Owning your own home

A ride & beer would be good. Life's calmed down a bit recently, so got a bit of time again.

there is no visual evidence as the property has been entirely refurbed new plaster etc

I think the usual view here is that rising damp / damp meters are all a bit of a con and a tool of snake oil salesmen.

That said, if the property has been plastered really recently you have no idea whether there is obvious damp behind it that’s being covered up, and whether the DPC has been breached by shoddy workmanship.

In the first instance you want to raise queries about the chemical treatment, plastering etc, and ask if they have any photos from before it was plastered.

We got lucky when we bought our place because there was an 18 month old survey from when the neighbours did something to the party wall. Quite useful to see the state of the place before the pre-sale coat of paint and touch ups.

Yeah - "rising damp" is pretty much bullshit peddled by damp "specialists" in order to sell you treatments that dont work.

Those meters are supposed to be used for measuring the water content of wood, other substrates will give widely different and likely inaccurate readings of the water content....

Damp is almost always caused by either condensation, due to poor airflow or penetrating damp - due to poor gutters and damaged rendering etc - or in the case of cellars - from the soil behind the walls....

Airing cupboard got ripped out this week, so taking the opportunity to get the likely knackered diverter valve replaced while there is easy access. Usual small job plumber has gone silent and the one linked to the (increasingly frustrating) builder doesn't want to do. Have resorted to the local Facebook group and a well reviewed chap is on his way over with a new valve. Let's see if I get separate HW and CH after this.

amp is almost always caused by either condensation, due to poor airflow or penetrating damp - due to poor gutters and damaged rendering etc - or in the case of cellars - from the soil behind the walls....

Or just salts in the surface substrate, which will massively change any damp reading.

ask if they have any photos from before it was plastered.

This is a good shout thanks, done.

Yeah this was my feeling at first, but obviously don't want to just plough on and find out I need to strip loads of walls later after we've farrow and balled the place.

Easton/greenbank rather than a small flat in those areas

completely agree. i was visiting friends in Easton at the weekend. a lot of new nice independent places opening which is great. good community vibe. killer roast at the greenbank too!

we are thinking about moving (back) to Bristol when we next move in 2-3 years. might have missed the boat on property prices but can imagine will still be cheaper than Surrey properties

I have pretty similar. It's annoying. Everyone you try to get to diagnose it is a cowboy and it's pretty much impossible to do non-destructively.

Some areas where a possible problem was identified are no issue, some have got worse. We've done some temporary fixes but will need to be properly sorted when we redecorate.

We've finally moved and are now trying to get our heads round what to do with the little £ available and in what order.
We can't even agree on what colour things should be so are thinking of hiring an interior designer to help us.
Does anyone have any recommendations?

Colour is for chumps. Dulux trade white over everything, let your furniture do the talking.

Correct! Although I’m also cautious as it’s the @amey approach too.

Dulux Jasmine white EVERYWHERE, no other colours needed

🙏

let your toddlers and their sticky fingers do the talking

Dulux easycare kitchen paint everywhere

Colour is for chumps. Dulux trade white over everything, let your
furniture do the talking.

So in agreement with this.

As a slightly softer more practical off white: Crown Limewash holds up/touches up well over time.

Whoah, I can imagine few things more frightening. I think I saw that report at the time. Hope all the consequences are sorted out soon.

Also my approach but not sure how it's going to play out in a whole house.

Plan is to offset it with a fair amount of nice wood.

Definitely agree with this this but would add ornaments/accessories:

let your furniture do the talking

@LHL will sort something in a couple of weeks :)

@swedeee Just is it at the peak of an inflated bubble at the moment or is it still a good buy. Almost into Cliftonwood/Horfield price territory in Greenbank now.

There is a terraced house in St Werbs for £575k asking at the moment, in a great bit, even if it is 100m from a trading estate https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/109431920#/

I think some people on here have simplisafe? (or something similar). I've got an ADT alarm at the minute and I'm a bit bored by the monthly cost of it.

It looks like it costs c£20 a month - is that all in? The sim card that's in the box for backup, does that call any premium numbers or anything to check in?

I'd like to get an accurateish figure to wave at ADT's customer retention department to see if anything can be done there before commiting to change.

I've heard there a people who can remove ADT from the ADT alarm system. Jus' sayin'

Like, just stop paying? I don't reckon they'll actually send someone out to remove all the kit, I wonder if it'll keep working just without the remote serving bit. That'd be an option.

I don't mind paying for it, just a bit less would be preferable :)