Cost of Damp Proofing - is this reasonable

Apologies for the length of this question!

We are in the process of buying an old, mostly stone built, cottage in South Wales and have had a survey revealing significant areas of rising damp and also some penetrative damp (some of this is due to defective guttering which I can fix.).

The contractor has estimated about £6000 to cover various works on the Lounge, Dining Room and Kitchen Including re-pointing and sealing the front stone wall of the house.

However the two walls in the Lounge are Dry lined one of which is believed to be 2 feet out from the actual stone wall at that end of the house and we believe there will be a problem there as well but the contractor can't quote for this until we have purchased it and removed stud the walls to see what is there.

Based on his other estimates I assume this will cost another £1000 at least, so potentially £7000 - £8000 in total for what is quite a small cottage.

Sizes of rooms affected:

Lounge 16'6" x 14'7" (5.03m x 4.45m)

Dining Room 8'2" x 7'5"

Kitchen 8'6" x 8'6" (2.59m x 2.59m)

Dining Room and Kitchen are effectively one room.

Other rooms are not affected.

I appreciate it's very difficult to judge based on the limited info I have, but does this figure seem reasonable for the work involved. Unfortunately I have not yet received his written report only a verbal one and it's proving difficult to get another contractor.

I'd be very grateful for any opinions on this as I haven't had to use a damp proofing contractor before.

Many Thanks

Mark

Reply to
Mark Stowell
Loading thread data ...

Most damp proofing work carried out shouldn't have been done. At best, it can be benign (just a waste of money), and at worse, it can make a problem worse due to wrong diagnosis. I suggest you ignore any survey performed by a damp treatment company. For the sums of money you are looking at, a survey by a real damp surveyor (who won't be part of a company which undertakes any treatment) would be merited before you have anything done. Oviously, fix things like faulty guttering. If you describe the issues here, people might be able to comment further.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Many thanks for the helpful advice and links to those who responded. Am making further enquiries locally before I take any action.

Mark

Reply to
Mark Stowell

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.