House purchase - two concerns.

yellow hen

Sorry, not sure if this belongs in DIY forum but would appreciate some advice if anyone can help.

We're bidding on a house at the minute and will get a survey done if we get to a point of sake agreed but there are two issues in the house nagging at me.
1. I think one of the stud walls we want to take down has a supporting pillar in the middle of it. Is it expensive to move this support? I presume the roof would need to be propped with a steel girder or similar.
2. I noticed damp on the exterior wall of a ground floor room. The beading on top of the skirting makes me wonder if it's stopping the floors from shifting. How concerned should I be about thS?

Markcheese

Wouldn't worry about the beading - it's just covering the edges of the laminate ( without having to take skirting and arhitrave off first)
The damp could be one of many things -
Kind of similar with the stud wall - ask a pro - ( but would have thought it weird for a hidden pillar to be supporting much - you'd just build a supporting wall)

riclad

i,m not a builder ,could you not carefully move the stud wall ,
and leave the load bearing pillar where it is,
if you move a load bearing wall or a pillar ,you,d
have to put in some temporary supporting structure ,
or a replacement structure to bear the load .
otherwise ,the ceiling ,floor above the pillar would crack,,or collapse completely .
And it depends whats above the pillar,
does it support the ceiling ,a wall above it.or even part of the roof .

people divide rooms far various reasons,
so it makes sense that there,s a pillar inside the wall .
A Stud wall is just a wooden frame ,with insulation in it, plastered over .
IT sounds like you,d have to employ a builder a least for a few days.

There,s cases where old houses basically collapsed because a bad
builder removed a wall or some other load bearing structure .
without replacing it or propping the ceilings,upper walls up .
This post some probably be on the diy forum .

riclad

Don,t pay 500 plus euro for a survey unless you have your bid accepted by the agent, seller .
Damp could be from a gutter that needs fixing,or has a hole in it .
or is blocked ,full of old leaves, moss , needs to be cleaned.
Some old houses have overflow pipes that go thru the the exterior wall at random places ,
eg if sink is full water goes into an overflow pipe.

yellow hen

Thanks for replies. Have no intention of hiring surveyor until our bid is accepted but would like to know what's ahead before we dole out €600 for that.

owen85

The photo if clicked brings anyone onto your photo bucket gallery. Dont know if you want everyone seeing all your photos.

It would be strange to find a supporting column in a stud wall but that said there are plenty of strange builders. If the wall in question is on the ground floor , and directly above that wall on the first floor is another wall , check to see if that first floor wall is solid or just a stud wall. If its solid well the ground floor wall in question is load bearing and would have some sort of reinforcement whether it be a column or a steel lintel running across the top of it. The attic would need to be looked at to see if any of the roofs weight would be transferred onto the mentioned walls.

Damp. .. ive had a fair bit of experience with this. It can be a nightmare or it can be something fixed extremely easily. Check for leaky gutters , damage to the pointing on the wall , build up of plants or rubbish on the outside wall , or quite often just poor ventilation in the house which leads to condenaation , damp walls and mould.

yellow hen

Christ, horrified! I had no idea that linked into my account. Pic gone now. Really appreciate you pointing it out.

Back at house at weekend so will check it more more. Appreciate the comments.

Cuddlesworth

owen85 wrote: »

Damp. .. ive had a fair bit of experience with this. It can be a nightmare or it can be something fixed extremely easily. Check for leaky gutters , damage to the pointing on the wall , build up of plants or rubbish on the outside wall , or quite often just poor ventilation in the house which leads to condenaation , damp walls and mould.

Its not wall damp though, there is no damage to it. They either recently repaired it to hide or there is a serious damp problem with the floor. Its all guesswork though, thats the problem with water. It spreads.

yellow hen

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Its not wall damp though, there is no damage to it. They either recently repaired it to hide or there is a serious damp problem with the floor. Its all guesswork though, thats the problem with water. It spreads.

Can a surveyor really investigate this? Would it not involve pulling back the floorboards?

owen85

not following you at all there cuddlesworth. the lady said the noticed damp on the wall,,,,so is it not a damp wall?

they repaired the wall to hide the damp???? but she saw the damp so why do you think they hide it? if its not the wall, theres a serious problem with the floor? not really getting where you get that one from, the beading? beading is most likely there to avoid having to pull up the skirting boards to lay the new floor neatly without any edging showing.

yellow hen, you saw the damp on the interior side of an exterior wall?

a surveyor can use a non pervasive moisture meter kit to read any damp in walls or floors...meaning they dont need to damage walls or floors by tearing things apart. sure next time you go to the house take a photo of the damp and post it here...just post it a different way

Cuddlesworth

owen85 wrote: »

not following you at all there cuddlesworth. the lady said the noticed damp on the wall,,,,so is it not a damp wall?

they repaired the wall to hide the damp???? but she saw the damp so why do you think they hide it? if its not the wall, theres a serious problem with the floor? not really getting where you get that one from, the beading? beading is most likely there to avoid having to pull up the skirting boards to lay the new floor neatly without any edging showing.

yellow hen, you saw the damp on the interior side of an exterior wall?

a surveyor can use a non pervasive moisture meter kit to read any damp in walls or floors...meaning they dont need to damage walls or floors by tearing things apart. sure next time you go to the house take a photo of the damp and post it here...just post it a different way

The picture was a floating laminate floor, perfect condition. White wall, with skirting and a wooden bead between. The wall has a small amount of surface mould in the corner, but no obvious surface damage, the beading was near black with mold and had the look of untreated wood that was rotten through with water.

I would guess that the DPC in the wall hasn't been breached and the issue is with the floor. The laminate would be sitting on a layer of plastic underlay separating it from the surface underneath. If it's a concrete floor, it should have a gap between it and the wall. Meaning that a burst pipe or breached damp seal in the floor would lead to a high moisture content coming up through the edge of the floor hitting the beading first, with it showing the most damage initially. It would eventually get into the laminate flooring, but that could take a long time.

I'd struggle to think it was the wall, because if you went to the trouble of repairing the damage temporarily you would replace the beading as well.

Either way, it's subjective without being in the room and seeing the damage first hand.