Cavity Ventilation

Kintarō Hattori

Hey Folks,

The lady and myself are trying to buy a house at the moment. It's a two bed end of terrace of timber frame construction. We had an engineer look at it and he mentioned that a building of its type needs ventilation 'shafts' about every 1.5m along the outside walls. He couldn't see very many of these on the house wa plan to buy. He is of the opinion that they are most likely there but that they were covered by the pebble dashing.

He mentioned that it is vital to have this, at these intervals for this particular type of building. He also stated that if they hadn't been put 'in' during construction that it could be done afterwards and SHOULD be done before we even consider signing.

Do these details sound correct? I put forward these details to the estate agent selling the house but according to her the seller is saying that the person previously interested in the house (they pulled out due to a lack of funds) gave in a snaglist, therefore the house already has its snaglist.

Mellor

Not too difficult to retrofit ventilators in a timber framed cavity

Kintarō Hattori

Mellor wrote: »

Not too difficult to retrofit ventilators in a timber framed cavity

Thanks Mellor, any idea what that typically costs? I'll ring the engineer today and see if he can recommend a builder who can give me an idea of how much it would cost.

sydthebeat

pm sent suggesting product

DOCARCH

Should be very easy to retrofit - should take 1 man no longer than a day with a drill and a cherry picker for an average house.

The reason for the cherry picker is just make sure they are installed or specified to be installed to both the top and bottom of the cavity - i.e. near the damp proof course and at the top of the wall, under the eaves/soffit.

drBill

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

... the seller is saying that the person previously interested in the house (they pulled out due to a lack of funds) gave in a snaglist, therefore the house already has its snaglist.

Sorry to jump in like this, but if I understand this correctly, the seller is claiming that you cannot raise any more snags? That's a bit cheeky, to put it mildly. You are the buyer, you can raise as many snags and queries as you like. I'd advise you to be careful dealing with this person and the estate agent, they sound like chancers.

Mellor

You are only supposed to submitted one snaglist. That's stadard procedure.

Poor Uncle Tom

Mellor wrote: »

You are only supposed to submitted one snaglist. That's stadard procedure.

That would be fairly normal where you are dealing with professionals. I have seen where a contractor used a handyman to sort the snags on a house and ended up causing more damage than was on the original snag list.

There are cases where snags are seemingly neverending.