We were engaged to conduct a damp and timber survey when our client was advised to so by their Building Surveyor which was highlighted in the Homebuyer’s Survey.
We noted rising dampness in the walls that were mentioned in the report and with the vendor’s permission, who was present at the time of our inspection, we lifted carpet edges and floorboards to facilitate a comprehensive sub-floor timber inspection.
Although we were not asked to comment on the concrete floor in the kitchen and understairs cupboard, we are obliged to advise on any serious defects that we notice whilst conducting our inspections, therefore when we noticed some salt stains around the edges of the carpet in the understairs cupboard during the course of carrying out the damp inspection we obtained permission to lift the carpet, which revealed large cracks and additional visible salts. The vendor had not been aware of this issue and was happy for us to remove some loose-fitting pipe boxing around a radiator in the kitchen, this area of the concrete floor also had large cracks and traces of salts.
We advised the client to have the floor tested by solid floor specialists and they deemed that the concrete floors would need to be up lifted and renewed to specification in line with current building regulations. This meant that all the existing kitchen units would need to be removed and re-fitted in conjunction with the required works. The total cost of removing the kitchen units which would not necessarily be able to be re-fitted and the renewal of the floors was estimated as £7,000.00. The anticipated disruption and potential cost of a new kitchen was something that our client was not prepared to take on, after consideration they decided not to proceed with the purchase of the property. They were incredibly pleased with the service that we had provided them.