I've learnt so much by reading the posts here in the last twenty four hours than I have manually researching online. Thanks everyone for your valuable knowledge and experience!
I'm frankly in love with a property, but it isn't going to be head over heart and I'm prepared to walk away if necessary. The property has a lot of downsides (and lots of upsides, but for now, let's focus on the negatives!)
- lots of damp issues around the house in the upstairs floor in a house which has been left vacant I believe for a while
- rooms have been rented separately
- long-distance absentee owners who have rented it out for years/decades.
- it hasn't been well maintained, and everything has been done on the cheap, poor attempts at repointing some brickwork, bad paint jobs with everything painted white including some air bricks with old photos showing tins of dulux lying around, really cheap carpet down (would love to expose the original floorboards if possible), cheap kitchen etc. This is least of my concerns but I think reflects on the condition of the property.
- it runs almost north to south, rectangle with thin side at the top and north in top right corner, the other semi is on the west side perpendicular direction so there are somewhat gloomy parts in the house.
- the original listing stated 'cash buyers preferred'. I'm not sure if this hints towards huge issues with e.g. the roof or just for a fast sale.
It was originally on the market aug 23 and from looking at photos of it back then, the damp mainly seemed a lot better than it is now with some exceptions, so I'm hoping that it's just because it's been vacant and everything has been shut up for so long that it's become worse, but I'm aware that problems could compound creating bigger issues.
Let's start externally and work inwards!
These crumbling bricks scare me. Covered in grey, I'd assume the stone work was up to that level, and the water permeated through the stone into the brick and stayed there causing it to crumble? I looked on street maps and it's been the current height since at least 2009. Interestingly, the neighbours on the other side (semi) seem to have similar but not as bad issues. The middle air brick is completely loose. I'm going to shine a light in there when I can - should I be able to see the underfloor timber there if it hasn't been ripped out and concreted over (something I've learnt from reading on here and boggles my mind that someone could do that) There are steps leading up to the house, so Looking at google street view, there's a lot of grass / green stuff growing there in the summer months. I would like to get rid of the rubble that's piled high up against the house for a decorative thing. Next-door has a tradesman entrance about middle of this image under the stone work, so who knows what's there!
On the inside there seems to be a gap under the door as if it either wasn't hung properly, or something else. The hinges don't seem to be parallel with the door frame!
The vestibule has this weird mat thing down - why might that be there?
This is one of the gloomy corners on ground floor with the damp running across a wide chimney breast. This also appears in old photos so could it be hygroscopic salts rather than damp? it is clearly at the right height I guess for damp, but as it doesn't appear to have changed from the photos since 2023, maybe it isn't?
On the half-floor is a large damp stain on the very high ceiling (3-3.5M at a guess), this somewhat scares me, but I'd be unable to get inside the attic to see what's going on (not that I know where the shaft actually is!). The last image here shows damp on a chimney breast inside a bedroom on the half floor. The fireplace area has just pieces of wood slapped over it, so maybe it hasn't been blocked up / filled?
Now, this is where things get messy, the top floor and I need to start a new post!
I'm frankly in love with a property, but it isn't going to be head over heart and I'm prepared to walk away if necessary. The property has a lot of downsides (and lots of upsides, but for now, let's focus on the negatives!)
- lots of damp issues around the house in the upstairs floor in a house which has been left vacant I believe for a while
- rooms have been rented separately
- long-distance absentee owners who have rented it out for years/decades.
- it hasn't been well maintained, and everything has been done on the cheap, poor attempts at repointing some brickwork, bad paint jobs with everything painted white including some air bricks with old photos showing tins of dulux lying around, really cheap carpet down (would love to expose the original floorboards if possible), cheap kitchen etc. This is least of my concerns but I think reflects on the condition of the property.
- it runs almost north to south, rectangle with thin side at the top and north in top right corner, the other semi is on the west side perpendicular direction so there are somewhat gloomy parts in the house.
- the original listing stated 'cash buyers preferred'. I'm not sure if this hints towards huge issues with e.g. the roof or just for a fast sale.
It was originally on the market aug 23 and from looking at photos of it back then, the damp mainly seemed a lot better than it is now with some exceptions, so I'm hoping that it's just because it's been vacant and everything has been shut up for so long that it's become worse, but I'm aware that problems could compound creating bigger issues.
Let's start externally and work inwards!
These crumbling bricks scare me. Covered in grey, I'd assume the stone work was up to that level, and the water permeated through the stone into the brick and stayed there causing it to crumble? I looked on street maps and it's been the current height since at least 2009. Interestingly, the neighbours on the other side (semi) seem to have similar but not as bad issues. The middle air brick is completely loose. I'm going to shine a light in there when I can - should I be able to see the underfloor timber there if it hasn't been ripped out and concreted over (something I've learnt from reading on here and boggles my mind that someone could do that) There are steps leading up to the house, so Looking at google street view, there's a lot of grass / green stuff growing there in the summer months. I would like to get rid of the rubble that's piled high up against the house for a decorative thing. Next-door has a tradesman entrance about middle of this image under the stone work, so who knows what's there!
On the inside there seems to be a gap under the door as if it either wasn't hung properly, or something else. The hinges don't seem to be parallel with the door frame!
The vestibule has this weird mat thing down - why might that be there?
This is one of the gloomy corners on ground floor with the damp running across a wide chimney breast. This also appears in old photos so could it be hygroscopic salts rather than damp? it is clearly at the right height I guess for damp, but as it doesn't appear to have changed from the photos since 2023, maybe it isn't?
On the half-floor is a large damp stain on the very high ceiling (3-3.5M at a guess), this somewhat scares me, but I'd be unable to get inside the attic to see what's going on (not that I know where the shaft actually is!). The last image here shows damp on a chimney breast inside a bedroom on the half floor. The fireplace area has just pieces of wood slapped over it, so maybe it hasn't been blocked up / filled?
Now, this is where things get messy, the top floor and I need to start a new post!
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