Hello all. First post: Rot/Structural advice

[TomM]

Hi all,

Stumbled across this forum and have been enjoying reading some posts. We are in the process of buying a lovely Victorian house that hasn't been too well looked after and I bet I'll be back here to find advice for many bits.

We just had our survey done and the surveyor is as doom and gloom as most of them are! Naturally it is full of damp - all the windows are rotten and single glazed and the gutters and downpipes are leaking so I'm hoping theose are the major contributors there. A few hundred other warnings, but a couple that have potnetial to be very expensive.

I'll probably get an expert of have a better look at these couple of bits but thought I might post here for some early thoughts. How bad do we think those roof timbers are? Old rot or current rot? And should I be worried about the crack in the wall? Long term we plan to extend the kitchen and that wall will go. So as long as I can patch (might help with the damp!) and live with it for a couple of years I'll be happy.

Hopefully all my bits are manageable and I'll hang around here once we move in and start fixing it up.

 

[Cubist]

Hello and Welcome, sadly without more information and more detailed photos perhaps it's nigh on impossible to give you any definitive judgements. Most of what we can see is eminently manageable but the full severity of the issues needs to be thoroughly understood before a work/cost estimate may be possible. Personally before going much further I would be giving roof/floor timbers a closer inspection with a mallet. A few increasingly firm taps will soon tell you if they are structurally trustworthy - if bits start falling of then lace up your Nikes before calling on a pro. As far as the cracked stone lintel and brickwork outside is concerned you need to thoroughly understand 'why' this has happened. It may be that a wooden lintel - behind the stone one - has failed or is in the process of failing or that there is a subsidence issue in the ground below that wall.

My best advice for now would be to get a closer look at the potential root causes and maybe get some advice from a pro in terms of what should/could be done.

Cheers for now,
Cubist