Damp Survey by PCA Member Kenwood PLC

Doozergirl

Grumpy_chap said:

In one property, full chemical damp course. 
In another property the survey report identified the cause as condensation.  Kenwood did offer a forced ventilation solution, but also identified some blocked air bricks and recommend window upgrade.  We opened up the air bricks and modified the windows, both simple DIY jobs so cheaper than the Kenwood solution and no running costs.  Problem solved and Kenwood made nothing from it - I was impressed that they gave the low cost no order solutions.

@greatcreasted.  If you are tired I

am more tired.  

It all depends on who you get.  Yes, a chemical
dpc, will mask the problem for however
man years but not solve it.  Maybe if the second person had seen the first issue they'd have taken the free advice route as well.  

Grumpy_chap

babyblade41 said:

IMO there is no chemical solution , damp is water ingress finding its way inside... find the source then cure the problem.. usually very cheaply 

You are entitled to your opinion, but in this case your opinion is incorrect.
The root cause was the defective damp course and the chemical treatment has solved it fully.  This was fully investigated by multiple surveyors before spending the money on the chemical treatment.  There were no issues such as soil against the property or other breaches of the damp course.
I won't say any more as, you will probably never accept whatever I say anyway.

I don't understand what @Doozergirl is saying and why there is a need for rude comments about being tired.

Terry9999999

After consulting with Mr Pete Ward who actually wrote the RICS Damp Survey methodology and therefore is regarding as the Country's leading expert on dampness. I can reveal the whole industry is fraudulent. The Property Care Association (PCA) is run by a board of Directors who all have a financial interest in selling chemicals. The PCA Chairman is Hudson Lambert the Sales Director of Safeguard Chemicals who sells millions of pounds worth of toxic chemicals every year to the public which are never needed. The PCA offers three day tick the box examinations for Surveyors such as Kenwood who have no qualifications whatsoever and once completed consider themselves as Surveyors and are even given false qualifications such as CSRT to fool and confuse the public. What a scam! Very cleaver way of selling THEIR Chemicals. Not a single board member or indeed staff at the PCA or their members have any real qualifications they are all chemical salesman. The CEO was apparently a plasterer. Pete Ward has spent the last ten years exposing this fraud and his publications have caused severe damage to the PCA, their members and industry, everyone clearly needs to check our his twitter feed, Youtube channel and website. You actually could not make this up and its about time trading standards/DTI shut the industry down. I have been sold unnecessary buckets of toxic chemicals for a non existent problem which is affecting the sale of my house.
A massive thank you to Pete Ward of Heritage House   https://www.heritage-house.org/damp-and-condensation/all-about-the-pca/property-care-association-rising-damp-and-facebook.html @PeteWard7

Grumpy_chap

I very strongly object to your comments inferring that I am not independent but somehow linked to a company in the damp treatment business.  It is entirely untrue and quite offensive tbh.

Again, you have asked for opinions on a company but being offensive about any post disagreeing with your pre-determined opinion that the company are fraudsters.

I could comment about the other company you mention also, but you are pre-determined that they are angels, so there seems little point.  I leave you to your own research.

babyblade41

Sorry @Grumpy_chap but your findings are wrong... over and out . Just for the record I have never had a damp problem that was solvable through chemicals , only through finding where the water finds its way in.. once that has been found the cure is a pretty simple procedure .

My current house I'm re-furbing atm must have had the chemical process at some point as the tell tale holes are visible..it was still riddled with damp but no longer , as the remedial works to find it and sort it were pretty easy to do after  I purchased the property 
ETA , the previous owner was a vulnerable elderly lady ..enough said 

Grumpy_chap

babyblade41 said:

Sorry @Grumpy_chap but your findings are wrong... over and out . Just for the record I have never had a damp problem that was solvable through chemicals , only through finding where the water finds its way in.. once that has been found the cure is a pretty simple procedure .

My current house I'm re-furbing atm must have had the chemical process at some point as the tell tale holes are visible..it was still riddled with damp but no longer , as the remedial works to find it and sort it were pretty easy to do after  I purchased the property 
ETA , the previous owner was a vulnerable elderly lady ..enough said 

So, how do you resolve it when there is no dpc at the property?  On my property, the original issue was identified through RICS surveyor.
I agree, that chemical treatment should be last resort but if there is not a source of external water entry and no issues of 'bridging' then chemical dpc is cheaper than cutting dpc in retrospectively.

You will note, on the second property I made comment about, the issue was identified as condensation and, clearly, then chemical dpc would not be the solution.  Nor was it offered.  

It is unfortunate if a previous owner of your property did something that was not required and did not solve the problem.

Doozergirl

Grumpy_chap said:

babyblade41 said:

IMO there is no chemical solution , damp is water ingress finding its way inside... find the source then cure the problem.. usually very cheaply 

You are entitled to your opinion, but in this case your opinion is incorrect.
The root cause was the defective damp course and the chemical treatment has solved it fully.  This was fully investigated by multiple surveyors before spending the money on the chemical treatment.  There were no issues such as soil against the property or other breaches of the damp course.
I won't say any more as, you will probably never accept whatever I say anyway.

I don't understand what @Doozergirl is saying and why there is a need for rude comments about being tired.

Part of my job involves going in to sort out the obvious problems that people like them leave behind.  I've seen countless cases of the damp rising above the 1 metre line of render after how ever many years and there is always a root cause that could have been dealt with instead of rendering walls.  That is the only thing that works, by the way - the render disguises the damp that continues behind the walls.  

I am tired because I feel like a broken record having to repeat myself.  It's a personal crusade, but it's tedious.  I was also addressing another poster, hence tagging them.  

There's no such thing as a failure of the damp proof course.  I've never seen evidence of it.  I've seen houses with two and three injected chemical DPCs and yet the problem continues.  They do nothing.   The solution is to find the cause.  Sometimes it isn't obvious and it can be quite far from the dampness, but there is always one. 

babyblade41

I had an old property around 1500 era .. no DPC .. walls were over 18inch thick  no problems with damp no need for chemical injections .
Maintenance is the key 

Terry9999999

By all accounts a Chemical Injection is a complete con to sell the PCA's chemicals. See https://www.heritage-house.org/damp-and-condensation/all-about-the-pca/property-care-association-rising-damp-and-facebook.html
The experts cannot be wrong! 

Unicorn_cottage

Grumpy_chap said:

So, how do you resolve it when there is no dpc at the property? 

DPC's did not become a legal requirement until 1875 in England so there are many many traditionally built houses that do not have and do not need a DPC. A chemical injection dpc recommendation in these cases is FRAUDULANT, I live in an 1850's cottage and yes we do get damp in a few spots BUT it is not a problem. It is not the black mould that people become hysterical about. The issue with traditional built houses is that the moisture is often trapped in by concrete render, gypsum plaster and things like wallpaper which are all things which work against old buildings and stop them breathing as they were built to do.