Surveyor Stories...

Our surveyor Mark has been surveying houses for long enough and has a fair few interesting stories up his sleeve. He's distilled some of his more intriguing cases for our blog - read on to find out more!

Caveat emptor (buyer beware)! Our clients moved into their home and thought all was well with the recently (2019) constructed rear extension. After all the work had a Building Control certificate, so it was surely done right, right? Wrong.

Amongst other issues (‘that’ll do’ levels of insulation for instance) the new construction has blocked off the air bricks that provided airflow to the original, wooden sub-floor. No extra provision has been made, so our clients are now experiencing serious damp and mould issues that will require time and money to remediate. I only discovered this when we lifted the floor and I went down into the void.

To compound their misery, presumably as part of the same project, all the ground floor radiators were replaced with direct-acting electric underfloor heating, with a whopping 10mm, yes, 10mm of insulation, meaning it costs too much to actually ever be used and they have subsequently experienced frozen pipes INSIDE their home. Not good.

Bonus points to anyone who looks at the rear elevation photo and notices that the (also recently redone) roof tiles have also been incorrectly laid - one on top of the other, as opposed to offset (brick pattern), meaning there’s an increased chance of rainwater ingress, and a definite chance they’ll be shelling out yet more money to repair something that could have just been done right in the first place.

The upshot? The clients’ retrofit budget will be greatly diminished by the remedial works that their home requires. It’s extremely frustrating that people wanting to do the ‘right thing’ are hampered by poorly undertaken work, and toothless, under-resourced regulation.

It will be interesting to see how responses to the Building Safety Act develop in the domestic refurb sphere. Hopefully, the additional emphasis on compliance will save some future homebuyers a load of cash, upheaval and heartache.