Help, is this damp? new house

[mea]

Hi there,
me and my family are set to buy this house and atm we are tying to find a surveyor but its costly so still looking for a reasonable priced one.
But the only thing that makes me worry is the outside, theres black marking on the outside walls. I have attachd a picture of the outside.
Please can you let me know asap.
Thanks!

[leebwk]

There are a few things to consider when looking at your photo

1. the area looks as it doesn't get to much sun as the path looks quite damp and the wall hasn't dried out

2. the render or dash seems to go down to the path and therefore could be bridging the damp course

3. is there any leaks on the guttering?? because the black staining is either caused by back splash from the rain or splashing from the guttering

4. do you have damp internally??

Unless you have problems with damp internally then i don't think you have much of a problem, well nothing that can't be rectified

[stuart45]

What type of walls are they? eg solid or cavity.

[mea]

i think there solid, that wall with the most black markings is 300years old

and there wasn't any obvious signs or smells of damp inside.

[leebwk]

The black will come off with a good pressure washing and it might be prudent to spray with an anti fungicide also cut back any trees close to that elevation if you do go ahead with the purchase i would think about replacing the path with something more drainable or a better way to drain the area as it looks like damp and mildew have a tendency to lay in that area

[stuart45]

They might have had some pot plants up against the wall. My wife does that and I get the same problem. I've painted the bottom of the cottage black now to hide it.

[jonj]

[quote="mea"]Hi there,
me and my family are set to buy this house and atm we are tying to find a surveyor but its costly so still looking for a reasonable priced one.
But the only thing that makes me worry is the outside, theres black marking on the outside walls. I have attachd a picture of the outside.
Please can you let me know asap.
Thanks![/quote
Don`t look like damp to me, though i disagree with taking the dash down to the floor, usually a bell cast bead is set about 200m adove floor level

[big-all]

Hi there,
me and my family are set to buy this house and atm we are tying to find a surveyor but its costly so still looking for a reasonable priced one.

you are buying the most expensive purchase in your life and you are trying to save less than 1percent off the value by not having a propper survey done!!!!!

good idea or not you choose
dont go for a home buyers report go for a full structural survey unless you know what your looking for

[stuart45]

big-all is spot on. As it's an old house there is more chance of some serious problems. Also with a survey there is a much better chance of getting a price reduction as you have the defects in writing from a Chartered suryeyor. Whenever I have bought a house I have never had a survey as I've been in the trade since leaving school, but have to admit that it's much more difficult to get the price down because of defects without the report coming from a third party. Surveys usually pay for themselves, especially if you have limited building knowledge.

[python]

lots of good advice allready here.

All I'm going to add is that after cleaning the wall you could add a product like weathershield to it which should also help the damp to not congregate there.