1850's Cottage

[Helen-gh]

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post here and I have spent weeks reading through your wealth of knowledge after having experienced the usual round of surveyor says damp, damp and timber company survey quote ridiculous amounts for horrid chemical DPC, mortgage company retain funds until work done nonsense, whilst attempting to buy our lovely cottage.

Thankfully following your advice, my husband and I hired an independent surveyor who said that no such work was needed, but he did find localised damp which looks like condensation in a few spots and some quite bad areas of damp and wet rot under the stairs which is very poorly ventilated. Thankfully the mortgage company have accepted this with no retention! We are hoping to complete by the end of the month.

My husband and I have very much fallen in love with our cottage and want to do the very best by it. Sadly the poor house has already been DPC injected, tanked and UPVC double glazed to within an inch of it's life
The wet rot and damp under the stairs really needs attending to urgently and I suspect are caused by the walls either side having been injected, concentrating all the moisture into one area. My feeling is ventilate, dry out replace timbers, open the chimneys and dig out the raised ground levels to the end of the house - see picture - as a start!


BUT my fear is that as the whole house has been injected already, it's breathability may have been so disturbed that it may not recover. It is not rendered but has certainly been painted. The external ground levels are up to 3' higher than the internal floor in places and the land belongs to neighbour so no guarantee they will let us dig it out, although currently it's not used -so fingers crossed. That wall is dry though (tanked), the problem wall is the other side of the house. It is totally against my instinct to inject the small area under the stairs, but given that it's the ONLY bit of the house that has not been done, is it realistically our only option now? Or is there always hope even with such damage inflicted? Surprisingly, most of the house inside is very dry and totally livable whilst we sort out issues

So sorry for the long post and hoping that I don't sound like a duffer!

Helen

 

[PeterI]

Looks nice (apart from the uPVC) currently going though the same damp pain on our purchase with the mortgage folks.

Getting the place ventilated properly will help and hopefully the DPC hasn't caused the problems.

Giving this a quick bump as well as moderation means your early posts appear down the list.

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

Helen-gh,

Welcome to the forum. Lovely looking house, which must be breathing a huge sigh of relief at the prospect of having owners who will start to treat it properly!

I'd start with plenty of ventilation, and heat. Remove anything that would obstruct airflow below the stairs. If external ground levels can be dealt with that will certainly help. Did I mention ventilation and heat? And patience. See how it looks in 6 months.

Any woodwork which is obviously rotten (i.e. stick fingers in) will need to be removed, but proceed with care and deliberation. Lots to read on here, and elsewhere, to develop your knowledge about these things.

I'd not worry too much about the dpc, but time will tell. Has it been re-plastered inside with waterproof plaster, maybe cement render? Usually they do a strip a metre high around the base of the wall - this may trap moisture within the brickwork. Most importantly what is the composition and condition of external pointing? If its cement-based then it won't be helping with evaporation, and ought to be replaced with lime. Having a vapour permeable outer envelope is really important. The nature of the external paint will have an effect too.

 

[andrew gayton]

permeable external envelope - this has to include the ground floor construction also.

 

[Flyfisher]

Based on some of the things I've read about injected DPCs, I don't think I'd worry too much about it because they don't seem to work anyway. You may well have a series of holes plugged up with waterproofing stuff, but its unlikely that the stuff has properly permeated the walls between the holes to form a complete waterproof layer. Time will tell, but there are plenty of other good suggestions above to be getting on with.

Welcome to the forum by the way.

 

[andrew gayton]

every injection dpc that I have seen has been paired up with 1.5m high 1:3 sand and cement render with salt inhibitor/waterproofing additive - otherwise the company will not offer a guarantee (that is telling in itself) - with top coat in gypsum. get rid of this and see what the floor make-up is and go from there. external film forming paints can be removed with either stripper or heat although a gentle blast with chalk/polystyrene can work also. might be worth investigating where downpipes and drains run and ensuring that they work. also remove external hardstanding against walling. Your issue re adjacant land ownership and levels reminds me of such an instance where the adjacant owner let the property owner do the following: reduce ground level to equal/below internal (dependant on footing) make a 300 x 300mm trench and fill with 25mm + stone with a geo textile wrap to prevent migration of soil. If this is not possible, you could request permission to excavate and then place a 300mm x walling width section/s of box profile roofing sheet against the wall which will allow some ventilation.

 

[Helen-gh]

Thanks Everyone for your replies, welcomes and advive so far, and thanks for reassuring me that all is not lost The house has been a holiday let for sometime, and empty for much of the last year so I am sure that a sporadic heating and ventialtion routine has not helped at all. Our first job will be to have all the windows permanently cracked and re-open the blocked fireplace for an open fire this winter and a woodburner as soon as we can can afford it.

Sadly yes, the finish inside looks very much like a modern plaster job, upstairs and down. The down stairs was completely injected, the plaster hacked off and replaced with cement and gypsum nasties in the last two years - some of which has blown already so ha! to the damproof course! The retaining wall has been tanked (is that the right word?) down the length of the house, but when you knock that wall it sounds hollow and has vents at ground level so I am assuming that it's a plasterboard wall of some sort rather than a cement render job - does that make sense? No idea when that was done but it was before the previous owner, and internally at least is the driest wall in house so other than digging out the ground levels externally if at all possible that will stay put as it is for a while at least! Who knows whats lurking behind there though.

The pointing is currently servicable according to the independent surveyor although he did flag a few areas that could do with re-doing. I should imagine we will get to do that in time. I should imagine it is cement, but havent investigated. How would I tell the difference? Sorry if that's an obvious question!

In the meantime, what HAS happened to the fire place? It's huge! Boarded with hardboard at the moment but not sealed up. But I am assuming that the room will just fill with smoke if I get it swept and tested and just stick a basket in there temporarily? Apologies for the estate agents crappy picture.


Should it look more like this? This is next door. Again shameless use of estate agent pics as I dont have my own yet. I cant help thinking it's been extended to make a feature which is rather odd and not particularly functional, particularly as the brickwork looks rather new and is also hollow behind (it's the retaining wall). Confusing as the lintel looks old.

 

[elizabeth]

Hi Helen, welcome ,

you have a lovely looking cottage and it's good you have a plan of action in mind. We, like yourselves, have one wall with soil banked against it by the neighbours garden. Someone happened to mention to me the 'The Party Wall Act' and the right, so I'm lead to believe, that if it is causing structuaral damage to your property , then you can ask for it to be lowered. Don't quote me on this as we are looking in to this as a last reseort. We would like to stay on friendly terms with our neighbours. But it would certainly help to have a trench dug and with a retaining wall if needed. Good ventilation and heating will be a big help. We look forward to your updates and we will let you know how we get on ourselves with approaching the neighbours. (Gulp!)

 

[Zebra]

The pointing is currently servicable according to the independent surveyor although he did flag a few areas that could do with re-doing. I should imagine we will get to do that in time. I should imagine it is cement, but havent investigated. How would I tell the difference? Sorry if that's an obvious question!

I believe the standard test is to dig a small piece out and pop it in vinegar. If it fizzes, it's lime. If it sits there looking at you, it's cement.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Hello Helen, and welcome
Neither of the fireplaces is genuine (but as it wasn't you who did it, I won't hold it against you). In a house of that period, there would have been conventional, but simple, mantlepieces and grates, not undersized inglenooks.

 

[AMc]

Welcome to the forum.

The power point in the upper picture inside the fireplace doesn't appear to have an cable "trunked" to it over the surface which means it's hidden behind the brick...somewhere. That suggests that part of the wall is modern or has recently been rebuilt in front of the wiring. That in itself would lend caution to the idea of just opening up the boarding and starting a fire. If the electrician has assumed the fireplace is non functioning there may be cables in the stack - this is what has happened in one of our "fireplaces" where the upper sections of the stack were removed. I can clearly see cables tacked across if I stick my head up there.

If you're long term plan is to have a woodburner then I would organise some local companies to come around and quote for the work. This shouldn't cost you a penny and will get some expert opinion on the state of the chimney stack and its suitability as well as helping you plan your budget. I wouldn't immediately open it up as creating a big hole in the room which is designed to draw out hot air will not help your fuel bills or the affordability of the new woodburner. I would get the house (!) and then organise some quotes and pencil this in for next summer. I know the idea of a roaring fire in your new cottage at Christmas is appealing, but I would live with it as it is this winter.

As others have said if the understairs is damp then get it ventilated and apply patience before any other treatment. If you can get the keys from the agent then I would go for a look around and leave the door open when you leave .
I wouldn't worry about the injected damp proofing one way or the other until you've been there a bit, it may be less of an issue than you think once you've been in a few months heating and ventilating.

Good luck - looks like it will be lovely!

 

[Helen-gh]

Thanks Gareth and Zebra - that's really helpful.

The power point in the upper picture inside the fireplace doesn't appear to have an cable "trunked" to it over the surface which means it's hidden behind the brick...somewhere. That suggests that part of the wall is modern or has recently been rebuilt in front of the wiring. That in itself would lend caution to the idea of just opening up the boarding and starting a fire. If the electrician has assumed the fireplace is non functioning there may be cables in the stack - this is what has happened in one of our "fireplaces" where the upper sections of the stack were removed. I can clearly see cables tacked across if I stick my head up there.

Yes... knock the back wall of the fire place and it sounds hollow. It's definitely not the original wall. Powercables up the stack :roll: what a stupid thing to do!! Thanks for the note of caution. Luckily we have a lovely small woodburner company locally who come highly recommended, who're going to come and do a quote for us as soon as we move in. I suspect we will be rebuilding that fire place! :lol:

Elizabeth, please do let us know how you get on with whatever you decide to do. There seem to have been been some inventive solutions tried on here and I would definitely be interested to hear more.

 

[AMc]

Thanks Gareth and Zebra - that's really helpful.

Yes... knock the back wall of the fire place and it sounds hollow. It's definitely not the original wall. Powercables up the stack :roll: what a stupid thing to do!!

Not once you've removed the chimney stack between the ground floor and the loft - it's never going to be used again so I can see why the sparks used an existing opening over messing about lifting floorboards or taking down ceilings
Now removing a chimney stack so you can move a doorway - that's an odd choice...

 

[Helen-gh]

Ah... well that makes a little more sense. Although not the moving of a door part - how odd!

Whilst on the subject of fireplaces, can anyone tell me, as my husband and I cannot agree, whether there would have been an open fireplace in the bedroom of a property of that age and size? The Chimney breast goes through the bedroom. Hubby says 'no' as it was a tiny one up, one down originally with two fireplaces being too expensive to run for what were probably pretty poor folk. But I am not sure so sure and suspect that it has been bricked up at some point.

 

[plasticpigeon]

This is a guess as I don't know much about your type of house, and I cant see the chimney on the end wall, but the one up the party wall looks like it is wide enough for 2 flues which would make me think there were 2 fireplaces. I assume the stack on the party wall is for the neighbour, is your chimney similarly wide?

 

[Helen-gh]

Yes the one on the party wall is the neighbors. We have no fireplaces or chimney breasts that side of the house. Our chimney on the end of the house is the same if not a little larger.

 

[steveb]

we had a fireplace in all 4 rooms of our late 1700s 2 up 2 down farmworkers cottage so I see no reason why not

A pic of the side of the bedroom fireplace can just be seen (posted on another thread but linked here)

If there was a fireplace it would be offcentre - to one side of the breast as the flue for the downstairs one will run along one side.

-Steve