Narrowly avoided the injector!

[Budgerigar]

Hello all,

Firstly, sorry for another newbie damp post! I am currently in the process of buying my first house, a c.1850 mid-terraced cottage, and have been reading the forum with interest. It was two cottages which have been knocked together and is damp on most of the ground floor walls (including internal walls) and concrete floors. After we got our survey back, the estate agent was going to arrange a free damp and timber report by a contractor - this rang alarm bells for me, and looking into it further, it is likely that this company only offer injected damp proof courses. The house has been injected in the past, but it appears to have failed.

I have since been thinking (after reading here) that getting into the house, ventilating and getting it nice and warm, fixing the broken gutter, stripping the walls of all the boarding out and lining to see whats' going on, making sure external ground levels are lower than internal floors and then removing concrete floors would be the best way to start. Does this sound like a logical approach, or would it be wise to get someone local and experienced with this type of property to give their assessment?

We have budgeted about £3000 to get it sorted, but is there a worst case scenario in which it could cost vastly more than this to remedy? Not sure if it's possible to answer that! It seems that if you haven't yet completed, companies charge to come out and give their opinions, and I can see why, but I don't really want to pay someone to come out if they're not going to get to the root cause, and are just going to recommend injecting. And at the same time, I'm unsure how to go about finding a decent company in my area (East Yorkshire). Any suggestions would be very welcome! Thank you for reading.

 

[plasticpigeon]

I hate to say it but £3000 doesn't go far! Fixing the gutter and ground levels is a must. I don't like concrete floors but plenty of houses have them (even old ones which have been retrofitted in place of timber) and seem to be ok, so if dosh is tight, don't plan to go in all guns blazing. Fix the worst stuff and give it a bit of time. Are you good at DIY and are you willing to do a lot yourself?

 

[Lime]

If you are doing the work yourself the greatest expense will be the cost of treated timber for the floor.
It doesn't have to break the bank and phoning round wood merchants/yards for a quote, giving quantity, size and specification, will often come up with a better, competitive quote rather than walking in and asking.
That advice applies to most building work materials and no one single firm will be the most competitive, it will vary depending on what you want at the time.
i.e. Don't assume the nails will be the cheapest where you get the best quote for the wood.

 

[Budgerigar]

Thank you very much for the replies. We do plan to do a lot of this ourselves, with quite a bit of help from my dad, so we will be able to cut costs a bit. When we initially looked, we thought the floors were OK, but the surveyor noticed one or two were actually damp. I think our limited funds will mean we will be living with the floors as they are for a while anyway! Would be great if correcting the guttering and ground levels sorted it, but I'm not optimistic.

I will certianly be very careful sourcing materials - my dad has some local contacts and is a bit of a hoarder of reclaimed materials so hoping we will be able to save a bit here too. Can't wait to get in now!

 

[MatthewC]

Your own assessment sounds fine, so I suggest that you trust your instincts (and this forum!) rather than try to get someone in to give an assessment. However, I agree with PP that it is liable to cost a lot more than £3,000, so you must prioritize as he says. Removing all the boarding is a great idea, but one that could then commit you to re-plastering every room (and that won't be cheap), so I suggest you only do it on the worst room and see what it's like.

Good luck!

Matthew

 

[JoceAndChris]

Good luck with your purchase and well done for avoiding the injectors!

I'm not all that clear about whether it really is damp (smell of damp, black mould spots, fungi, plaster and paint peeling or falling off, wet walls) or whether you have been told it's damp by the damp merchants. If the latter then very little may need doing - of course fixing gutters and checking out the roof is very important, as well as addressing any leaking pipes. But I'd live in the house at least a year before beginning any dismantling, which may be unnecessary and will surely be more than 3k to put right.

 

[Budgerigar]

Thank you both. I just saw the packed out walls (like a dado rail with extra layers of plasterboard I presume?), some ripply lining paper and a couple of patches of salts and presumed damp. It doesn't smell or feel damp to the touch (although I didn't notice the floor so that might be) but was picked up with a moisture meter. I am really hoping that fixing the gutter and making sure ground levels are OK will make a difference, but not sure that will help the internal walls. The 'live with it for a year' approach is quite a relief, honestly, and will mean we can save up a bit more. I'd ideally like to get rid of the concrete floors and replace with limecrete and possibly an underfloor heating system, but we will see! Many thanks again.