The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Mon Dec 12, 2005 10:43 pm**

We moved into our first bought house 10 months ago. V excited - had all interiors and gardens redecorated. Our new solid wooden floors downstairs have popped up (bowed) during the last 2 months - the joiner found a mouldy damp floorboard at the back patio doors. When lifted, it revealed damp inside the wall under the patio doors, seems the back outside step has dropped and could be letting rain in? We have also noticed that the paved patio area gets flooded right outside this step when it rains. The large lawned garden above this patio (2 steps higher) slopes down towards the house too. The patio area is only 2 flags deep from the house to raised lawn, running width of house (about 8 metres) round side of house into front of house under front window and door.

So, we think we could either:
1. Patio is rubbish anyway, very old and just cheap concrete flags laid - not level and clearly not running down into drain just 2 feet from patio doors. Clearly being made worse by sloping garden running into it.

2. Step to patio doors and house has dropped and letting rain in (step, doors and extension about 20 years old).

Or presumably we should have both possibilities sorted out asap anyway? We're thinking we should do this and get all paving on this patio, side of house and into front patio area done all at once properly.

If so, how much are we looking at? Seen some nice stone slabs in B&Q for approx. Â£160 for 42 slabs? We wouldn't do it, could we pay our gardeners or get a builder or paver in?

Also, we paid Â£300 for a homebuyer's report - should they have spotted this? A builder who has visited said there's moss on our extension wall meaning it is damp in there and they should have spotted that. Can we claim with Homebuyers Report company? Or is is a Buildings Insurance claim?

Many questions - we're new to this! Please advise!

Many thanks
Sonja and Neil

Posted: **Tue Dec 13, 2005 1:46 pm**

The homebuyers report isn't worth the paper its written on. There are so mnay exclusion clauses in there that extricate them gfrom any responsibility for anything. If it was dry when they did the survey it will say they can't predict what would happen when it rained, and if it was raining they wouldn't have hung around outside for long anyway.

The insureres will claim that it was a pre-existing problem and you should have told them about it when you bought the house (even though you coudln't have known about it) and anyway they don't deal with timber decay, poor workmanship, wrong materials or bad construction design.

Cynical, moi?

Posted: **Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:21 pm**

Uuuh. So how much do you think we're talking - sealing step and repaving?

Do you know of any good drainage pavers in the Bradford area?

Posted: **Wed Dec 14, 2005 9:59 pm**

Two points:

1 - I would definitely complain to the clowns that carroed out the HB report, and inform your mortgage company by cc-ing them in on any correspondence. These reports are, as Jon said, hardly worth the paper they;re written on, but unless we complain and make the mortgage providers sit up and take notice, they'll continue to fleece the unsuspecting public. It's also worth contacting Trading Standards for their advice.

2 - I can't figure out how a dropped step and iffy patio can enable water to enter the property unless the paving is higher than, or very close to, internal floor level. Water does not travel uphill of its own accord - it needs wicking or pumping. What is there that could cause this to happen?

Posted: **Thu Dec 15, 2005 6:11 pm**

Thanks for this. I think will definitely write to HB Report and Mortgage anyway, you never know.

We've been looking closely at where the damp was:

This was about 2 months ago, 2 patches of damp about 30cm by 15cm in size. One patch in middle of patio doors, under the floorboard against house brickwork, directly behind dropped step. 2nd patch to the right of patio doors on floorboard (now removed and replaced), but behind the end of the outside step. At first we thought this wall could be damp from something else, ie damp proof but no other evidence of damp ie. wall paper not stained and dry,ceiling great and only small part of floorboard with a damp patch so still looking like step related.

The Brew Cabin

Patio drainage and insurance?