Dampproof Guarantee problems

BenCad

I had a new dampproof course installed about 4 years ago when i moved into my house. The work was guaranteed. Recently a different builder pointed out that the dampproof course was 2 courses higher at the side of the house than at the front, and that this was a mistake. I contacted the original builder to ask him to look at it and he quoted a clause in my guarantee. This states that i have to pay £195 for him to come and inspect his own work. If he agrees that it is faulty then i will get this money back, but obviously i am worried that he may say there is no problem and i will loose my money.
Clearly i should have read the guarantee more carefully, but this call out fee seems extortionate.
Does anyone have any idea what i should do?

SG27

Is it stopping the damp problem? If so I expect he will say there is nothing wrong. If you have the same damp problem again I'm not sure he could talk his way out of it.

The call out fee is obviously to discourage people from making a claim on the guarantee!

whatatotaljoke

Injected dpc's do not work anyway regardless of height. Fact.
Your property should have one anyway from when it was built. Even without one you won't get rising damp unles the source of the water is pressurised. Capillary action up walls is a massive misconception.

Does Venice suffer with rising damp?

The damp industry is one of the biggest frauds in the UK. Electrical hand held so called damp meters are deliberately used to mis-sell useless products when the true cause of damp is usually condensation.
Electrical meters probe the SURFACE. Core samples should have been tested to prove you had rising damp prior to any remedial works.

I would be knocking on the damp proofers door asking why he has knowingly taken money from you when all he had to say was open a window or install an extractor fan to reduce the humidity.

Go to - heritagehouse . org

DRP

I can recommend the above heritagehouse website - and also the youtube channel of the guy who runs the site - it is an eye opener on the chemical damp proof industry.

Gordon_Hose

http://www.heritage-house.org/

https://www.youtube.com/user/stibnite11

I watched a lot of his videos and they are an eye opener.

BenCad

Thanks for the replies, I had to have the damp course installed because of the survey. I think you're right about it being a scam, there's certainly no damp problem at the moment.
However, I am worried that when i come to sell it, the surveyor will point at the damp course and say it has been installed incorrectly, and i'll have to pay for a new one.

SG27

BenCad wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, I had to have the damp course installed because of the survey. I think you're right about it being a scam, there's certainly no damp problem at the moment.
However, I am worried that when i come to sell it, the surveyor will point at the damp course and say it has been installed incorrectly, and i'll have to pay for a new one.

There was probably was no damp problem before either then. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

teneighty

A damp proof course should be relative to the internal floor level and external ground level (physical or chemical DPC).

It is acceptable to step the damp proof course provided it is overlapped therefore the fact that the side is higher than the front may not be an issue, subject to the above. However, what you often see is the external ground level is too high so the remedial DPC firms just drill 150mm above external ground level so you end up with the DPC too high, often higher than the internal floor level and therefore a waste of time unless the walls are also tanked.

If the installer is going to charge £195 to inspect and probably shrug his shoulders and say its fine, you might as well pay an independent surveyor £200 or so to get an independent report. You can then use that report as leverage against the original installer.

societys_child

BenCad wrote: »

Recently a different builder pointed out that the dampproof course was 2 courses higher at the side of the house than at the front, and that this was a mistake.

Well, who'd have thought, a builder tuts, takes a sharp intake of breath and tells you another builder has done it wrong. Builders don't do things like that . . . do they?
:rotfl:

Furts

societys_child wrote: »

Well, who'd have thought, a builder tuts, takes a sharp intake of breath and tells you another builder has done it wrong. Builders don't do things like that . . . do they?
:rotfl:

I posted yesterday along similar lines to dominoman regarding his plastering. Consumers should never take the word of a builder, or in my particular post that of a subby - slang for sub-contractor, typically a one man band construction self employed person.

Countless folks in the construction industry are not adequately trained and are unable to give genuine technical advice. But still people fall for all the BS!

And do not think I am knocking the construction industry and its' workers. I work in it and I know the reality.

BenCad

I shouldn't have described him as a builder, the man who said the damp course was in the wrong place was a surveyor from Peter Cox. I believe they have quite a good reputation, and he certainly seemed more professional than the first lot. He certainly wasn't pitching for extra work.

I was really hoping if someone could advise me on how to avoid the £195 call out fee the original builder is asking for.