Did anyone deal with Kenwood damp proofing?

karlwilding

My only dealing with Kenwood PLC was after buying a property where they had done damp proofing work. In short, I purchased a property with a 20 year guarantee. The damp proofing work they did needs remedial action. I asked for this work to be carried out under guarantee, but was informed by guarantee is null and void because within 3 months of buying the property I did not tear off the bottom of the guarantee and ask for it to be reassigned to me. By the way, there is a fee for reassignment, though this is unspecified. None of this is mentioned on the website.

I spoke with the trade association, the Property Care Association, who have advised me to contact my solicitor and enquire as to why they didn't advise me to change the guarantee. It is apparently an industry practise that guarantees stay with the purchaser, not the property. There is a second type of guarantee that stays with the property, but clearly the previous owners didn't have this. Either way, I spend more money on solicitors, or more money on remedial work.

Implications from my story
1. It's my fault. There's nothing I can do. I should have been more attendant. Don't repeat my mistake, check any guarantee you may be getting.
2. It would be good for MSE to raise awareness of such practise, which I consider to be at the sharp end of what is fair and reasonable. The trade association has no plans to look at such guarantees and very clearly says it cannot tell its members what to do. I work for a trade association and I would contest the latter.
3. I am surprised by and disappointed in Kenwood PLC. For a company that liberally uses the words 'trust', 'genuine guarantees' and 'peace of mind', I am struggling to reconcile their statements with their actions. You may wish to take this into consideration when selecting a supplier.
4. The workmanship - replastering an external-facing wall in a victorian cottage using their presumably proprietary approach - appears to have lasted for 5 years.

And finally: in my email to Kenwood asking about the guarantee I also asked them for a quote in relation to some other, unrelated work. They completely ignored this and focused on the guarantee issue. It appears they were so focused on highlighting that they are not responsible they missed the opportunity for further work.

new_owner

BluHed wrote: »

The above website is an absolute load of rubbish. Do you honestly think that the damp proofing industry would have been allowed to continue for as long as it has if "Rising dampness" could be so easily and readily proven non-existent?

I do...

BluHed wrote: »

The industry is a huge part of modern day construction with the majority of the companies offering services within the newbuild as well as existing structure markets.

Does this not say more about the state of modern buildings and their construction? Most UK stock housing does not have any damp proof course at all and problems with damp are more attributed to new building materials applied to older housing stock by professionals.

This says more about the state of the industry or find an issue or make one up to make a fast £ than anything else.

BluHed wrote: »

Basically speaking and you can do this in your own home, put a bath sponge in a shall bowl of water and watch what it does. It will absorb the water up through the sponge due to capillary action. Bricks (and mortar joints) are very similar to sponges in this sense as the capillaries contained within allow passage of moisture the same way. Obviously there are variables such as the amount of ground water present, the type of brick and size of capillaries but it is common sense and an undeniable fact of physics.

Have you tried this? It does not work with a sponge, brick or cement. Try it.. stick a brick in a tub of water and watch the top half stay dry. Or try with a sponge or some cement... then tell me rising damp exists...

BluHed wrote: »

I have worked in this industry for over 20 years now and I have seen a lot of people wrongly diagnosing rising dampness, I can put my hands up and say I have more than likely wrongly diagnosed it myself during my career but that is not to say it does not exist.

So you wrongly diagnose damp as rising damp yet you are sure it exists??? based on what??

What about the people you wrongly diagnosed. Did you cover up the problem? make the situation worse?

You have provided no factual information. No links.


or from the RICS

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/home/-rising-damp-is-a-myth-says-former-rics-chief/5204095.fullarticle

However he was trying to sell a book

or heritage house

http://www.heritage-house.org/the-fraud-of-rising-damp.html

But if you can prove a case of rising damp then there is money to be made.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/property-rising-damp-no-such-thing-1295773.html

doitright

Do NOT USE KENWOOD.

I used them on the recommendation of the estate agent that sold me a house after the survey showed some damp. They did not come the day they said they would and when they did come, they trashed the house. They trashed carpets, spilled plaster everywhere, did a very poor plastering job. The guys who did it were in a total rush and did not care about the quality of the job or my house. Then, before we had even seen the finished job they were on the phone bullying us for payment. When we complained, they were not interested and we were left carrying several thousand pounds worth of damage they caused. A horrible company- I would never use them again

Flambie

The Kenwood people who have come to my house have always been on time and polite. Unfortunately the work done was a waste of time and the damp, or "salt contamination" as they called it, returned almost immediately. 14 months later I am still having regular emails with Kenwood's Customer "service" manager, who has been rude, condescending and deliberately misleading. I have asked to have contact details of the MD, who he says has refused my claim, and he has refused to give them. You will note that there are no names on their website. So my only recourse is to approach the PCA as advised on this forum! I have never before been treated so badly by so-called Customer Service. Do not use this company.

bildersfriend

We have had historically damp issues and its back again and the company we used has gone out of business! So many stories on the net about scams and dodgy companies any help much appreciated.

Meka

Be careful with then , as they do not tell you that you will loss your deposit for any booked work. They book in a date with in the 14day cancellation period which they do not tell you about. The confirmation email sent has it in small print . Their customer service director Gary Omali does not care as far as he has your money.
Be ware

Mateen

My recent - last week - experience with Kenwood PLC has been terrible. I later read the reviews. I wish I'd looked for reviews before. If you're new moving into the house then maybe not a bad thing, but if you're repairing the property you're in then stay away. The staff are terrible. If I'd known before I would have saved myself the bother.

Mutton_Geoff

karlwilding wrote: »

My only dealing with Kenwood PLC was after buying a property where they had done damp proofing work. In short, I purchased a property with a 20 year guarantee. The damp proofing work they did needs remedial action. I asked for this work to be carried out under guarantee, but was informed by guarantee is null and void because within 3 months of buying the property I did not tear off the bottom of the guarantee and ask for it to be reassigned to me. By the way, there is a fee for reassignment, though this is unspecified. None of this is mentioned on the website.

I recently bought a house where Kenwood had carried out damp and woodworm treatment ten years ago and provided a thirty year "guarantee".

I called them to transfer the remaining warranty over into my name and they charged me around £150 each for the two policies. This is borderline fraud since the change of owner has no bearing on their risk and their admin work to change a name must have taken them all of 5 mins.

I'd avoid them.

Patch08

After going round in circles I finally seem to have found a thread that makes sense. Have you come across a company called Aquapol? I want to make my cellar dry enough to store things in. I live in a 400 year old cottage and I’m not allowed to, or want to, tank it. Along with repointing the flint walls Aquapol appear to be my answer. But is it a con? All reviews I can find are only on Aquapol’s site.

BluHed wrote: »

I'm sorry for perhaps going slightly off topic but I couldn't bite my tongue any longer and the content of the above website is making me shake my head in absolute disbelief. By this author stating that rising dampness is a myth, by definition, they are calling me a liar and saying that the mainstream service that I offer is fraudulent, using a fictitious phenomena to make money out of people.

The above website is an absolute load of rubbish. Do you honestly think that the damp proofing industry would have been allowed to continue for as long as it has if "Rising dampness" could be so easily and readily proven non-existent?

The website has been written with so many obvious ommisions of scientific fact that it may have just been written by a 5 year old except that if you had no understanding of the problem first hand, it may actually be deemed as believable.

The industry is a huge part of modern day construction with the majority of the companies offering services within the newbuild as well as existing structure markets.

Firstly, the majority of research within the damp proofing industry is carried out by the UK Building Research Establishment who are an independent institution that offer resources, training, certification and testing in every aspect of construction. Do you not think that if rising dampness was a pack of lies, the main construction research institute in the UK wouldn't have sounded the whistle?
Even RICS, the royal institute of chartered surveyors and the institute of structural engineers are fully aware of rising dampness and its causes and offer recommendations and methods of eradication.
These are people that are in no way connected to the damp proofing industry but are independent construction professionals whos work provides the backbone for construction practices and materials in the UK and abroad. You ask them to read the above website and see what they say!

It is true that rising dampness is often mis-diagnosed as there are numerous other possibilities contributing to the cause and passage of dampness in structures and it takes a good surveyor with the right equipment and experience to be able to make the correct diagnosis.

The next question you may ask yourself is "What is rising dampness?"
Wikipedia has a whole page that very nicely describes everything so it's worth reading on there rather than me writing it all out here but in a nutshell; "Rising damp is the common term for the slow upward movement of water in the lower sections of walls and other ground-supported structures by capillary action."

Basically speaking and you can do this in your own home, put a bath sponge in a shall bowl of water and watch what it does. It will absorb the water up through the sponge due to capillary action. Bricks (and mortar joints) are very similar to sponges in this sense as the capillaries contained within allow passage of moisture the same way. Obviously there are variables such as the amount of ground water present, the type of brick and size of capillaries but it is common sense and an undeniable fact of physics.

I have worked in this industry for over 20 years now and I have seen a lot of people wrongly diagnosing rising dampness, I can put my hands up and say I have more than likely wrongly diagnosed it myself during my career but that is not to say it does not exist.

There is such a mass of "factual" information out there that you can easily find on the subject and I would ask that you please read whatever you can on the subject rather than "nonfactual" garbage as displayed in the website above.

There is so much more I could write on the subject but I feel that I'm ranting on too much so I'll leave it to you but I just wanted to show an argument to the contrary of the previous post.
As a footnote, I would like to say that the main problem within the damp & timber industry is not whether these things exist, it's the choice of company to carry out rectification works.
As with any industry, there are cowboys out there that bring our profession into disrepute but I have always found that customer reviews are "normally" the best way to gauge the professionalism of a company and the service that you can expect to receive. DO look online for reviews, DO ask about companies on forums such as these but DO NOT rely solely on memberships to certain organisations and regulatory bodies to guarantee a good, unbiased and professional service.

Please feel free to contact me to discuss any aspect of dampness and I will do my best to offer good old fashioned free advice.

Rant over!

FreeBear

Patch08 wrote: »

After going round in circles I finally seem to have found a thread that makes sense. Have you come across a company called Aquapol? I want to make my cellar dry enough to store things in. I live in a 400 year old cottage and I’m not allowed to, or want to, tank it. Along with repointing the flint walls Aquapol appear to be my answer. But is it a con? All reviews I can find are only on Aquapol’s site.

Here's one opinion for you - https://www.heritage-house.org/damp-and-condensation/the-damp-con-collection/electro-osmosis-damp-proofing-systems-an-expensive-fraud.html

There are two types: active and passive; neither has been approved by a recognised laboratory. By far the greater number of systems are of the passive kind, where there is no external source of electricity. They have always been something of a controversial issue. On theoretical grounds, it remains a mystery as to how they can work; their effectiveness has not been demonstrated in the laboratory and field evidence is disappointing.

If you look at the gumph that Aquaoil spew out on their web site, you'll note that most of it is pseudoscience in the hope that will baffle the gullible. Ask yourself one very simple question - How can a fancy lampshade hanging in a room cure damp ?