Building survey report.

[Northbeach]

Damp proof speciallist are useless, they will walk around with a B&Q damp meter that makes a noise when it touches any surface dry or damp, and then claim the building needs a new chem dpc that will cost you £1500 (even if it already has one).. they will not look under the floor or even get involved in joist problems cos chem dpc makes them a stack of cash..

The floor "slant" may be to do with potential subsidence/cracking so would be better money spent getting a structural report on both issues.. either by ways of a limited survey or full structural survey of the property..

Crack monitoring suggested in the report takes months or years to cover seasonal movement possibilities..

Often local properties might exhibit similar problems.. so look/ask around

You may struggle to insure the property if its had subsidence problems in the past that werent dealt with, call an insurance co for a quote to make sure its insurable.

edit:
You can go down the route of getting vendors insurers out to look at it but, if they find it is as suspected subsidence dont be suprised that your purchase falls through..

Static - How right you were!

I was praying this would not turn out to be the case (falling through) as we had the usual hopes/plans/dreams pinned on this house. We had a structural dig as recommended by our surveyor. Turns out they could also not guarantee the house would not move any further. The soil below was pretty poor (sandy) and underpinning was suggested. However due to the aforementioned soil quality, standard foundations would not be suitable and pile driven foundations were necessary (the survey company is very well regarded locally btw). Probably looking at £15k fix. The vendor would try and go down the insurance route, but this (as mentioned above) could take months/years.
The area is known to have issues with subsidence (medium risk area) as it's close to a river. However houses go very quickly there and houses are being worked on/extended all the time - very popular area to live.

I neglected to mention the roof had issues too - sagging purlins one of which (bottom) had rotated on it's vertical axis and bowed along it's length; a diagonally placed lintel holding the chimney up (unorthodox but apparantly suitable for the job); and a rear hip rafter split. The roof had been replaced in the last 5/10 years - perhaps too heavy for it's support? Recommended replacing roof timbers - £10 -12k or strengthening the purlins (our own surveyor did not think it necessary to replace timbers).

That's potentially circa £25k of work already...and I also did not mention possible dry/wet rot flagged up in the original survey.
We were recommended by our own surveyor, a friend who is an industrial surveyor to walk...and so, sadly, we did.

Anyway, a month or so later we now have another two options (both 1930's - 1950's semis) - one which has pretty much everything done to a pretty good spec (new roof, chimney taken out, nice lighting, maple flooring, new kitchen/bathroom et al - but small garden, shared drive, small loft and no space for extra extension) and the other (which appeared a couple of days back) needs a royal clean up and strip - electrics look 50 odd years old - an interior wall or two will have to come down and all decor and plaster will need replacing...but it has a garage attached and potential to extend to the side and in the large, dormer style loft - just requires a leap of faith!

Apologies for the long text...just wanted to get this off my chest
Thanks for all the advice.