Homes Under The Hammer pair turn Welsh house taken over by ivy into £53,000 profit

When Homes Under The Hammer's presenter Dion Dublin turned up at an auction house in Ffynnongroyw, Flintshire, he was expecting to have difficulty with the village's name pronunciation but he wasn't expecting to be witness to a plant invasion that was in full battle mode at the property.

The BBC's popular day time property programme regularly visits houses that have become rundown because of a leaking roof or a damp course failure but it is a rarer occurrence to find a home that had a damp problem because of aggressive foliage climbing up the outside walls; and Dion was not happy.

He said: "My eye is drawn straight to the ivy, it's everywhere, and it can make your property look very pretty and very quaint but it can cost you a few quid and it can be an absolute nightmare. I hope on this occasion we will be alright." For more property stories sent to your inbox twice a week sign up to the property newsletter here.

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The programme advised viewers that ivy can definitely be a problem with a voice-over from co-presenter Martel Maxwell that said: "If left to run riot the roots of ivy can penetrate walls which can lead to water getting into your property and may even cause structural damage."

When Dion stepped inside the two-bed, end-of-terrace property and it definitely wasn't alright - there were visible damp patches on the walls caused by the annoying creeper outside and in one room Dion is particularly annoyed by it.

He said: "Ivy, here it is on the inside of the building now, and you can see this window here is actually locked but the ivy is that strong that it's forced it open, it's just incredible what ivy can do and how destructive it can be. This is a project that you're going to have to work on from the outside in, the ivy has got to go and when you get inside, deal with the issues the ivy has caused."

The house had quite a long list of work to do that included the overgrown garden and potentially moving the oil tank, there was mould in a few of the upstairs rooms and the kitchen and bathroom needed an upgrade too and, of course, the removal of Dion's favourite plant.

The house went to auction with a guide price of £57,000 and the ivy was not an issue for brothers Aaron and Kane who lived locally and were experienced property renovators - they paid £62,000 for it. They had a budget of £15,000 - £20,000 to do the work and planned to do the majority of it themselves and to turn the house from damp to dreamy in six months.

The show returned eight months later and, although that sounded like it had gone over the estimated time to turn this project around, the brothers said that they had been delayed starting working on it due to another project and the work at this one had only actually taken them four weeks.

The 'to do' list was comprehensive, starting with the ivy to keep Dion happy of course, and then damp proof work, plastering and insulation, new bathroom, new kitchen and utility room, and replacing rotten floorboards.

But maybe the biggest change was the heating. Hoping to improve the energy efficiency rating of the house from a G to a B, the boys had installed an air source heat pump and two banks of roof solar panels. This also meant that the old oil tank in the garden was gone, as were the weeds (including the ivy), and with a new fence and a thorough tidy up the garden update was as impressive as the house.

Apart from the electrical and plumbing work and help from a mate with the decorating, the brothers did all the work themselves and had spent just £15,000 on the transformation, making an overall £77k spend on the project when the purchase price is included. The estate agent returned to estimate the resale value of £130,000.

It would seem that the ivy might have put off other potential buyers but the brothers could see through the foliage and that meant a month of working on the house had given them a pre-tax profit of £53,000; not your average monthly wage in Wales.

This Homes Under The Hammer story was part of series 27 episode six, currently available to view on BBC iPlayer. For more property stories sent to your inbox twice a week sign up to the property newsletter here and join the Amazing Welsh Homes property Facebook group here. For the latest TV and showbiz news sign up to our newsletter here.

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