Mrs Skyhook-to-be
Member
- Messages
- 3
- Location
- South
Hello forum, newbie’s first post introducing myself and ‘about-to-be-ours’ house so please be gentle with me.
We are in the process of buying a Victorian, unlisted, four-storey, 3 bed mid-terrace built in 1898. The vendor is a property developer who has ripped out everything that made the house Victorian inside (if there ever was anything – I think it is only a mill-worker’s house so probably wouldn’t have been covered in plaster mouldings etc). All the fireplaces have gone, even though there are blocked-up chimney breasts in every room. The windows have been replaced with PVCu monstrosities (although I think this was done a few years ago). The old coal shute leading to the front of the basement (below pavement level) has been concreted in and the resultant mess encroaching into the basement covered with green plasterboard (waterproof?) and hidden within a built-in cupboard.
The kitchen at the back of the basement (at garden level) has some fairly severe damp on the new (undoubtedly gypsum based) plaster. The vendor was about to hack off this plaster (which was only put up within the last 4 months) and have it tanked. We have managed to persuade him to hack off the plaster on the affected walls up to counter-top height and then just leave it to see what happens. He was a bit bemused by this (presumably most buyers just want the damp gone and don’t much care how that is achieved or whether it will work in the long term). We don’t want any waterproofing and replastering done as I think sealing moisture into brick walls is a Very Bad Idea ™.
The kitchen floor is new 4” insulated concrete tiled over with ceramic tiles, the grouting of which looks ok and not damp. The north-east facing garden is paved, several inches higher than next door’s garden and no more than 10mm below the DPC. We have arranged with the vendor that he will remove the section of the patio that directly adjoins the house and excavate down to at least two brick courses below the DPC – for some reason he thought the ground could be up to three brick courses ABOVE the DPC (wonder where he learned that one?). There is no other damp in the house that I can see, except for the back wall of the WC which is off the rear of the kitchen and is almost certainly caused by splashback from the patio. The rear downpipe is cast iron and probably perforated at the back as the damp is encroaching into the party wall between the kitchen and next door on the downpipe/drain side of the house, although it hasn’t got as far as the chimney breast and is no higher up the wall than counter-top height. The drain itself has been professionally checked with cameras and has been deemed perfectly ok.
The roof appears sound, as do the gutters etc. There is no discernible damp in the attic bedrooms or the first floor. The bathroom on the first floor (which would have been a bedroom in times past) is amazing – 14’ x 13’, has a shower cubicle like something out of Star Trek, an oval bath on chrome feet in the middle of the room and his and hers sinks (I think my other half just wanted this house for the bathroom *grin *). The attic bedrooms share an en suite shower room, and there is another en suite shower room off the sitting room on the ground floor. There is also a basement WC off the rear lobby so I can see we’ll need lots of Toilet Duck!
Eventually I would like to replace the PVCu windows with proper wood framed sash units, pull out the blocked-up coal shute and fit a pavement-level window to the top of it (there is a small buffer garden to the front of the property and the house next door already has the kind of window I am thinking of , so I can’t see any problems with planning permission etc) and replace all the fireplaces. A friend is giving me her old gas-fired range, and I’d like to fit that into the chimney breast/recess in the kitchen if a) it will fit and b) it’s easy (and doesn’t damage the fabric of the house) to take out the plasterboard the owner presumably used to block it up. This will be a very long-term project, as I want to also be able to live in it with my husband to be *grin * We don’t have much money at the moment, and this is the only period house in the area that we can afford which already has the plumbing, heating and electrics newly installed – taking on a complete renovation is not a possibility at this point in time.
I’d like to thank everybody who has ever contributed to a thread regarding damp on this site, as I educated myself about how old houses work, how modern materials don’t work with old houses and what is the proper thing to do about damp in an old house from those posts and any links they contained. All that advice and information has been absolutely invaluable over the last week or so while we dithered about whether or not to buy this house. We are forewarned about idiot surveyors, damp ‘specialists’ and builders who only know how to fix modern houses; we know far more about how to do the correct job ourselves, and we are far more comfortable about taking this house on than we were a week ago. Many thanks to all.
We are in the process of buying a Victorian, unlisted, four-storey, 3 bed mid-terrace built in 1898. The vendor is a property developer who has ripped out everything that made the house Victorian inside (if there ever was anything – I think it is only a mill-worker’s house so probably wouldn’t have been covered in plaster mouldings etc). All the fireplaces have gone, even though there are blocked-up chimney breasts in every room. The windows have been replaced with PVCu monstrosities (although I think this was done a few years ago). The old coal shute leading to the front of the basement (below pavement level) has been concreted in and the resultant mess encroaching into the basement covered with green plasterboard (waterproof?) and hidden within a built-in cupboard.
The kitchen at the back of the basement (at garden level) has some fairly severe damp on the new (undoubtedly gypsum based) plaster. The vendor was about to hack off this plaster (which was only put up within the last 4 months) and have it tanked. We have managed to persuade him to hack off the plaster on the affected walls up to counter-top height and then just leave it to see what happens. He was a bit bemused by this (presumably most buyers just want the damp gone and don’t much care how that is achieved or whether it will work in the long term). We don’t want any waterproofing and replastering done as I think sealing moisture into brick walls is a Very Bad Idea ™.
The kitchen floor is new 4” insulated concrete tiled over with ceramic tiles, the grouting of which looks ok and not damp. The north-east facing garden is paved, several inches higher than next door’s garden and no more than 10mm below the DPC. We have arranged with the vendor that he will remove the section of the patio that directly adjoins the house and excavate down to at least two brick courses below the DPC – for some reason he thought the ground could be up to three brick courses ABOVE the DPC (wonder where he learned that one?). There is no other damp in the house that I can see, except for the back wall of the WC which is off the rear of the kitchen and is almost certainly caused by splashback from the patio. The rear downpipe is cast iron and probably perforated at the back as the damp is encroaching into the party wall between the kitchen and next door on the downpipe/drain side of the house, although it hasn’t got as far as the chimney breast and is no higher up the wall than counter-top height. The drain itself has been professionally checked with cameras and has been deemed perfectly ok.
The roof appears sound, as do the gutters etc. There is no discernible damp in the attic bedrooms or the first floor. The bathroom on the first floor (which would have been a bedroom in times past) is amazing – 14’ x 13’, has a shower cubicle like something out of Star Trek, an oval bath on chrome feet in the middle of the room and his and hers sinks (I think my other half just wanted this house for the bathroom *grin *). The attic bedrooms share an en suite shower room, and there is another en suite shower room off the sitting room on the ground floor. There is also a basement WC off the rear lobby so I can see we’ll need lots of Toilet Duck!
Eventually I would like to replace the PVCu windows with proper wood framed sash units, pull out the blocked-up coal shute and fit a pavement-level window to the top of it (there is a small buffer garden to the front of the property and the house next door already has the kind of window I am thinking of , so I can’t see any problems with planning permission etc) and replace all the fireplaces. A friend is giving me her old gas-fired range, and I’d like to fit that into the chimney breast/recess in the kitchen if a) it will fit and b) it’s easy (and doesn’t damage the fabric of the house) to take out the plasterboard the owner presumably used to block it up. This will be a very long-term project, as I want to also be able to live in it with my husband to be *grin * We don’t have much money at the moment, and this is the only period house in the area that we can afford which already has the plumbing, heating and electrics newly installed – taking on a complete renovation is not a possibility at this point in time.
I’d like to thank everybody who has ever contributed to a thread regarding damp on this site, as I educated myself about how old houses work, how modern materials don’t work with old houses and what is the proper thing to do about damp in an old house from those posts and any links they contained. All that advice and information has been absolutely invaluable over the last week or so while we dithered about whether or not to buy this house. We are forewarned about idiot surveyors, damp ‘specialists’ and builders who only know how to fix modern houses; we know far more about how to do the correct job ourselves, and we are far more comfortable about taking this house on than we were a week ago. Many thanks to all.
