Hi,
I'm new to this forum, and I hope that I am posting in the right place. Please could you guys offer your advice on my damp problem.
I am in the process of buying a house that was constructed circa 1910. We expected our survey to report that some damp had been found but not in the place we expected. Our survey reported that on the front of the house on the RHS a combination of a leaking gutter and blocked gully has caused the RHS bottom corner to have perished brickwork, covered in moss and look damp. Although it looks bad on the outside, inside there is minimal damp and we suspect that if the guttering, gully drain and brickwork are fixed it should (after a while) dry out.
Of more concern is about 2 meters away from this surveyor spotted damp corner of the house, middle of the front facing, about half a meter from the door is another isolated patch of damp that has penetrated inside and has rotted one of the floor joists and is leaving permanent wet patches to the lower wall. The vendor is rectifying the floor joist as part of our contract, but where could this source of damp be coming from (no leaks in the middle of the gutter and no obvious other source)? Its a long way for that little bit of gully water from the corner to travel?
The house is fitted with a blue brick dpc but inspection of the mortar between the blue bricks reveals some of them have mortar missing, does this mean that the dpc is broken? (Searches on the internet have initially indicated that these dpc very rarely fail) Can I buy some blue bricks (of the same size) and replace them if they are? Or would another solution give better results? I should mention that the front dpc is only slightly above the pavement, I guess the pavement (council owned) has got higher over time and there isn't much I can do about that...
Any help would be much appreciated .
Thank you
I'm new to this forum, and I hope that I am posting in the right place. Please could you guys offer your advice on my damp problem.
I am in the process of buying a house that was constructed circa 1910. We expected our survey to report that some damp had been found but not in the place we expected. Our survey reported that on the front of the house on the RHS a combination of a leaking gutter and blocked gully has caused the RHS bottom corner to have perished brickwork, covered in moss and look damp. Although it looks bad on the outside, inside there is minimal damp and we suspect that if the guttering, gully drain and brickwork are fixed it should (after a while) dry out.
Of more concern is about 2 meters away from this surveyor spotted damp corner of the house, middle of the front facing, about half a meter from the door is another isolated patch of damp that has penetrated inside and has rotted one of the floor joists and is leaving permanent wet patches to the lower wall. The vendor is rectifying the floor joist as part of our contract, but where could this source of damp be coming from (no leaks in the middle of the gutter and no obvious other source)? Its a long way for that little bit of gully water from the corner to travel?
The house is fitted with a blue brick dpc but inspection of the mortar between the blue bricks reveals some of them have mortar missing, does this mean that the dpc is broken? (Searches on the internet have initially indicated that these dpc very rarely fail) Can I buy some blue bricks (of the same size) and replace them if they are? Or would another solution give better results? I should mention that the front dpc is only slightly above the pavement, I guess the pavement (council owned) has got higher over time and there isn't much I can do about that...
Any help would be much appreciated .
Thank you