Rising Damp issue please help!

McDuck

Warning long read!

We recently had some work done on some rising damp in our house. This was fine on 2 walls but one wall didn’t dry so we called the guys back after 6 months and now 6 inches above the work they have done is a big wet patch (about 3 feet from the ground). This damp patch appeared very shortly after they had done the work. They have stated that this is penetration damp. This only appeared after they had done the work there was no sign before they did the work - our surveyor, before we brought the house, stated that there was rising damp but no penetration damp.

They have accepted that their work was defective and will fix the rising damp element of the problem. But are denying any link with the other damp issue.:mad:

This has prompted a few questions that I hope that you guys can help with:

1 Is it likely that penetration damp would occur in these circumstances as an independent event (as it strikes me as a HUGE coincidence.)

2 Do you think that I am being unreasonable in asking the rising damp people to rectify this issue (that wasn’t there before they started the work)

Thanks in advance for any advice that you can add

wolvesinwales

I was once told that rising damp does not rise higher than 4 feet, anything higher than this is likely to be from another source.

PROFESSIONAL_LANDLORD

They have stated that this is penetration damp.


Did they say were they thought the penetrating damp was coming from ?


What is the condition of the pointing on the affected wall ?

McDuck

wolvesinwales wrote: »

I was once told that rising damp does not rise higher than 4 feet, anything higher than this is likely to be from another source.

Thanks, it is just strange that we had no issues they do the work and then the issues appear.

McDuck

PROFESSIONAL_LANDLORD wrote: »

They have stated that this is penetration damp.


Did they say were they thought the penetrating damp was coming from ?


What is the condition of the pointing on the affected wall ?

The wall is approx 4 ft from our lower front door (our kitchen is semi basment hence damp is an issue) and is under the stairs that lead to the upper front door pointing seems fine, no obvious problems - Nor did the surveyor pass comment in the home buyers report.

PROFESSIONAL_LANDLORD

They have accepted that their work was defective and will fix the rising damp element of the problem. But are denying any link with the other damp issue.


The work that they are coming back to do, is that below the damp patch ?

somefriendlyuk

hello, the dampness appears to be what we call 'creep' -a wall is done to 1.2m or 600mm above the evident damp (current standard) and some time later the damp is slightly higher. If this happens the contractor is only liable if he hasn't gone to the correct height but anyone worth there salt (unless there from some of the bigger companies)would rectify the problem as an act of goodwill-it dosent take much time or money. By the way -i know the vast majority of of rising damp issues are only a 'couple of feet' but i have seen it to the full heigh of internal load bearing walls with no other explanation other that rising damp. & 999 out of a thousand surveyors and builders will tell you thats impossible!