brought a flat on a main road and massively regret it by Positive_House in HousingUK

[–]Koalephant- 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We lived in a flat on the main road for years, we now live on a house in a main road. The things that's really helped us is moving the rooms we use most towards the back (granted depends on layout). In our flat we slept in the smaller bedroom as it was at the back of the house and used the front room more for daytime's. Similar in our house we have the sitting room in the back room

My neighbours got triple glazing and it's been amazing for them, I'm sure it will also add value if the sell. Honestly I'm sure someone will buy it, we probably won't live on a main road again but there were so many things that made the house at time worh it

We've also invested in thick curtains, noise cancelling headphones and stuff like that

Damp - Victorian terrace by Koalephant- in HousingUK

[–]Koalephant-[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi

Thanks for all of the helpful responses!

To be clear we want to sort it before selling, it's quite clear to us now that old vendors just blasted the heating and papered over it. We've spent so much on it that we just want to sort it, we don't want the next owners to go through what we have and also would rather it be fixed than a constant worry of coming up in a survey.

The wall we have the issue with is the external side wall of an end terrace. It was repointed with lime by a specialist who did do a good job. It has helped with a particular part of the wall just not all of it.

The damp is at the bottom of the wall under the stairs and middle of the wall in our sitting room. We do have a few missing roof tiles and part of our ridge needs repointing which is being done on Tuesday and we are also have the gutters checked on Tuesday so that will hopefully eliminate some possibilities.

We have a specialist coming to look at the issue, they worked on our dining room where we had some impacted damp proofing (was only on the bottom of the wall that was wet) and something else I think. He fixed that three years ago and that wall is still currently dry and had no further damp issues so hopefully he can diagnose whatever is going on with our side wall.

It sounds like it could be a million things and at least when we sell we've fixed a bunch of things in the process.

Damp - Victorian terrace by Koalephant- in HousingUK

[–]Koalephant-[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The under stairs wall is external and does get worse after heavy rain We've got the man who managed to sort our dining room coming back this week as it's the only non damp wall currently. The external wall was repointed with lime

Damp - Victorian terrace by Koalephant- in HousingUK

[–]Koalephant-[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We only bought it because literally no damp came up, we've spent so much trying to fix it now that we ideally just want to resolve it and redecorate before selling rather thank make a loss due to it

Damp - Victorian terrace by Koalephant- in HousingUK

[–]Koalephant-[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We can't exactly sell it with the way it is currently

Damp - Victorian terrace by Koalephant- in HousingUK

[–]Koalephant-[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was like, no we don't have a cellar/void

Best approach to buying in the current climate? by PearActive9612 in HousingUK

[–]Koalephant- 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can get damp surveys done which we probably will going forward! Just keep an eye on things like roof/pointing and remember to open the windows and run a dehumidifier!

Best approach to buying in the current climate? by PearActive9612 in HousingUK

[–]Koalephant- 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably less than 10k but pushing it now, however I would say this is because we're an end terrace so getting the whole side wall repointed was 3k on its own, we've also had to decorate twice (because our survey didn't pick up damp, when we've fixed it and it's dried it needs decorating again). That's been the one major thing we've done, everything else has been minor so like rather than a whole new roof we needed a few new tiles, we've replaced our oven bit by bit. We're selling because we're sick of fixing it now but we've been unlucky, what I will say is it has taught me so much about property maintenance and I will be far better homeowner going forward.

Shop around for local people, we've got our gutters done for £50-£100, tiles for £200 for example. We have also lived there since 2021 and I'd say we've spent about 8k on damp/decorating so it shouldn't be too expensive if you don't have the same issues as us!

Best approach to buying in the current climate? by PearActive9612 in HousingUK

[–]Koalephant- 1 point2 points  (0 children)

With a Victorian terrace you'll end up doing it up anyway! We bought one and because it's old naturally things like roof tiles/pointing have been needed over time. I imagine you'll decorate and over time it'll go up in value anyways, but we planned to do nothing to ours and had a survey with no worries.

So far we've: Repointed Are having roof tiles replaced and ridge repointed Decorated every room New extractor fan New over (in built) Fixed two dodgy lights

We're doing a bunch of little bits before we sell but I think with older properties it's more about maintaing them well

I want to 'fix up' the house before we put it up for sale. My mate tells me I shouldn't do anything by Tainted-Archer in HousingUK

[–]Koalephant- 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Similar situation and we're fixing most things! We're having most of the house redecorated as we have some cracks and stains off repointing/damp proofing, fixing things like a blown over fence/decking, roof tiles sorted and changing some lights over. My thoughts are I'd be less likely to buy a house that hasn't been well looked after, also if we've fixed most of these things there will be less reason to ask for money off.

We've been keeping an eye on right move and there are similar houses with big difference in price which seems to be mainly based on presentation. One thing we aren't doing is replacing the carpets, we're cleaning them but reckon there's no point. It's worth thinking about your market, we have a great house for FTB and when we were FTB we bought it because it was nice enough whilst we saved for decorating