new beeny series of help my house is falling down

[Martin Bonner]

Hope springs eternal. There was far too much:

Beeny: There's this problem which in the worst case could cost

[Martin Bonner]

I keep being surprised at how rarely they say "get a proper survey when buying a house".

That is not my experience. Provided you get a proper =A31000 survey, it would have spotted almost all the problems with that house. It wouldn't have spotted the blocked/cracked/leaking drain, but it would have spotted the effects (mold, bowing wall), and recommended a drain survey.

[John Williamson]

Possibly because, IME in the last few months, when you're thinking of buying a house, *every* professional involved in the sale will tell you to get a full survey. I'm currently working through the process of selling and buying....

[Nick Leverton]

The woman did say IIRC that it had been surprisingly cheap for the size. Should have rung warning bells straight away ! But I'm surprised they didn't spot the damp and mould on viewing.

I'm not sure I shall bother to watch the rest of the series. Beeney's stupid questions about "how does that make you feel" were extremely irritating, not to mention as everyone else has said that everything was blown up to a sense of high drama. OK this is BBC3 which is dumbed-down TV, but still - it was nearly as bad as that programme she did recently on pest infestations (which, mercifully, I also only saw one episode of).

I see in next week's trailer that she reduces some woman to tears over fire risks. Will definitely give that one a miss. Stick to the practical bits, Sarah, you just come across as winding them up otherwise !

Nick

[Tabby]

The severe damp surely wasnt caused by that. I dont remember her finding the cause - I thought a look at the roof would be the first place to start.

NT

[Bert Coules]

It's a matter of fairly constant discussion in the industry as to just how real these "reality TV" programmes actually are (or should be). For all we know, they distraught couple might well have gone into the purchase with completely open eyes, thinking "what a great chance to get on TV, garner some free advice and an equally free survey, and very probably get more and better work done than we could arrange for ourselves".

Bert

[Man at B&Q]

They aren't proper surveys, they are valuation reports for the mortgage company and worth less than you pay fro them.

MBQ

[Huge]

I worked for a TV company (ATV, as was) for several years. And the answer to your question is "Not even remotely".

[Bert Coules]

Exactly. This show, like Grand Designs, is rather more drama than documentary.

Bert

[sm_jamieson]

I'm sure most of us DIYers could do just as good a job as a "professional" surveyor. Certainly all the problems seen in the program could have been spotted. The drains could have been guessed even without a camera. The bow in the wall could have been seen a mile off, and the cracks were rather obvious. Simon.

[Hugo Nebula]

I think the Victorians never bothered putting them up in the first place. The walls she clambered over looked to be there only to support the purlins. At least they were 45-degrees; I've seen purlins propped off a single stack of bricks.

[Tabby]

There were no building regs in the Edwardian era, and issues happened. I forget the stats offhand, but there are a significant percentage of properties from the time that have problems. So if buying Edwardian or Victorian, its sensible to understand what you're getting and check the basics out when buying.

NT

[Bob Eager]

We have an Edwardian house, and the one problem we encountered was that the original purlins (long roof, no intermediate supports) started sagging after the previous owner replaced slate with ceement tiles.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember geoff saying something like:

It was a bit of a relief to see she wasn't obviously up the duff again. Still, early days yet, as you say.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Andy Burns saying something like:

I was intrigued by the magical properties of the screw wall-ties. Apparently, you can drive these in to the end grain of joists and magically stop the wall falling down - without anchoring the joists to anything else internally.

Truly, 'tis sorcery.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Struck me as being quite a difficult job to do - given nothing on that house was square.

[Chris J Dixon]

I didn't hear any mention of how the damp was supposed to have been getting up past the DPC. What I did spot was that the external down pipe, with hopper, seemed to run past the worst corner. I wonder if any remedial work was done there?

Chris

[Andy Burns]

And without checking whether the joists may be rotten ...

I remember older properties having rods inserted from wall to wall within the ceilings, with those large round plates outside, and then tightened (possibly while heated to use the power of contracting steel to tighten them)

Is that still done?

[Chris J Dixon]

It was a little unclear how they were checking that they had indeed hit the joists centrally, or what anchored the brick end of the ties.

A friend once lived in an old end terrace which had a couple of ties, with the traditional external "X", fitted. I was surprised to find, when lifting an upstairs floorboard, that the inboard end of each was a thin strap (no more than 3 mm) set on top of the joist, which had been cut away to take it, and secured with a couple of no 8 woodscrews.

Chris

[Paul - xxx]

Doesn't need much, it's only to stop movement sideways, it's not actually holding the wall up.