Owning your own home

Finally completed after many months.
Champagne supplied by Vince of this parish.

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Well done!

Hoping to get in contract within the next week, and move in in a fortnight.

Had some 'fun' with the mortgage arrangement but it's apparently now all good, just waiting for admin stuff to be completed.

Fingers and toes crossed.

Need more information about the exact location of the damp; symmetrical on the wall, are you mid terrace, how far down the wall does it come, what is your wall currently covered with?

Also, what is the structure externally of your roof with respect to where the damp is? Are there lead gulley/valleys where the damp is being detected?

I'm not an expert at all, but we had a lot of damp in our house...

Rich, good luck!

You buying in Edinburgh?

What @Apone said. Had a very similar experience.

If possible, knock it down and start again - cheaper in the long run.

Cheers, and yes - moving up there awfully soon.

Congrats...
But... a table?

I thought the rules were "fish and chips out of the paper on an upturned box" on moving day?

Mostly reiterating the points already made, but here's my success story against the War on Damp. We bought a ground floor flat 18 months ago. It's built with nicely absorbent cheap Victorian bricks. Last winter we were wiping down some parts of the walls with rags almost daily to dry them. This winter the walls were mostly dry. Tips:

• go outside when it's raining and look at where the water is going. The roofer may have missed something.
  
• hang as much washing as possible outside.
  
• wipe down condensation off windows each morning.
  
• windows and doors open all the time.
  
• breathe in inside, breathe out outside.
  

Probably going to have this plastic roof replaced with a slightly sturdier polycarbonate version, as it's about a grand more than doing the door on its own. I would inform the neighbors prior to work obviously, but do I need to do it in some kind of legally formal way? I will not be changing the wall particularly, but it will be drill / fixed in to. It's just open to garden on their side, with another skin of bricks part way up and rendered (not amazingly well)

Also, should I consider any work to the interior of the wall to prevent damp? It doesn't suffer from condensation at the moment, but it's fairly cool out there. I imagine it'll be a step warmer after the work, though not heated, and we'll be drying clothes out there. I will have a solar powered fan installed in the new roof to draw air through from under the house as most of the vent bricks are enclosed by it.

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In theory you should have a party wall agreement in place as you are attaching something to a shared wall. However, it looks fairly lightweight what you are fitting, so perhaps if your neighbours are friendly then they won't object to you updating/repairing the existing structure.

Not just a table. An arcade machine.

We're in a semi and the damp is on the wall nearest to the detached side but on the front facing wall. There is a pillar-like structure in that corner so the front of the house doesn't internally corner directly to the side of the house of that makes sense. The damp is above the window and just before where the external wall meets that alcove square pillar. The damp only comes down about 2 ft from the ceiling and it is not reading that high but does seem to go up after it rains. Only two measurements have been taken so far though and the room is damp at the mo anyway from the rest of the plaster drying out on the ceiling and other walls.

I can see that the plaster on that wall is newer than the rest of the old plaster in the room so it must have been an issue before at some stage.

The outside of the house is rendered at the front but there are no visible cracks in that area. There is wood running along the outside though (in that area) so I'm wondering if water is resting between the wood and the render and slowly permeating...

I can't see any lead valleys but the roofer didn't think that was a problem. It does seem to be where two slopes of roofs meet though which initially made me think it was the valley. I might have to get another roofer out. It would seem strange for the roofer not to be honest when it comes to securing a job though which is what made me trust him.

Thanks for your reply.

I never see condensation on the windows or walls which makes me worry that it is a structural issue. Logic would say it's coming from the roof but being told by the roofer that it's not has fucked that up that conclusion. I'm now thinking it must be coming from the outside wall where there is wood attached.

My builder doesn't have any suggestions so I'm tempted to either keep airing it more often and see if it changes things or alternatively get someone out to check the rendering and if not then get another roofer in.

It's over 100 years old and the wall that is affected is rendered.

Many solid brick houses like yours would have originally had a vent or airbrick fitted exactly where you describe to stop condensation forming, as it's the coldest bit of the house. The new plaster might actually be where such a vent was removed... Has the wood been added? Link to streetview?

The reading might be going up after rain because it's generally colder when it rains so more condensation forms.

This is a half-decent quick bit of reading: http://www.heritage-house.org/about-condensation.html

Looks like we are going to lose our flat. After 3 months of wrangling with the vendor over price, and agreeing something we are all happy with, the transition from "in principle" mortgage offer to real has not happened as smoothly as we wanted. The bank have an issue with one of my wife's bank statements. we cannot seem to convince them it is an anomaly and they don't want to see history. Might just go back to renting forever. Will be mailing all further shits I do, to nationwide head office.

Vent over

Oh dear. Sorry to hear that.

In other, awkwardly timed, news; we exchanged today. Been slow slow slow but we are finally there. Not moving til 8th July but that has always been the proposed date, hence the pace.

Champers.

This went on the market at 550k, tiny new build, two bed next door to my flat in Lewisham, the world's gone mad.

http://m.zoopla.co.uk/new-homes/details/40429514?search_identifier=bb5e22664a040f01db49741ff371263c

I work for NBS, you should see what happens when people email the CEO with a complaint. Give it a go.

Thanks, will do in the morning. Thought we were away, mortgage is 4x which I didn't think would cause any problem!

It won't sell because brexit. Don't you read the papers?

It can all be very computer says no.

We had a problem when the lender noticed that Mrs Hedge had paid off her credit card balance by bank transfer rather than wait for the direct debit to action. This was categorised as undeclared major spending and assumed to be a undeclared credit card. Our broker managed to pull their hand away from the decline button...it was a close run thing.

All for paying a bill early. Luckily they saw sense.

Comiserations. We had a buy strung out for a similar length of time before falling through and it's not in any way fun. Lots of time and money down the drain.

Have slung a whole load of additional information at them now regarding savings and account management over a longer period, hoping it will be enough to swing them in the right direction, otherwise we are in the shit. Broker is in direct contact with the underwriter too. Feeling pretty awful as the vendor is now in talks with their new home and this will be the third time the sale will have fallen through on them.