Hi all,
Just purchased a Victorian mid terraced house built around 1880. I had an expensive Level 3 survey done before exchanging contracts where the surveyor mostly gave the all clear. He said there were no signs of structural instability on the interior or exterior of the house, though this is only from what he could see walking through. He also said the only place he recorded damp using a protimeter was in the living room bay window wall, but that the reading was so small that although he would always recommend we get a specialist damp surveyor in, we could probably just monitor it ourselves with a protimerer.
On his reassurance there weren't significant problems, we decided not to get in any other specialists.
Now that we've been moving in, we noticed all sorts of issues and are worried how serious they are, as well as being very disappointed by the surveyor.
The problems:
1) Damp. The house smelt very damp/mouldy/musty when we got the keys. It had been raining for a few days. I discovered a floor air vent in the living room and sticking my phone down into the subfloor void to video, there are large areas of wet/damp topsoil in the void and it smells absolutely awful down there.
This damp smell is pretty pervasive through the entire ground floor and first floor when it rains even a little.
From what feels like hours of reading these forums, I understand damp is an extremely common issue and improving ventilation is useful. There are 3 airbricks to the front of the original property which are working, but they are only just above the front garden level. The front garden is also level with the interior house, if not slightly higher, which I understand isn’t good.
It looks like there is a slate damp proof course running along some of the foundations, but I don’t know if it actually runs throughout every wall. Concrete based extension at the rear also has airbricks but for some reason has a weird stale smell which is different to main foundation/void smell.
2) Joists/sleeper walls. The other problem we noticed in the video is that both of the sleeper walls are cracked, downright broken, and resting on timber struts. This concerns me because it looks like the wooden joists in the living room are barely even being supported by the sleeper wall - even where the wall isn't cracked, the joists seem to be ‘floating’ above the wall because the piece of wood on top of the sleeper wall to connect with the joists doesn’t run the entire width of the wall.
It freaks me out every time I put in heavy furniture on the living room floor because the floorboards are springy/bouncy in feel. You can actually see the floorboards give in underfoot whenever someone heavy walks around.
I’m worried theres a combination unsupported joists plus potentially rotting joists problem thats causing the floorboards to be not solid.
3) Foundation instability. Many of the interior walls have long vertical cracks with spiderwebbing cracks in the corners of the ceilings, as well as horizontal cracks running along the ceilings. The surveyor said they weren’t a problem because they were not mirrored on the exterior brick wall - but I have noticed a long hairline crack in the first floor bathroom, which actually goes through to the exterior brick too. I understand this is an old property, but my relative also has a Victorian terrace and they have no interior cracks.
There seem to be a lot of issues and it’s causing a lot of stress. We contacted the surveyor again with these but he pretty much fobbed us off, asking did we go ahead and get a damp specialist as he recommended (even though in his report, he actually writes we could just monitor ourselves as well).
I know the likely best step is hire a foundation/structural engineer to check the foundation integrity and walls, and hire a damp specialist, they will have to take up the floorboards etc, but it feels like so much work. I’m worried the ‘solution’ is to spend £10ks to rebuild the sleeper walls, maybe completely replace the joists, try and damp proof better using traditional methods, lower the front garden, install french drains, remortar or seal all cracks etc but we simply don’t have that money right now.
Thank you in advance for any advice on:
• Can we get the surveyor to take more responsibility for the damp and cracks? I understand RICS certified surveyor have indemnity insurance - is it a fools errand trying to get his company to pay for specialist surveys?
• How to tackle the issues including any recommendations for London based good specialists
• What we might be able to do as a temporary fix, it’s unlikely we’ll have the money for years to do proper digging up work.
Thank you so much!



Just purchased a Victorian mid terraced house built around 1880. I had an expensive Level 3 survey done before exchanging contracts where the surveyor mostly gave the all clear. He said there were no signs of structural instability on the interior or exterior of the house, though this is only from what he could see walking through. He also said the only place he recorded damp using a protimeter was in the living room bay window wall, but that the reading was so small that although he would always recommend we get a specialist damp surveyor in, we could probably just monitor it ourselves with a protimerer.
On his reassurance there weren't significant problems, we decided not to get in any other specialists.
Now that we've been moving in, we noticed all sorts of issues and are worried how serious they are, as well as being very disappointed by the surveyor.
The problems:
1) Damp. The house smelt very damp/mouldy/musty when we got the keys. It had been raining for a few days. I discovered a floor air vent in the living room and sticking my phone down into the subfloor void to video, there are large areas of wet/damp topsoil in the void and it smells absolutely awful down there.
This damp smell is pretty pervasive through the entire ground floor and first floor when it rains even a little.
From what feels like hours of reading these forums, I understand damp is an extremely common issue and improving ventilation is useful. There are 3 airbricks to the front of the original property which are working, but they are only just above the front garden level. The front garden is also level with the interior house, if not slightly higher, which I understand isn’t good.
It looks like there is a slate damp proof course running along some of the foundations, but I don’t know if it actually runs throughout every wall. Concrete based extension at the rear also has airbricks but for some reason has a weird stale smell which is different to main foundation/void smell.
2) Joists/sleeper walls. The other problem we noticed in the video is that both of the sleeper walls are cracked, downright broken, and resting on timber struts. This concerns me because it looks like the wooden joists in the living room are barely even being supported by the sleeper wall - even where the wall isn't cracked, the joists seem to be ‘floating’ above the wall because the piece of wood on top of the sleeper wall to connect with the joists doesn’t run the entire width of the wall.
It freaks me out every time I put in heavy furniture on the living room floor because the floorboards are springy/bouncy in feel. You can actually see the floorboards give in underfoot whenever someone heavy walks around.
I’m worried theres a combination unsupported joists plus potentially rotting joists problem thats causing the floorboards to be not solid.
3) Foundation instability. Many of the interior walls have long vertical cracks with spiderwebbing cracks in the corners of the ceilings, as well as horizontal cracks running along the ceilings. The surveyor said they weren’t a problem because they were not mirrored on the exterior brick wall - but I have noticed a long hairline crack in the first floor bathroom, which actually goes through to the exterior brick too. I understand this is an old property, but my relative also has a Victorian terrace and they have no interior cracks.
There seem to be a lot of issues and it’s causing a lot of stress. We contacted the surveyor again with these but he pretty much fobbed us off, asking did we go ahead and get a damp specialist as he recommended (even though in his report, he actually writes we could just monitor ourselves as well).
I know the likely best step is hire a foundation/structural engineer to check the foundation integrity and walls, and hire a damp specialist, they will have to take up the floorboards etc, but it feels like so much work. I’m worried the ‘solution’ is to spend £10ks to rebuild the sleeper walls, maybe completely replace the joists, try and damp proof better using traditional methods, lower the front garden, install french drains, remortar or seal all cracks etc but we simply don’t have that money right now.
Thank you in advance for any advice on:
• Can we get the surveyor to take more responsibility for the damp and cracks? I understand RICS certified surveyor have indemnity insurance - is it a fools errand trying to get his company to pay for specialist surveys?
• How to tackle the issues including any recommendations for London based good specialists
• What we might be able to do as a temporary fix, it’s unlikely we’ll have the money for years to do proper digging up work.
Thank you so much!



