House Improvements

[ukmercenary]

I currently own an ex 1950's council house in Reading. Me and my dad done a fully internal refurbishment on it back in 2014. It has gone up in value.
I currently don't live in it and rent it out. I may consider moving back into it but it has issues.

1) Downstairs the lounge often can smell damp or musty (the lounge has wooden floorboards above the earth. The air bricks are all clear.
2) I can often hear the neighbours next door the sound insulation is poor upstairs and down.
3) Upstairs there is often and consistent damp issues with the celling. ( I have been offered a damp survey for £400 )
When I bought the house we had a survey he didn't mention anything to do with damp. However he did say the roof tiles may need replacing.
The roof doesn't have any felt. Mabe getting the roof replaced with help with the damp issues?

4) I tend to get a lot of spiders in the lounge (maybe due to the laminated floor not sealed at the edges.
5) The outside of the house is pretty ugly I would consider getting it rendered or plastered.

6) The house only has one bathroom/shower if I move back in I would like to add another bathroom (The only place to do this would be at the back of the house).
7) The back of the house has a cheap wooden lean-to which is falling apart. (May consider converting it into a conservatory with lounge/home office/bathroom).
8) I would also want to install a very secure bike shed at the front of the house.

Any yes I am considering move house too but that would cost about £72k to upsize to a house with some of the above features I'm looking for.
One option I've been thinking about is building up into the loft to keep costs down but I assume I would need an architect to draw this up?

Or maybe I just sell the house, people say that old houses are better than new houses I'm not sure I believe that anymore.
Or keep the house as a rental property take out some of the equity and buy a nicer house in Milton Keynes.

 

[Mottie]

A friend of ours is a landlord with a couple of properties. She says the biggest problem with renters is damp. She says they just won’t open windows, especially the bathroom and they hang washing up to dry indoors - again with no ventilation.

Not a renter but a house owner, Mrs Motties mum was 'careful' with the heating, would NEVER open a window and she hung all her washing up indoors despite being told over and over again. She would smell 'damp' and so would we after visiting her. She's now in a care home so no washing hanging anywhere, the house gets all the windows opened for at least half an hour twice a week when Mrs Mottie and her sister visit to check it over and because it’s empty, the heating is left permanently on low. Result, no more damp/mustyness smells.

Are you 100% sure your tenants are ventilating and heating the property properly?

 

[ukmercenary]

@Mottie I would agree the tenants and even AirBNB guests often don't open the windows enough. I have now had trickle vents installed in the two bedrooms which are often left open all the time and still the rooms get a bit of mould. Maybe I will pay to get the tickle vents installed in the bathroom and downstairs in the lounge to see if that helps. I have also bought a dehumidifier for the bedroom.

I believe if I can fix the damp issue then it's worth considering moving back in as we went to a massive effort to make it nice house. It could take years to redo another one with todays labour costs and material costs.