Owning your own home

True. There are plenty of people to "sort" damp problems.

They are doing ours on site which gives them a bunch of efficiencies but gives us a weeks worth of sanding & construction noise and dust.

Glad we got them going on it, they found more rot than we expected / initially identified. Can all be saved though.

t is saveable, as our surveyor said it can be repaired when the flat was looked at, but be good to replace the windows with a decent double glazing regardless.

Depends if you have better things to spend the money on, but yeah, if it's burning a hole in your pocket.

Victorian

yeah this - it's such a pain in the ass, Im happy to pay the money to the right person..

No improvement after digging the trench?

FWIW I suspect the ground...at least in London...is still very wet after the crazy rain we had.

We were having our roof done and we went a week or two with no effective guttering which dumped countless litres of water around the front of our gaff... we've had a musty smell from the subfloor since that has only just started to go away over the last couple of very warm days and about a week of running a dehumidifier on full blast.

The ground in my bit of London is very dry at the moment. We have a big hole in the garden that used to be a pond but the liner was badly torn so I removed it and haven't yet put a new one in. It basically acts as a shallow well and shows the ground water level which varies between totally full and bone dry which is where we are at the moment.

We have something similar in the park behind our place that the council dug for drainage - it had standing water in it until a few days ago.

I agree it could be very localised - just down the road from us is Kew that flooded really badly.

Depends if you have better things to spend the money on, but yeah, if it's burning a hole in your pocket.

At the moment we have to fix the ceiling that’s coming down, move the toliet to the bathroom from the outhouse and a new kitchen from Wren.
The new windows will at least cancel all the noise that we used to experience on Stanstead Road, and will actually be a liveable room.

No change at all! Gutted. It seemed to make sense that the render touching ground would draw up moisture beyond the dpc. Also from what I read online was that render should stop a few bricks before ground level.

Today did at least confirm that it is still damp and not stained - his thermal gun was at least useful for that.

cancel all the noise

Most. Our windows are good, but you'll still get some coming through.

Don't want to teach you to suck eggs Ed but I have heard sooo many horror stories about Wren. If you have confidence that they'll be good for you then crack on but tread carefully :)

It's taken our seller three months to give his solicitors the stuff they need to do the contract pack, and a week and a bit since they got it - no draft contracts in sight yet our side.

As a result, looks like we'll not complete before September 30th, and miss the stamp duty holiday.
Tempted to reduce our offer by the £1600 we'll need to pay on that account, but also not sure if it's worth the hassle/risk of the sale falling through (empty house, seller has never seemed in a rush to sell). [Insert grumbling noises]

You could kick up fuck about it, since they have pulled this move. Seems like a shitty move from the seller to take so long!

I know, we already know 5 people with Wren and insofar it work for them.

Good to hear it! Enjoy!

Our windows are good, but you'll still get some coming through.

Our current windows is already good at reducing the noise, and it’s not on the main road, the only kind of noise might go through is those who’s in the car appreciation thread.

Such a bunch of bell ends, but fitters we’re ace.

Getting the windows done will be easy - plenty of people to take your money to do it. I’d be thinking about if the money gives you enough value compared to the others. Don’t rush stuff!

No change at all! Gutted.

The humidity has been really high over the last month - today is the first time I’ve seen it drop below 50%. It might be that stuff won’t even start to dry until a few days of dry air has passed over it.

Yeah we found out the hard way! We also realise we can take our times as they don’t need immediate replacing.

Finding people to sort damp problems is an absolute fucker.

True dat. I was involved in a case a while back involving damp issues. 3 different expert surveyors, all of whom said the dampness was caused by different things. Including the two instructed by the other side, who almost entirely disagreed with each other.

They lost.

Lime render is certainly porous - cement, not so much. If it cracks & lets water in, it's not going to let it out.

The goretex-like stuff they sell doesn't either, and also ruins the softer brickwork of older houses.

How long ago did you dig the trench?

[Edit] Just checked the DIY thread - 2 weeks doesn't seem nearly long enough for damp troubleshooting - I've given our damp problems 6 months plus to see if things are working out.

The green bit could be water being splashed up the wall -the gravel should stop that though (assuming there's no guttering problems above)..

What's on the inside of the house - what flooring is there?

Finding out what's causing damp seems to be trial and error, and often fairly destructive.

I've had floors up, stripped walls (inside and out), glued bits of plastic to things, and dug big holes.

Found the damp though.

Found the damp though.

What was it we have to know don’t leave us in suspense like this