Prospective house purchase - damp issue

[arguti]

Good evening

Trying to help eldest son with house purchase up north in coastal area and we have viewed a house that has some damp below one o§f the windows and close to one of the radiators. Using a damp moisture meter, the radiator were around 40% which is a red flag to me - it is also a shared wall with semidetached neighbour.

In my non professional view, surely it can’t be something simple as it would have addressed, surely? Should we walk away or would appreciate some comments re remedying same as it seems quite a few of the house we have looked at have these sort of issues.

Would appreciate any comments !!!!

Thank you





And below the bathroom window

[Sanderling]

That area by the radiator looks like a long standing issue.

I live in an older house and have some chimney salt issues and I had a central heating leak under the floor. Neither have looked as bad as that. As it's on the joining wall it makes you wonder if it could be a broken drain pipe or similar.

The external window one would bother me less because there might be something you can fix there relatively easily.

Are these houses suspended timber floored?

[arguti]

Thanks for the reply - I don’t know re the floor as I didn’t do the viewing - just got the photos

[Sanderling]

By the radiator that skirting board looks rotten too.

You will need to find the source of the damp to fix it. It won't be a case of just tanking the wall or replacing the plaster and skirting.

I'd suggest either leave it or offer a fair bit less to price in finding the problem. In the middle of the house it's more likely to be a leaking waste/water main/ch pipe etc. If it was on an external wall I'd be far less bothered.

[DonkeyApple]

Yup. External wall tends to be less worrying as it'll be blown render, pointing, soil against a wall or a bad window fitting etc. Damp on an internal wall and it starts getting more complicated. The obvious ones when it comes to adjoining walls of two older properties is the shared chimney flue. The ground really ought to be dry in the middle of two houses and water pipes aren't often in that area as heating etc was retro fitted in the corners and mains water rarely routed far and wide.

Those patches wouldn't immediately be of concern. The key is that their source needs to be established and the seller needs to pay for everything.

[Mad Maximus]

If it isn’t obvious where the problem is either find a man who can before you buy or move on to another house. Damp is a bh.

[ninepoint2]

Need to identify source of ingress and stop it would be first move, then get walls etc repaired, we live in a very old house and had some experience of dealing with damp and stopping the water getting in is paramount, damp proof courses are not worth it and are usually sold by charlatans and chancers.

[Shappers24]

Damp is indeed a pain, very naively moved into a 1930s which needed ‘modernising’. The strip out showed numerous damp issues. Easiest to sort being broken gutters, most costly was the ruined chimney…

[hidetheelephants]

Damp in a party wall will probably be chimney-related, although there are other possible routes for moisture to get in the big vertical tube is an excellent funnel directing everything down to the ground.

[Crumpet]

My Dad has a rental where the party is soaked and all the plaster blown.

It backs on to the neighbour’s bathroom and essentially the bath isn’t sealed properly against the wall. When they shower water gets down the side of the bath and soaks the wall.

Been like it for years and they refuse to take action. It wouldn’t surprise me if the joists and floor timbers are rotten and totally fked now.

I’d just walk away from that one unless it’s a very obvious source.