Survey - Dodgy Floor - Inspection Recommended. What do you think?

Az_GTi

Az_GTi

Az_GTi

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Just after a few opinions if you don't mind.

House survey on mid 1960's build property (suspended floor) highlights excessive springiness in one room, along with fairly high damp readings. Suggesting there is likely some issues with the subfloor / joists. It's categorised as Level 3.

I know these surveys are a lot about ass covering, but the "flexi" flooring was something we clearly noticed. Worst area had a large sports bag and chair conveniently located on that area, so we didn't notice full extent. I think one area has been patch repaired (new floorboard).

Anyway survey recommends an inspection, meaning pulling back some carpet and lifting a few floorboards. That way it would be possible to "see" the problem. We have offered to do this and respectfully/carefully.

However the seller doesn't want to allow this, citing concern over inconvenience and damage being caused.

I'm thinking that anyone viewing/buying this property though is going to notice this issue, and/or at least any decent survey would highlight it. So, are we right to be cautious and should we push to have an inspection carried out, even if they do it? Or are we being unreasonable and just one of them things with a property or this age?

Sorry lots of words just appreciate any thoughts, maybe you or someone you know has been in same boat?

Cheers
 
If they won't allow a more thorough inspection, I'd think very carefully:

Our house has an overly bouncy floor in the two of the three upstairs bedrooms - we're having the subfloor ripped out and replaced tomorrow, but have to do each room in turn, as we're already living in it.

I've spent the past couple of weeks completely emptying our son's bedroom, ready for the carpet to come up and work to start (also taking the opportunity to plaster & redecorate, whilst the room is empty).

We'll have spent approx £4k in materials & labour once it's all done, not including the new vinyl flooring (another £400) and paint (custom Xbox green & charcoal grey from Valspar - another £240!)...

Sitting downstairs, trying to eat a meal or watch a movie, whilst our son gets overexcited during a Rocket League tournament, squeak-squeak-squeaking every few seconds, has driven us loopy.

We're hoping it's fixed by just replacing the ply subfloor and that the joists don't need anything doing (we have a contingency fund if they do). We'll also be filling the gaps between the joists with Rockwool, to hopefully improve the soundproofing, but it's a 1960's PRC Ex-council build, with notoriously thin walls/floors, so I'm not expecting miracles.

We knew the subfloors needed doing when we bought the place and should have done it last summer whilst the ground floor ceiling was replaced, but funds were tight.

If it hadn't been for the huge Right to Buy discount, we'd never have considered purchasing it.
 
I would expect a 60’s house to be cavity masonry so what ever damp has occurred will likely be coming from beneath rather than through the wall - as such, and given the floor is suspended timber, there is a good chance a more serious issue is occurring beneath the sub floor void which may require the complete overhaul of the joists - this is a problem that could rapidly become expensive to rectify.

Either they allow a damp and timber guy to go in and diagnose (these inspections are usually free and might diagnose without intrusive investigation) or you renegotiate the price.
 
Basically you have enough evidence to reasonably give the seller two options

A. No additional survey, but will assume the worst and budget £x,000 for repairs, so lower the offer.
B. Have the additional survey which will then appease other buyers as well, will negotiate once particulars are known.

Basically, do not buy without a further survey or 'worse case' cost factored in a revised offer.

Some people will still refuse, they 'hope' the next person is stupid enough to not do a survey or gloss over it..
 
I'm going to go slightly against the grain here and suggest that I'm not sure how big of a deal a bouncy suspended floor actually is. A day emptying the room, listing the carpet and floorboards, reinforcing the joists with noggins and / or sistering the joists, and it would be sorted for a couple of hundred quid and some effort.
 
Participant said:
I'm going to go slightly against the grain here and suggest that I'm not sure how big of a deal a bouncy suspended floor actually is. A day emptying the room, listing the carpet and floorboards, reinforcing the joists with noggins and / or sistering the joists, and it would be sorted for a couple of hundred quid and some effort.
Click to expand...
only if there's not an underlying issue causing the bouncy floor.
 
Participant said:
I'm going to go slightly against the grain here and suggest that I'm not sure how big of a deal a bouncy suspended floor actually is. A day emptying the room, listing the carpet and floorboards, reinforcing the joists with noggins and / or sistering the joists, and it would be sorted for a couple of hundred quid and some effort.
Click to expand...
and if it is due to dry rot or similar you `might` have to have the entire floor removed,render the downstairs walls,replace door linings and skirting etc
Worst case i grant you but dry rot can go through a house unseen
 
Participant said:
I'm going to go slightly against the grain here and suggest that I'm not sure how big of a deal a bouncy suspended floor actually is. A day emptying the room, listing the carpet and floorboards, reinforcing the joists with noggins and / or sistering the joists, and it would be sorted for a couple of hundred quid and some effort.
Click to expand...
Put your money where your mouth is!
 
Hi all. That's for your input, a lot of which mirrors our thoughts.

RedMogg I had read through your thread before posting actually! Seems like you got a lot going on!

Demon - that is basically the conclusion we came to. We're getting estimates together for various scenarios including worst case. To be honest much of this work I could do myself - and add celotex insulation at the same time. It's the unknown with regards to dry rot. If we could just lift/view the corner area then the situation becomes clearer. I kind of understand with regards to invasiveness though.

The surveyor seems to think that dry rot is unlikely but not sure how he could know. It is suspended timber design. The outside of the property (back/side) in the room affected is covered in bush/growth and inside is poorly ventilated, so the thinking is that's attributing to the damp readings.

We need to go back and view again, paying closer attention to flooring in other rooms, 2 of them are hardwood so maybe not so easy to feel movement as ones with carpet. If the movement is contained to one room/area then I might be prepared to take a risk and sort it but if more widespread it becomes too much work/inconvenience and will walk away.

We'll see and I'll do an update in due course...

Cheers
 
I have a dipped floor in my back room. The survey didn't pick it up but as soon as I moved in and walked in there with no furniture around it was obvious there was an issue.

Looking through the outside airbrick holes I can see what looks like a partially collapsed dwarf wall. So I need to access the sub floor, rebuild the dwarf wall and probably sit some new joists on it.

It will be disruptive job but I don't think particularly difficult.

I've also had issues with both upstairs bedrooms where chimney breasts were removed in the past and the floor repair not done well. Again the survey didn't detect it (my survey appears to have been not worth the paper it was written on). I had to lift boards and try to reinforce with extra timber and then re level the floor with a plywood covering.
 
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We viewed a house before buying our current one that had a springy living room floor.
After getting a survey we decided we didn't want the faff of ripping floors out.
 
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