Sometimes you don’t want to move house. Sometimes, you just need to tweak what’s already there a bit, to make it perfectly fit your needs. This is often called home renovation or refurbishment, and as chartered surveyors, we’ve seen plenty of them! Some of them go without a hitch, but there are also some common mistakes that we see time and time again.
At Harrison Clarke, we regularly do RICS Level 2 and Level 3 surveys, as well more specific defect analysis, which means we’re perfectly placed to put together a list of the most common issues we come across. This will help you to understand your house, and make the right choices for your property to avoid costly mistakes.
Let’s start with the outside. Here the most common problem we see is poor pointing repairs that have often been done with inappropriate materials. Getting your pointing right is vital to get the best performance and life out of your walls.
It’s vitally important to understand the difference between traditional lime mortar and modern cement-based mortar when planning repairs, especially if the work is being done on an older property. Using the wrong materials can have a serious impact on how the building manages water, which at best will cause damp issues, and at worst they will damage the fabric of the house. So any replacement pointing should always be done with the type originally used.
The other pointing problem we often see is not raking out the existing pointing well enough, or not at all. This is usually done by particularly lazy or dishonest contractors, who would rather smear new mortar over the joints rather than rake it out. We always recommend that the pointing is raked out to a depth between 15mm-25mm to ensure the new pointing will fix to the wall properly.
Of course, pointing isn’t the only inappropriate use of cement we’ve seen on older brickwork. Due to the very waterproof nature of cement, cement render is often used as low-level waterproofing. If this is done on the wrong type of wall, then this can cause an even bigger problem, than you’re trying to solve. It could even force water further into the property. That’s why it’s so important to understand how your property was designed to manage water, so that you know what to repair it with.
When you buy an older property, replacing the windows is probably fairly high on your list. After all, choosing the right windows to change can make a huge difference to the efficiency of your property and how comfortable it is to live in. But it’s important to remember that it will also make your property more airtight.
On the surface, that sounds like a great thing. But making your property airtight when it wasn’t before can lead to condensation issues and mould. Especially in older properties that weren’t designed to be airtight with walls that aren’t suitably insulated. More on that later!
When you’re fitting new windows, we always strongly recommend that the windows include something called trickle ventilation. This allows enough background ventilation to get rid of moist air from the property, without compromising on warmth.
Extensions are a popular way to improve your home – they add value and provide a lot of extra space. But we’ve often found that their construction is designed with little to no consideration of the original building, which can cause all sorts of problems. For example, we commonly see mismatched types of floors – where solid floors have been used in an extension while the original building has suspended floors. This can stop ventilation of the floor void, allowing condensation to gather where it can’t be seen. The end result? A rotten floor in a few years’ time.
If it’s thought about in advance then it can be avoided by installing ducts, but we find it’s usually overlooked.
The other big mistake we see with extensions is their failure to consider the floor levels and damp courses of the existing property. We have seen many instances where the old external wall has been plastered over. This breaches the DPC and allows damp to bypass the protective layer, causing significant damage to the finishes and the fabric of the building.
Chimneys are very common in properties built in the 1970s and before, but they fell out of favour when central heating became readily available. Now, these older chimneys are often fitted with gas feature fires and log–burning stoves, which can be an asset to the property if properly looked after.
But if a previous owner has decided to board the chimney over and remove the fireplace, then we often see problems. You see, when the flue is blocked off at a low level, it stops proper ventilation of the chimney flue. This leads to condensation and moisture build–up in the chimney. At best, this causes a damp patch on the chimney breast. But the worst-casescenario is much worse. Unvented chimneys can cause a chemical reaction inside, damaging the brickwork and mortar. This means the chimney stack is primed to collapse, potentially causing injury or worse in the most extreme instances,
Thankfully this is easily fixed by just installing vents where the fireplace used to be.
Making improvements to the insulation can really help with the performance of a property, as well as reducing those pesky energy bills. A popular choice for this is cavity wall insulation, which has a few different options. The most popular types are blown fibre insulation and polystyrene beads, but some companies may also offer a foam option.
Whichever type you choose, the important thing is to be sure that the insulation is uniform. Itcan be easy to miss areas around openings or at high levels when it’s being installed, which can cause cold spots in the house or encourage condensation. Speaking of cavity wall insulation, certain types might actually be detrimental to some properties and cause damp issues or structural problems, even if they are installed properly.
The other popular solution is to install additional loft insulation. But if it’s installed incorrectly, the new insulation can actually restrict the ventilation of your loft space if it’s pushed into the eaves, once again causing condensation if the moist air can’t escape quickly enough to the outside.
Finally, we want to touch on the importance of ensuring you have the right documents and approvals in place before you do anything. Although this might seem like the least exciting part, it can save you hours of stress, frustration and heartache in the future when you come to sell the property.
There are plenty of useful resources available online and from your local council that can provide guidance on when you do and don’t require planning permission. You can find guides, information and even an interactive house on the planning portal website! Even if your work falls under permitted development, it’s always a good idea to get a Certificate of Lawful Development from your local authority, just in case.
It’s also important to note that in some instances, a property might have restrictions to some or all types of permitted development, which means you would need to go through the full planning application process. There’s even more red tape if your property is listed, or in a conservation area.
You will also need to make sure you make a suitable application to building control to avoid any problems in the future. As a rule of thumb, if your works make any changes to a structural element of the property, either externally or internally, or if you’re changing the properties use, Building Control approval will be needed. If you don’t get all of your approvals in order, you’ll have problems in the future when you sell the property and you may have to pay for the works to be indemnified or accept a lower price! Failure to obtain the correct contents may also leave you open to enforcement action including but not limited to order to demolish the new construction work, financial penalties and even the potential to face a custodial sentence.
If, during your renovation efforts, you feel a bit lost or need some professional guidance, then we are here to help. Just call our friendly team of chartered building surveyors on 02381 550 051 and see how we can assist you in confidently moving forward in improving or maintaining your property.
We also have a range of videos talking through various aspects of Surveying. You can access them via our website or our YouTube channel.
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