Where to start - looking for someone to treat damp (independent)?

JustAnotherSaver

We have a damp issue HERE

Which we got looked at by Peter Cox who i raised my concerns about HERE.

Now if we go to a one man band independent person, then who do we get to assess the job & how do we find them?

We didn't know anyone to go to to begin with & was put on to Peter Cox by someone we know who was very happy with their work but we've read so much negativity about them that we have doubts.

We don't doubt what they say is true (most of it) because we can see the damp for ourselves.
We have reservations about the wall that splits the living room & hall & the hall itself, but we know which walls visibly need doing.

Would be better for someone to give a guarantee with the work also. Peter Cox were offering 20 years.

So where do we even begin to find someone? Do we just search any old local builder, or are we searching out just plasterers, or some sort of damp 'specialist'?


I know it was probably a sales pitch from PC, but i wonder about using anyone other than a 'specialist', simply because PC told us about one case they had where a customer kept getting a local plasterer who was taking their money - plastering without solving the damp, so it kept needing doing. This is something we don't want to experience.

geoff45

You mention floorboards in a previous post, you're positive the floor is wooden?

If it is then you really need to make sure that whatever is causing the underfloor space to not do it's job, i.e. allow the evaporation of moisture rising up the walls to happen fully before it gets to floor level, is fixed, regardless of what else is done. If you don't, putting a chemical course will only stop the damp getting above floor level. The underfloor space will still be too damp (and possibly damper now you're trapping the moisture) and potentially causing your floor joists to rot.

Once you do get that fixed you'll probably find you don't need a chemical course put in at all, a correctly functioning underfloor space will be sufficient.

cattie

A few years back when I had a suspected damp problem in a property I'd bought I called a couple of local people out from the small ads in the local paper.

Both turned out to be totally honest & told me that they didn't consider it a major problem & each said they didn't recommend that any work was necessary.

JustAnotherSaver

This is all very frustrating - in that we don't know where to go from here, what to do next.
One corner says do one thing, another says what we've been told is right, another says rising damp is a myth here's the evidence, another says no it's very real here's the evidence. Everyone sounds right. We know nothing ... so it's difficult to decide what to do.

fluffymuffy wrote: »

Is this the party wall between you and your neighbour?

It is.

Could this be a more recent problem caused by hard landscaping raising the level of the patio to allow water to channel into an air brick that was intended to ventilate under the floor.

I don't know anything about all this but i would say not. We've had some rain down & the water doesn't pool at the front of the house near air bricks from what we've seen. Also, the front of the house isn't really a problem. It's the wall that joins onto the neighbour & what was the old external wall out the back which is now leading into an extension.

Is your house on a (slight) hill running front to back? Can we have a photo of the bottom few feet of the face of the building taken outside near the boundary on the uphill side? Particularly near any airbricks?

The air bricks would be on the lower end of the slope though, as the slope is down to the house. Are you talking about sticking the camera near an air brick facing up the drive to the road, or from the top of the drive near the road facing the house?

Ultimately I would have a general builder sort this out. As an architect the whole concept of "Damp Specialists" makes me smile. (!!!!!!?). There is a construction detail failing which has caused your problem and once we understand what it is then a general builder will be able to fix it.

This is the frustrating thing - we don't know what's causing it other than "failing/lacking DPC". IMO failing DPC surely isn't the cause. It just allows damp to progress but it doesn't cause it.
Still, we could have Bob the Builder come & say this is the problem, then we get Frank saying this is the problem, then Jim saying that is the problem. At least 2, maybe even all of them could be wrong, but we don't know.

geoff45 wrote: »

You mention floorboards in a previous post, you're positive the floor is wooden?

Well we have a house from about 1705 which is not cement but a pretty hard floor. Whatever they'll have made it out of. It's solid.

The house we've bought on the other hand you can hear it when you walk along the living room - the wooden boards. When i say "it" i mean the sound of when you walk on wooden boards.

If it is then you really need to make sure that whatever is causing the underfloor space to not do it's job, i.e. allow the evaporation of moisture rising up the walls to happen fully before it gets to floor level, is fixed, regardless of what else is done. If you don't, putting a chemical course will only stop the damp getting above floor level. The underfloor space will still be too damp (and possibly damper now you're trapping the moisture) and potentially causing your floor joists to rot.

What should we expect to see under these boards?
If timeframe is important then the house was built 1932.

cattie wrote: »

A few years back when I had a suspected damp problem in a property I'd bought I called a couple of local people out from the small ads in the local paper.

Both turned out to be totally honest & told me that they didn't consider it a major problem & each said they didn't recommend that any work was necessary.

The wife has been looking up independents who are charging a few £100 just to have a look. I guess this is normal.

Just because they're independent though doesn't mean they'll do a better job. Plus if they end up quoting the same, then we'll be no better off.

I guess the problem isn't 'major' (depending on your take of what major is), but one wall is pretty damp & tacky/sticky. The long party wall has lots of salts coming out of the wall just above the new plaster that's been put on there. The effects of all of this is that the wallpaper on there just bubbles & comes away which we don't want. We'd have to put something against it to hide that, but then that causes its own problems.

ormonde

Have you thought about getting an independent damp survey done?

These people do not actually do the work but will tell you what needs to be done to solve your problem. Because they don't do the work they have no reason to recommend any unnecessary work. They make their money by charging for the survey.

Google for independent damp surveyors to find one near to you.
We have used one in the past and were very satisfied with the advice we received.

JustAnotherSaver

ormonde wrote: »

Have you thought about getting an independent damp survey done?

Yeah we've decided last night/today that we're going to go this route through an URL we were given on this forum - http://www.independentdampsurveyors.co.uk/

I suspect they wont agree with Peter Cox 100%. Question then is, who we get to do the work.

Peter Cox would chip away at the walls, do whatever damp treating they were going to do, replaster, remove & refit skirting, skip hire & removal of stuff.
We'd have to find someone, or more than one person to do that & hope they did a good job. Finding someone would be the hard one as we don't know anyone who does this & the only person we know who's had this type of work done had it done by Peter Cox (who they said they were very happy with).

We agree with some of the work Peter Cox has suggested but we question some of it.

geoff45

The house we've bought on the other hand you can hear it when you walk along the living room - the wooden boards. When i say "it" i mean the sound of when you walk on wooden boards.

Was maybe hoping you'd already peeled back a few carpets to check! I have friends who've had properties (more terraced Victorian in these cases) where random parts have been concreted in, this is a really bad idea since it disrupts the airflow under the floor and prevents any evaporation from the bit where the concrete was sat on.

My own house had been completely concreted in (seemed to be a bit of a 70s/80s thing as a way of 'solving' damp, ofcourse it simply forces the damp around the side and the chemical course never lasts forever) - I've since had it reverted to a full suspended wooden floor and no longer have any rising damp issues at all. It's worth noting that this house doesn't even have a DPC since it was built before they were commonly used. If the underfloor space is working correctly you should not get rising damp, regardless of DPC condition or presence.

What should we expect to see under these boards?

Could be anything - that's half the fun! However what at least should be there is a decent sized void (say at least 150mm below joist bottoms) that is relatively clear of obstructions with a decent amount of non obstructed airbricks in the external walls. Walls below floor level should be bare and free of plaster. Plaster down to soil level will simply wick the moisture straight up the walls.


If you're not in a super rush it might be best to hold fire on some of the decorating for a bit and just live in the place and see what's what, you may well find that much of the damp & damage is down to the previous occupiers causing condensation from being cheap at heating, drying washing indoors and not ventilating sufficiently. Condensation will naturally form lower down walls, and usually behind any furniture since those are the coolest surfaces subject to the least airflow. Even when all the causes of the damp are removed it can take some time for the walls to dry out properly (and consequently the salt blooms to stop appearing). Also any dampness caused by rain will vary based on recent rainfall which makes diagnosing on a single visit a bit hit and miss.

JustAnotherSaver

We had a very interesting conversation with our neighbour today, but i don't know whether i should update this thread or the damp wall thread i made so i'll do that later.

We've contacted 2 independent surveyors for prices & we'll select one of them. One of their websites was interesting. They appeared to be of the school of thought that rising damp doesn't exist.

They go on to say failing DPC is very rare & you'll often get told that the failing DPC is the cause when it isn't.


From all this i am sure of only one thing & that is this....

* Rising damp exists
* Rising damp doesn't exist
* Air bricks need to be blocked up
* Air bricks should never be blocked up
* DPC fails
* DPC doesn't fail
* Replastering will solve
* Replastering wont solve
* It's because of condensation
* It isn't because of condensation

& those are only the ones that come to mind.

In short what i'm saying is that through all this, we've had pointers thrown at us from people intending to help (& we are very grateful). However then you get the people on the other side of the fence who say "that's nonsense, the opposite is true". The problem is both sides give a very solid argument (to us) to back up their statements.

When it comes down to it, they can't ALL be right, so some are by default incorrect. It's just a question of who & that's something we don't know & that is very frustrating.



EDIT: For anyone reading, i have updated the information given to us by our neighbour regards water, sewers, leaks, their damp issues etc HERE in the original thread.

I got some photos for fluffymuffy. I couldn't remember the specific ones you wanted so i just took some. I'll upload these tomorrow evening after work.

JustAnotherSaver

Right fluffymuffy, i got some photos, but when i was there i forgot to note down what you'd asked for so i was going off memory...

Looking up from the bottom of the drive...



It was raining yesterday. Not hard, but a little pool of water at the base of the driveway. We're going to get the drive done to take 2 cars in the near future & i'm wondering about putting some sort of drain channeling (ACO Channel) in there?...



I wonder if the channeling could be run into that downpipe. Well, not the actual downpipe, but into that drain.

fluffymuffy

Perhaps after a good shower there's puddle in front of that air brick with nowhere to drain except into it? You can collect quite a pond under the floor in that way as there's no exit for it. There should be another airbrick under your front window. Perhaps this has a similarly low setting. There should be at least a whole course of bricks under the airbricks.

Your photos show exactly the same scenario where we found dry rot in the living room floor - which completely collapsed.

You need an Aco Channel Drain.

Your neighbours might have a similar feature compounding the problem.

zaax

Who ever put in that drive way should be shot. There should be at least 3 bricks between the damp proof course and the ground. You MUST solve that problem, as you know, it is doing considerable damage to the house

Also you need to ask why your surveyor didn't catch it.