Why Engage A Independent Surveyor?
However Tombleson Associates is an Independent Firm of Specialist Surveyors serving Dorset, New Forest, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, West Sussex and East Sussex.
We act exclusively on your behalf providing a totally impartial report tailored to your specific needs. The details and advice given will allow you to reach a decision, uninfluenced by external considerations and conflicts of interest.
Some Points to Consider:
1. Is the Surveyor going to acting for you exclusively?
2. Do you wish to choose your own Surveyor?
3. Are you confident that your Surveyor is not influenced by external influences?
An Independent Surveyor will:
1. Agree the cost in advance.
2. Agree a timetable.
3. Discuss the contents of the report with you after the inspection.
4. Take into account alterations you may be contemplating & tailor report to your needs.
Please Contact Us Today for a True Independent Property Survey - We Always Offer the Initial Consultation Without Obligation or Cost.
Party Walls And The Story Of Pyramus & Thisbe
Do you know... a neighbour cannot stop someone exercising their rights, but can influence how and when work is done. An Act of Parliament says that a building owner must not cause unnecessary inconvenience and may be liable to provide compensation for any damage caused to a party wall. Paul Tombleson is an expert on Party Wall matters and operates throughout the Southern Counties, in Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex and the Isle of Wight. The New Forest, Southampton and Portsmouth are all within a 35 mile radius of his office. He is a member of the Pyramus & Thisbe Club which exists to keep surveyors up to date with Party Wall matters.
The story of Pyramus & Thisbe (dating from 1st Century AD) tells of star-crossed lovers who have a clandestine affair which is forbidden by their parents. They conduct the affair by secret conversations through a crack in the party wall between their homes. The lovers plan to elope and arrange a secret meeting. A lioness, blooded by a recent kill disturbs Thisbe, who arrives first at the meeting place: she runs and hides, losing her shawl. Pyramus then arrives, sees the lioness and the shawl and assumes Thisbe is dead. He blames himself for causing her death and kills himself on his own sword. Thisbe then emerges from her hiding place, sees her dead lover and decides to leave this earth by way of the same sword.
For a happier conclusion to Party Wall stories, please talk to us! If you are in any doubt that the works you propose may require specific action under the Party Wall etc., Act 1996 (or are concerned about works on an adjoining property) we are pleased to offer initial consultation without charge.
Rising Damp – Does It Actually Exist?
If it exists at all, “Rising” damp describes the upward movement of moisture through building materials by capillary action: in masonry this will seldom achieve a rise exceeding a centimetre or two. Impermeable reservoirs at the base of walls (attributable to non-porous paint for example) may occur by the natural levelling of a water table. Horizontal “bridging”, gravity or condensation are the main causes of dampness in walls.
Expert surveyors at Tombleson Associates examine buildings in Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex and the Isle of Wight; we are often shocked at the misdiagnosis of dampness and the incorrect interpretation of visual evidence or moisture meter readings. We are constantly witness to the expensive and unnecessary destruction of old plaster in houses.
This month (and just in time) at a house in the New Forest we intervened in the proposed re-plastering work and traced the source of moisture to a tiny leak at the roof verge.
Unfortunately the phenomenon of “rising damp” has become endemic – propagated by surveyors in mortgage valuation reports and also in inappropriate remedial works by “specialist” damp treatment contractors obsessed with rising dampness. Most often the removal of rubble “bridges” in wall cavities, together with improvement in ground drainage and exterior ground levels will be the answer: if not, anti-condensation actions, and improved propensity for evaporation will solve the problem. Set a test! ...... does the surveyor know without hesitation, whether the damp meter is calibrated for wood or masonry and when the calibration was last re-set? Keep your money in your pocket unit you are absolutely sure of the correct advice!
Spiders Are Our Friends!
Fully effective treatment may be impossible without causing more damage than the beetles themselves. Spraying toxins into floor voids may cause more harm to household pets than the beetle colonies and will certainly destroy the biggest woodworm predator – the spider. Under floors and in lofts etc., webs are good! Test your surveyor: does he/she know that woodworm can’t thrive with central heating in well insulated buildings? Does your Homebuyer Valuation or Building Survey admit that Death Watch Beetles have probably been in your cottage for centuries and will continue long after you have gone! More than anything, spiders will speed the decline of a beetle population in a well maintained building: by all means keep their webs out of your habitable rooms, but don’t harm them in hidden voids and lofts.
Surface spray treatments are generally ineffective in the long term, so don’t let them happen! Instead, reduce dampness in timber by providing better ventilation and reducing condensation and isolating timber from dampness.
Valuation: Advice From John Ruskin
“It is unwise to pay too much, but worse to pay too little; when you pay too much, you lose a little money, that’s all.
When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the things it was bought to do.
The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. It can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.
There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper; the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey”.
On a continuing basis we investigate values in our region, extending from Dorset to Sussex, including Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The New Forest, Southampton and Portsmouth are within a 35 mile radius of our office.
Our contribution to the continuous valuation debate is to rely heavily upon good comparable market evidence, but never to take anything at face value, always look behind the “evidence”.
