DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi there,

My partner and i have just put an offer in for a reposessed victorian house. We noticed a fair bit of damp on the walls under a window and behind some of the kitchen cabinates and as much as we can have checked to see if the damp has gone into the floor joists (by bouncing on joists - nothing seems squishy).

My brother is a building developer and as such has mended many a damp wall and I trust that he know what he is doing. He has offered to do all our damp work for cost (minus plastering). This is obviously very tempting.

How much value would a damp proof certificate add to our property when we come to sell it on? surely the new buyers would have to conduct a survey of their own which would then state there is no damp in the property.

What I'm really trying to say is it worth trying to pay a certified company to gain a certificate or have the job carried out by skilled hands at a much cheaper price?

Thanks,

Anna

pannsie,
With a victorian house with solid walls you will always have varying degrees of dampness. Whichever way you decide to treat the problem the chances are that any surveyor (for a buyer) will detect damp and a certificate will be meaningless transferrable or not.
end

In Victorian times homes were not built to be waterproof. Yet they have survived for over a hundred years.
They were designed and built to shed water and to take advantage of air circulation.
With open fires and badly fitting floors, windows and doors there was plenty of fresh dry air to carry damp away.
Often they did not have a damp proof course.
The rich lived on the first floor above rising damp.
It is only in recent years that there has been such a fuss about damp.
When the next person comes to buy the building they will decide on the basis of how the building is at the time, not on a piece of paper that was issued years earlier, when many things may have changed in the intervening years.
After all your sure its damp? Aren't you? And you bought it?
You will have to wait for someone of like mind to come along.
Meanwhile, remember that a lot of rain will land on those walls, soak in, then dry out as it always has. The rain will almost certainly will not effect the inside, you can paint the outside with a silicon based paint that will cause the rain to run off, and keep the walls dry.
Are you really sure that a lot of expensive work needs to be done?

I just faced the same situation. I decided to do it myself as i'm familiar with the tools etc. The aim is to stop the damp. Do that and i think few buyers will worry. Besides, the cash can be used for other things that may appeal to the next buyer.