My Homebuyers Report: Your Opinions

[kalowski]

Got back my homebuyers report for the propery we're thinking of buying. Out buyers have just pulled out so we've got a bit of thinking time, time for reflection, as Blair would say.

Anyway, here are the important point, those of you with experience, I wouold really appreciate your take on these things, are they serious as they seem?

There has been some slight structural movement affecting the property with some cracking over the window openings at the rear and walls slightly out of alignment. There is some slight roof spread and the rear roof slope is uneven. The extent is not possible to determine without entering the roof void. There were no signs of any recent current activity and the risk of further movement takingplace is acceptable

There is wet rot affecting the windows and repairs, or replacements, are required. As mentioned elsewhere in this report, dampness was found and therefore, significant timber decay may be present. A more detailed inspection of the floor structure should be carried out.

The walls contain a bitumastic damp-proof course. It was not possible to trace this right around the property due to the mortar pointing.
We recorded high damp meter reading throughout the ground floor which possible have been cause by the failure of the damp-proof course and a more detailed investigation is necessary.

It's a two stroey mid-terrace from about 1900, no cellars.

It also says, about the walls,

The walls may contain a finger width cavity.

??

 

[breezer]

finger width cavity is a very narrow cavity, sounds like a lot to put it right

 

[kevplumb]

finger width cavity is a solid wall normally

 

[Tom.]

Sounds like a previous botch job to me with regard to the damp proof course. Old houses don't usually require one. Ask them what they used to measure the damp with......

Is the house empty, or occupied? That would explain much of any interior damp.

As for the rest, sounds like par for the course for an old house. Its a bit pathetic that nobody has bothered to look inside the roof though. Lazyness.

Windows sound like they're easy to repair.

 

[dunc]

Hi,
Houses built around this period were generally built 'one brick thick' ie 9 inches thick. Never heard or seen a finger width cavity and it would serve no real purpose!! If it did exist both skin would need to be tied together to stop them moving apart. It is possible that the house has no real foundations and was built with lime mortar [will be almost whit and easy to scrape out]. The house will settle in time allowing cracks to appear, generally lime mortars 'give' a lot more than cement based mortars and therefore more forgiving. Where the walls go the roof will follow! Roof spread can be incorrect wood structure. ie if the rafters are not tied from one side to the other the weight of the roof will spread the rafters.
As to dampproof course, these were sometimes poured as liquid tar and they do breakdown. This can be replaced by chemical injection. In the short term make sure that the out side ground level is well below the inside floor level. Take up a floor board close to an outside wall and have a gander for damp and rot etc. Digging a channel around the outside and filling with gravel will reduce uptake of damp. Incidentally all domestic dwellings need a damprooof course!!!

In terms of seriousness this depends very much on how much damage the damp has done and how far the walls have moved. A simple 'plumb bob' is the easiest way to see how far walls are out of plumb and a piece of string fro bowed walls! Damp? Get an expert in but have a few boards up so they can see under the ground floor.
Let me know how you get on!

Dunc

 

[Thermo]

on the face of it sounds like surveyour covering his arse as most of it is could be and maybes.
the movement is normal for a house of that age, and so is the roof spread, but it may have been exagerated if the original tiles or slates have been rep;laced with concrete ones

windows rot, its a fact of life, but its caused by the damp they face on the outside and is not usually a symptom of damp in the walls. damp meters are about as much use as a current bun in a gun fight. the only true way to measure the damp is with a core reading of the wall. if you have any doubts i would get a builder to have a look, but there is not really anything concrete there that would worry me on a house that has been standing all that time.

hes probably guessing at the cavity, ans some old houses did have them, but they werent common place till the 20's.

still if you get the extra advice (dont go to a damp firm for a second opinion!) and your happy with the house, its something to negotiate over

 

[nstreet]

Can't really comment on your survey, but from only from experience. We had a homebuyers report done on our 1960's peoprty. The report stated that a flat roof needed urgent attention and should be replaced immediately. Two years later it is still sound

There was no mention of the settlement cracking which we found after we had moved in. This was visible on the exterior wall, behind some hedging.

There was no mention of the broken window frames, which we discovered after we moved in. Most of the old aluminium windows when opened almost fell completely off their hinges.

I think they find most of the obvious things and then cover their backsides, but I don't think they are very thorough, esppecially for the money outlaid.