Damp proofing con.

wilbor79

Hi. I bought a house August 18 and was advised in the survey that it had signs of damp. I've had quotes ranging from £2200 - £8500 for different works (tanking or chemical dpc and re-plastering ) I decided to take off the wallpaper in the areas that had the issues only to discover bone dry walls in all but one place. In the only badly effected area was a layer of foil backed wallpaper supposed to deter damp. All of the companies that quoted for the damp proofing came armed only with their two pronged damp meter all claiming rising damp. Upon further inspection of the badly effected area (a single skin internal wall) the plaster was bulging and actually fell off as I removed the wallpaper back down to brick level. The wall was wet and the skirting board rotten. Must be rising damp I assumed!! I met a friend later that same day for a catch-up over a few pints and he started to tell me rising damp isn't real at all it's a massive con and the issue would be caused by modern building materials like gypsum plaster and cement (concrete) that doesn't allow the wall to breathe trapping moisture in the wall and causing the problems. Upon further inspection I've managed to identify the walls have all had a gypsum plaster skim straight over the top of the original lime plaster base no doubt using alot of pva to act as a bonding agent sealing the walls even more and causing all of the supposed rising damp...
How are these damp proofing companies allowed to trade and give advice armed only with a damp meter actually designed for wood not brick or plaster? They didn't even look at the outside conditions or point out two airbricks that had been blocked up thus sealing the houses ability to breathe even more!
If they had done the work the problem would be just hidden and not cured gradually destroying the bricks that hold the house up!
The house actually has holes drilled in to the brick and Supposed damp proofing works done to it in the past obviously it hasn't done what it was supposed to do.

I've found a few videos on YouTube by a chap called Peter ward that I have found incredibly educational and I plan on taking off all the plaster down to brick and starting again with traditional lime render and lime plaster.
Any advice or recommendations (lime plasterers in North Yorkshire)would be greatly appreciated.
Be careful of the Wally damp man with his two pronged lie machine and let's burst this industry wide open and expose it as the scandal it really is.

maisie_cat

This comes up frequently on the house buying & selling forum, usually because somebody has a survey back and is freaked out by the "damp".
The damp treatment merchants are actually aided by the surveyors also using a 2 prong resistance meter to identify "damp".
Buyers don't realise that the meters will measure salts in the plaster as well as water. The buyers are freaked out and demand to renegotiate or pull out of buying perfectly dry houses.

FreeBear

Rising damp does exist - If you have very soft bricks with porous mortar sitting on constantly wet soil, moisture will wick up through the wall. But insert an impermeable layer (slate, plastic or bitumastic DPC), and the wicking effect stops at that point. Very few buildings actually suffer from this defect.


Whilst modern building materials inappropriately used can exacerbate problems with damp, modern lifestyles are also a contributory factor. Poor maintenance, leaking gutters/downpipes, elevated ground levels, etc are other (more likely) sources of damp. Occasionally, building defects such as debris in the cavity are to blame.


The use of injected damp proofing along with waterproof plasters hide the problem in the short term, they are no way as fraudulent as some of the other "cures" being marketed. Schrijver damp proofing (also known as the "Dutch system"), electro-osmosis, and other pseudo-scientific based fixes need to be stamped out.

wilbor79

If very few houses actually suffer from "rising damp" why are these damp proofing companies allowed to diagnose it so readily? I honestly can't believe how many people I've spoken to that have paid out thousands of pounds to have these treatments done! Just walk down any road and you're bound to see the holes drilled in to brick or the mortar and usually just above the perfectly fine dpc.
Daylight robbery in my opinion.
I won't name names but one of the companies that quoted me(a big company,swanky website probably the number one if you googled "damp proofing" spent 10 minutes inside the house jabbing walls before concluding "it's definitely rising damp sir" didn't once look at the outside ground levels,drain pipes ect...
I'm pretty sure if I started selling tap water with the claim" it'll cure baldness" I'd be soon shut down!!