On 19/01/2021 at 00:05, Adsibob said:

That’s fair enough, but this is a company which claims to have an office near to where I live. Maybe it’s just a marketing thing. 

 

For what its worth, he surveyed my house prior to purchase. Identified lots of issues. Everything he saw, which couldnt be further established without destructive work turned out to be pretty much bob on.

 

Ive found nothing of note that he didnt pick up.

 

 Expensive. Very. Useful and worth it. Definitely.

By way of update, surveyor came last week and I received his report today. He has found about 5 different sources of the damp:

1) external floor level too high and very close to DPC

2) nothing protecting the wall from splashback off the external floor

3) external pebbledash cracked in places

4) drainpipes being broken and needing replacing

5) slow leak from sewage pipe/toilet causing internal subfloor to be damp

6)blocked drain

 

I knew about most of these issues, and had planned on ameliorating those that I knew of with the necessary replacements, but this last issue has surprised me. We noticed the drains were blocked about two months after we moved into the place. (Which was about 2.5 years ago.) We had them unblocked by a guy I’ve used before and I thought he did a good job. He said there was a lot of congealed fat and some plastic that had clogged things up. We blamed the previous owners. About a year later the problem reoccurred, even though we obviously had always been very careful not to throw anything inappropriate down the sinks toilets.

 

In the last year we have had a lot of sulphur smells in the ground floor, and suspected the sewage pipe was broken. Eventually we discovered a slow leak from the downstairs toilet, so assumed this was causing the sulphur smell.

 

I’m now wondering whether this could also be related to the blocked drain. Surveyor has suggested getting a camera survey done to get to the bottom of the drain issue. 
 

I’m due to get a further report from the surveyor detailing how to fix/improve the damp, but pending that I’m concerned I won’t be able to get the wall dry in time before we need to progress our works and plaster the walls. I was surprised by how damp it was. I asked the surveyor whether getting heaters or dehumidifiers in would help, but he pointed out that until the builders finish the rear extension and get the sliding doors, roof and windows in, I’d effectively be trying to heat/dry the outdoors!

 

He is looking at the detail of the limecrete subfloor somebody here posted. He thought it could work, but pointed out it doesn’t incorporate a DPC. 
 

This has just made a difficult and long project slightly more difficult and slightly longer, so I’m trying not to worry too much about it, but it is somewhat disconcerting being so early on in the project (week 2 of what was meant to be a 38 week project).

 

 Any words of wisdom/encouragement gratefully received.

So none of it is rising damp - that’s good then 

 

Sewage leak is contamination - not nice to deal with and can’t be disposed of through a standard skip so beware. 
 

Ditch the limecrete unless it’s for some sort of eco reason but tbh I can’t see how it would help and I would be getting a decent DPM and concrete into thag floor.