Advice needed on house purchase

Hi all, we are in our cooling off period for a 1930-40s house in the St George Area of Sydney

Just did the B/P report and came back with a few issues:

- The timber flooring of dwelling is generally out of level.
- No access was gained to sub-floor, this is unfortunate and faults, decay or pest damage may have gone undetected to inaccessible areas, this said, a worst case needs to be taken into account, this may be to replace some of the lower level flooring where necessary.
- No current leaking shower recess observed. Tap to upper level shower may need repair by a plumber.
- Sinks of vanity units to the three bathrooms have no s-trap under sinks, this detail needs to be improved by a plumber.
- Laundry needs to have an extraction fan added, mould observed within the laundry.

My main concern is the uneven flooring, we are going to get a 2nd opinion to try to get access to the sub-floor. Speaking with the inspector, it might be because the house is poor ventilated and there is moisture and humidity in the sub-floors causing the floors to be uneven or potentially termite damage (no other evidence of termites found in rest of house)

question is - is this a big issue and if it is, what $$$ are we looking at to fix/replace the flooring?

 

You don't mention the construction type of the dwelling...

 

My bad , it is:

a self standing double storey dwelling, brick veneered and clad timber framed construction, suspended timber flooring and/or suspended concrete flooring and/or concrete slab on ground/fill flooring. Corrugated metal gable roof with split levels.

 

Given the age of the property it doesn’t sound that bad...

I would suggest that it might be hard to get access to the sub floor, as the inspector will only see what is easily visible.

they aren’t in the business of pulling things apart and putting them back together

 

I have an older house in Sydney, the floor wasnt level when we bought it. It's pretty common.

How bad is it? The simple fix for the floor level is get a handyman or carpenter or a friend and lift up the areas between the joist and stumps with a bottle jack up to 10-20mm and shove in some structural plastic packers. Won't take more than a few hours. Expect to get some wall and skirting cracks from this process.

 

I was told it can muck up alignment of kitchen cabinets too depending on which part of the house is moving. Could doors also need adjustment after?

 

Yeah, that, and now that you mention it better avoid the bathroom it will crack your tiles and that will cost you unless you are already planning a bathroom reno.

 

Sounds like a lot of trouble

Also - we got another inspector in and there seems to be random pieces of fibro cement sheeting in the sub-floors lying around. Coincidentally we have same issue with place we are living in!

Should we be concerned as we don’t want to buy or live where asbestos is seeping through

 

This is why the inspector I got said it's probably not worth leveling the kitchen. It was visible to my untrained eye, but it's not like a speed bump in the floor. I recall reading that depending on what type of ground the house is built on the floor could move a little - I think clay swells and shrinks.

Not a builder, but I assume if the property is quite old, then any repairs (my guess is bathroom/kitchen/laundry leaks is most likely areas where there would be asbestos sheeting and a repair needed) over the 30+years may result in small pieces being left in the subfloor. Risk of exposure can't be that high considering the small pieces are in the subfloor area. If small pieces were strewn all over the yard, that'd be quite worrying.

Again I'm not a builder but have been told this by the building inspectors I've used in the past and also stated on several websites. Asbestos generally doesn't seep in as the fibers are usually bonded together into a sheet or something. If it's broken for any reason, then fibers could "seep" or more float in I guess, but it should be painted to seal the fibres where the break is.

Overall I suggest speaking to your building inspector as they should be well qualified to give you verbal advice on your concerns.

 

Having done a few renos, if its laying around usually because in the building or repairs process offcuts fall to the ground nobody bother picks it up. Not a big risk unless disturbed. Eg start cutting or drilling into it. If it bothers you you can get someone to remove it, its not as expensive as people make it out to be particularly if its not affixed to anything.

If there's fibro on the ground it probably means part of the house is fibro - look for anything built in 1980s like the extension, laundry, shed. Back in the day it was used for its strong fire resistance and durability. Again not really a problem, the asbestos are contained in the sheet unless you disturb it. When you decide you want to renovate thats when you call in someone to remove the sheeting and replace it with something else.