Hi everyone, just bought my first house this July with my girlfriend, and am just getting started with some DIY improvements on our new home. The vendor only had the place for 6 months and basically did a quick job of patching it up- new windows, new boiler, bit of plasterboard and wallpaper throughout. We knew there'd be work to do, but the to do list seems to be getting longer by the day and it's just starting to get a bit overwhelming!
Anyway, first job is the living room. As soon as we moved in we noticed that a woodworm infestation our survey had said was inactive was very much alive, and pulling up a few floorboards revealed why the woodworm were thriving- the whole floor was rotten- some of the joists crumbled away to nothing when touched. A month after moving in pretty much everything near ground level in that room was covered is mold, so clearly it's pretty damp in there. The wallpaper came off easily and revealed a fair bit of black mold behind it so that all needs to come off too. Seems there are plenty of sources for the moisture- ground level behind the property is about 1.5metres above interior floor level, all air vents blocked, with dusty rubble filling much of the cavity beneath the floorboards, there was also apparently a large hole to the front of the property allowing water to seep in, filled in by the previous owner. Along with the fact that they've replaced the windows and done some patching up on the external walls hopefully it's all just a combination of those factors (by all accounts the house has also spent a lot of time unoccupied over the years).
I'm thinking the best thing to do right now will be to pull up the entire floor and start taking damp readings regularly to see if there's water obviously coming in from anywhere, and in the meantime installing a solid fuel stove in the fireplace I've just opened up. Hopefully with the aid of a dehumidifier everything will start drying out and then if there's no evidence of ongoing water ingress I can lay a new floor.
I'm sure it's pretty clear by now that I'm a complete novice at this, so I'd be really grateful for any general feedback, and pointers on important aspects I may be likely to overlook. For now though, I have a couple of questions:
Should I be paying to get a trustworthy damp expert (ie- not one of those free ones trying to sell something) in straight away rather than risking missing a serious problem due to my inexperience?
And secondly, does the following idea make sense?- (this one's about the stove and I might be better off starting a new topic somewhere else?) We're in a smokeless zone so will be looking to buy a DEFRA exempt wood burning stove. Initially wanted to install a boiler stove to heat our water/CH, but it seems any DEFRA exempt solid fuel boiler stoves are pretty expensive, but also we have a combi boiler as opposed to an open vent system, so setting that up would be pretty complicated/costly too. So for now I'm thinking of going for a cheap stove and installing it straight into the chimney (after smoke testing first to make sure it's all safe), no liners for now- then if it seems like it's up to the job of keeping most of the house warm I can go ahead and fit a liner at a later date, or if we're still spending loads on the central heating I'll at least have the option of installing solid fuel central heating knowing I didn't waste hundreds on a liner we only used for a few months.
Really appreciate it if any of you actually took the time to muddle through all of that!
Anyway, first job is the living room. As soon as we moved in we noticed that a woodworm infestation our survey had said was inactive was very much alive, and pulling up a few floorboards revealed why the woodworm were thriving- the whole floor was rotten- some of the joists crumbled away to nothing when touched. A month after moving in pretty much everything near ground level in that room was covered is mold, so clearly it's pretty damp in there. The wallpaper came off easily and revealed a fair bit of black mold behind it so that all needs to come off too. Seems there are plenty of sources for the moisture- ground level behind the property is about 1.5metres above interior floor level, all air vents blocked, with dusty rubble filling much of the cavity beneath the floorboards, there was also apparently a large hole to the front of the property allowing water to seep in, filled in by the previous owner. Along with the fact that they've replaced the windows and done some patching up on the external walls hopefully it's all just a combination of those factors (by all accounts the house has also spent a lot of time unoccupied over the years).
I'm thinking the best thing to do right now will be to pull up the entire floor and start taking damp readings regularly to see if there's water obviously coming in from anywhere, and in the meantime installing a solid fuel stove in the fireplace I've just opened up. Hopefully with the aid of a dehumidifier everything will start drying out and then if there's no evidence of ongoing water ingress I can lay a new floor.
I'm sure it's pretty clear by now that I'm a complete novice at this, so I'd be really grateful for any general feedback, and pointers on important aspects I may be likely to overlook. For now though, I have a couple of questions:
Should I be paying to get a trustworthy damp expert (ie- not one of those free ones trying to sell something) in straight away rather than risking missing a serious problem due to my inexperience?
And secondly, does the following idea make sense?- (this one's about the stove and I might be better off starting a new topic somewhere else?) We're in a smokeless zone so will be looking to buy a DEFRA exempt wood burning stove. Initially wanted to install a boiler stove to heat our water/CH, but it seems any DEFRA exempt solid fuel boiler stoves are pretty expensive, but also we have a combi boiler as opposed to an open vent system, so setting that up would be pretty complicated/costly too. So for now I'm thinking of going for a cheap stove and installing it straight into the chimney (after smoke testing first to make sure it's all safe), no liners for now- then if it seems like it's up to the job of keeping most of the house warm I can go ahead and fit a liner at a later date, or if we're still spending loads on the central heating I'll at least have the option of installing solid fuel central heating knowing I didn't waste hundreds on a liner we only used for a few months.
Really appreciate it if any of you actually took the time to muddle through all of that!
