Survey says rising damp - what next?

GLeoC

Tried that first, no independent surveyors listed for N. Ireland. Maybe they don't exist over here.:(

keystone

GLeoC wrote: »

Tried that first, no independent surveyors listed for N. Ireland. Maybe they don't exist over here.:(

PM David Aldred - he'll probably know someone.

Cheers

SGE1

So the man from Rentokil came round and diagnosed - surprise surprise - some rising damp. Not a lot of it mind - he's proposing to charge £350 for the actual damp proof course, which is ok - but then £650 for replastering! Which seems a bit mental. It's a area of about 1x1m - it'll take our plastered (who charges £130/day) about 2 hours to do it.

I've got a quote for a proper damp surveyor to draw up a report - £140. However, I'm wondering whether this is really worth it. It's a really small area, there's absolutely no sign of damage since it was repainted several months ago; and if it's possible that there's no such thing as rising damp, well, what's the point?

SeriouslySeekingtoSave

These 'rising damp' concerns seem to mostly be a load of !!!!!!!!. I had the same report done on my housing survey for my ground floor flat and the people who were in it before said that the only issue they had with dampness is because they didn't have an extractor fan in the bathroom and there was moisture inside during winter. After having lived there for over a year and having ripped up all the carpets to restore my lovely, damp free, wooden floor boards, I can completely agree with them.

The people who owned the house before them had obviously had the same 'problem' and had actually paid to have the flat 'fixed'. The guarantee looked all very pretty and the company no longer existed so looking pretty was all it had going for it. The 'reputable' company who quoted me a hefty fee for fixing exactly the same as had already been fixed, didn't respond to me when I told them that what they were saying 'needed' to be done had already been done about 5 years ago and did they have any comment?

btw the places that had possible 'rising damp' was the wall around the bathroom and the little bit of the kitchen. Oddly enough the two places in a property that generates a lot of internal steam...

End conclusion from me - rising damp is a genuine problem in some cases but people are being conned out of hard earned cash to 'fix' issues that don't exist. If you can't actually 'see' the evidence of rising damp (and according to the photo's I've seen it's pretty damn distinctive) then don't part with your money.

Leif

SeriouslySeekingtoSave wrote: »

End conclusion from me - rising damp is a genuine problem in some cases but people are being conned out of hard earned cash to 'fix' issues that don't exist. If you can't actually 'see' the evidence of rising damp (and according to the photo's I've seen it's pretty damn distinctive) then don't part with your money.

That is the opinion I have formed after reading around, and I am led to wonder why there is no legislation to deal with the charlatans (not that all damp proofing companies are charlatans, of course, just some).