK" or "render needs replacing"?
 
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forget the render, it’s a red herring. get the subfloors ventilated adequately ,check theres no leaking pipes underneath and no broken drains allowing water under. start at the beginning.
 
He certainly doesn't have a fortune, so is there any point in getting a surveyor to have a look if he can't afford to replace the paint/render? Is the surveyor likely to say anything other than "render's OK" or "render needs replacing"?

a surveyor will inspect it and provide options and advice on what to do.

as the render has been there for so long i doubt the material its made from will be an issue.
 
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forget the render, it’s a red herring. get the subfloors ventilated adequately ,check theres no leaking pipes underneath and no broken drains allowing water under. start at the beginning.

OK, sounds like getting a CCTV drains survey should be the first step and then work up from there.
 
Derek M,
Is the house on a hillside?
It would be unusual for a 1930's - 1950's semi to have solid walls.

The interior right rear corner shows rising damp and higher up what looks like penetrating damp.
To show more: Interior left and right rear corners could do with the wall paper stripped off, & skirtings removed.

The rear air bricks appear to be almost clogged up with some material - bitumen?
Best practice is to have air bricks every 1.5m to 2m on accessible walls around the house - you show one air brick at the front?
Your DPC should be in the mortar bed below the joists - perhaps the air bricks are sitting on it?
The rear steps are bridging your DPC.

The sub-area joisting below any upper wall damage needs inspecting - this is done by crawling under the floors or lifting floor boards.

The render either side of the patio doors has minor, vertical cracks, possibly caused when the doors were installed.
Render should be installed with BellCasts - see google.
We dont even know what the white paint is so I see no reason for removing the paint (or render,) except maybe for minor repairs? The black stuff could be bitumen paint?

Testing drains for leaks is a simple matter for any DIY'er.

There are other issues but without a mental map of your house plan it's difficult to comment.

As suggested above, it might be best for you to get a RICS in for a survey of whats wrong and whats to be done about it.
 
tell80,

Is the house on a hillside?
It would be unusual for a 1930's - 1950's semi to have solid walls.

No, not on a hill. A couple of streets away the road rises to join the main road but in the other direction it's all pretty flat. It's definitely solid walls because my Dad tried to get cavity wall insulation.

The interior right rear corner shows rising damp and higher up what looks like penetrating damp.
To show more: Interior left and right rear corners could do with the wall paper stripped off, & skirtings removed.

The rear air bricks appear to be almost clogged up with some material - bitumen?
Best practice is to have air bricks every 1.5m to 2m on accessible walls around the house - you show one air brick at the front?
Your DPC should be in the mortar bed below the joists - perhaps the air bricks are sitting on it?
The rear steps are bridging your DPC.

The sub-area joisting below any upper wall damage needs inspecting - this is done by crawling under the floors or lifting floor boards.

I'll get him to check the air bricks to make sure they're not clogged. I think the only other airbrick at the front is the one in the porch.

How would he prevent the rear steps bridging the DPC? I've been thinking that it would be good to raise the level of the patio to be level with the house and then have a slope or step down to the grass, as it would be safer for my parents as they get older to avoid the risk of them tripping onto the decking as they step out (tripping on to the grass will be less dangerous). Obviously I don't mean building it up with concrete as that would block off the air bricks but maybe it would be possible to raise the decking up on stilts (removing the steps first) whilst keeping adequate ventilation to the airbricks.

The render either side of the patio doors has minor, vertical cracks, possibly caused when the doors were installed.
Render should be installed with BellCasts - see google.
We dont even know what the white paint is so I see no reason for removing the paint (or render,) except maybe for minor repairs? The black stuff could be bitumen paint?"

The patio doors were actually replaced a couple of months ago, so the cracks might be from then.

Apparently the render was only fitted a few years ago, so hopefully the contractors would have used the right stuff. The walls were pebble dashed maybe 35 years ago, when the utility room next to the kitchen and behind the garage was added I think. I'll see if I can find any old photos which might show that the black paint was already there back then. As my Dad is pretty sure the DPC is bitumen, I wouldn't be surprised if its bitumen paint.

Testing drains for leaks is a simple matter for any DIY'er.

He says he had the drains checked a few years ago and they were fine but I'll see if he can find out exactly when. I doubt he knows how to check them himself or he would have done so before and he's getting a bit old to be crawling around on his hands and knees now.

There are other issues but without a mental map of your house plan it's difficult to comment.

As suggested above, it might be best for you to get a RICS in for a survey of whats wrong and whats to be done about it.

Yeah, I'll get him to look into that. A full Level 3 Building Survey would be a bit expensive at around £1,000 but I understand a specific damp survey only costs £100-£300, so hopefully that will be sufficient.
 
Measure your house walls, not the porch - Just measure from the outside render surface to the inside plaster surface.
Use inches or mm's, then post the full dimension, and I'll sort out the true masonry thickness of the wall.

Elevation pics will tell me more about your air bricks.

Dont attempt to build up your steps - demolish them. Then pour a concrete step.
A step that goes past the right hand side of the frame by 150mm to 200mm's.
You need width and depth when stepping out on to such a step.
Leave enough room to finish the concrete height to either fix tiles or a cuts of brick to finish the step just below the Pvc sill.
A screen of code 5 lead between the step and the wall will prevent bridging.

When the black paint was painted on, & what material the DPC is, are irrelevant.

A "specific damp survey" by who? RICS's dont do £100 "damp surveys as far as I know.

Whats your final purpose in possibly doing this work - do you intend to sell the house or what?
 
tell80,

Thanks, I'll ask my Dad to measure the thickness of the walls, or do it myself next time I'm there and see if he has any elevation pics.

I'll recommend that he demolish and replace his rear steps with concrete ones too.

I can't find the page I was looking at before but it said that if the surveyor identifies a problem with damp they can do a specialist damp survey which costs about £150-200.

Checkatrade suggests it will be more like £500 for a 3-bed semi. https://www.checkatrade.com/blog/cost-guides/damp-survey-cost/

This company does specific damp surveys, but they're mainly focused on older buildings and probably cost a lot more. https://standardheritage.uk

This site refers to specialist damp surveys. https://sdlsurveying.co.uk/our-products/specialist-reports/

This post talks about having a specialist damp survey after it wasn't picked up by a rics level 2 survey. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5231967/damp-not-picked-up-with-rics-level-2-survey

My parents have no plans to sell any time soon. At the moment they just want to stop the walls getting damp and mouldy, forcing them to strip the wallpaper to clean it up, and I'm sure it's not good for the walls. I'm trying to encourage them to demolish their poorly-built, freezing cold utility room and downstairs toilet/shower room and get a proper kitchen extension built to make the space more usable (the kitchen is tiny at the moment) and make the house nice and comfortable for them as they get older, and relocate the toilet/shower room into what is currently the rear half of the garage (where their fridge and freezer are at the moment), but they'll have to see if they have enough savings, or if they can get an interest-only remortgage for that. As the house currently is, I can't see anyone buying it other than a property developer at a large discount, as it would be impractical for a family to live there whilst the kitchen is being rebuilt and I can't imagine many people would be interested in buying a house if they'll need to rent somewhere else to stay in for 6 months.
 
So apparently I misunderstood my Dad before. He denies telling me before that the render was done fairly recently. Apparently they just had a coating like Wallcote painted over the render, although my Mum recalls them doing something (maybe prep) before they put the coating on. She's going to try and find the receipt to see if that says exactly what was used.

So the render must still be the original render that was already installed when they bought the house in 1981. Does this make any difference to how we should tackle the damp problem?

Not that they can afford it at the moment, but if they could get a grant for external cladding would the installers remove the render before fitting the cladding, or just stick it on top even if the render is non-breathable?
 

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