surveyor found only one cavity wall tie in cavity wall!

[donaldsonedward]

We have just had a specialist survey done on the cavity wall ties in a 1930'sproperty we are hoping to purchase after the homebuyer report recommended further inspection. He has said he can only see one wall tie! He has sinse said we need to get new wall ties throuout the cavity walls and this will be a large expense.
Can anyone tell me if this is the correct information before we folk out a great deal of money. Does anyone know aprox costs for wall tie cavity installation? Is is common to find that there are very few wall ties? Is this not ok, if it has been this way for 70 odd years already?
Thanks for any help
kate

[LCL]

Interesting. Your surveyor was quite right to recommend further inspection as this would have clearly been beyond the scope of an HBS.

Is the 'specialist' a company that stand to make money out of installing wall ties, ie a contractor? My advice would be to phone around your local Chartered Building Surveyors and ask one with a Boroscope / Endoscope to carry out the inspection. They will charge for it, but you will get totally independent advice whcih will either save you a lot of money in the long term or will be piece of mind by confirming an appropraite repair required.

The information sounds jubious to me. I have never come across a house with only one wall tie. The leaves of the walls would be strucutrally unsound and slender. This would likely result in bowing to the walls along with other general distortion.

Also consider going back to the original surveyor and ask for him to explain why he thought the appointment of a specialist was necessary. In a typical 1930's house, flat metal wall ties would have been used. As these corrode they expand and cause horizontal cracking at around 18" centres. If this is visible, then there must be more than one wall tie.

hope this helps.

LCL