Damp surveyors

ginger_jon

We moved into a bungalow about a month ago. The homebuyer's report flagged up there was damp on all the walls, suggested that further damp proof work would be necessary, but said it was a usual level for the age of the property (@1950), not a serious concern, and didn't recommend a more detailed damp survey. Since moving in we've noticed that the damp is quite severe (our clothes in the wardrobe began to feel wet!) We have a had a couple of damp surveys done, one allegedly independent and another also paid for but by a company who also do remedial work. They have come back with conflicting diagnoses, the first saying the damp is from the floor, most probably left over ingress of water from a roof that has been replaced, including the timber, so we need to remove all flooring and industrially dry the concrete base of the house. The second says the damp course has failed and needs to be replaced, has led to rising damp measured on the all the walls, but also says we need a new floor (about 32k of work). How can we know which survey to trust and act on (we have already arranged for a third surveyor, one also linked to a remedial company, and are looking for a fourth independent surveyor?

Also, do we have grounds to go after the surveyor? Yes, they mentioned damp and some work that would be needed but not to the extent that we have been advised to take, which would involve partially or wholly moving out of our new home. If so, who should we rely on to pursue that? The first surveyor put us in touch with a loss assessor who has offered to help, but two other loss assessors I spoke to declined to take on the case. That route would not cost us anything. Or would we be better off using a solicitor ( we wouldn't want to use our conveyancer, weren't happy with them)?

Thanks for any helpful suggestions!

FreeBear

If these people that have already done a "survey" are PCA registered, they are not surveyors. Just common or garden salesmen, so they are going to recommend what ever solution returns the best profit. Damp proof courses do not "fail" unless subjected to damage (e.g. vehicle impact)  Think about it for a moment. The DPC is surrounded by brick & cement, so protected from the environment and physical damage. The only thing to cause the DPC to fail would be movement in the wall from subsidence or earthquake - Even then, it would be a very small area and wouldn't result in a whole wall being damp. Most likely cause is the DPC being breached by elevated ground levels or leaking gutters, downpipes, or roof.

IF concrete floor is damp, I'd suggest looking for buried central heating pipes as these can corrode and start leaking.

If this wardrobe is up against an external wall, it could well be condensation that is making the clothes damp. In which case your money would be better spent on insulation of the walls (once any underlying damp issues have been fixed).

stuart45

You can have the moisture content of a concrete floor checked properly.
Floorlayers do it for new floors.

ginger_jon

FreeBear said:

If these people that have already done a "survey" are PCA registered, they are not surveyors. Just common or garden salesmen, so they are going to recommend what ever solution returns the best profit. Damp proof courses do not "fail" unless subjected to damage (e.g. vehicle impact)  Think about it for a moment. The DPC is surrounded by brick & cement, so protected from the environment and physical damage. The only thing to cause the DPC to fail would be movement in the wall from subsidence or earthquake - Even then, it would be a very small area and wouldn't result in a whole wall being damp. Most likely cause is the DPC being breached by elevated ground levels or leaking gutters, downpipes, or roof.

IF concrete floor is damp, I'd suggest looking for buried central heating pipes as these can corrode and start leaking.

If this wardrobe is up against an external wall, it could well be condensation that is making the clothes damp. In which case your money would be better spent on insulation of the walls (once any underlying damp issues have been fixed).

Yes, there has been some subsidence of the building, according to the homebuyer's survey, but there is damp on all of the walls. There are no buried central heating pipes. This is an old DPC, probably bitumen, not one of the more modern chemical types. The first surveyor was independent, not selling any solutions, so doesn't profit from any solutions we adopt. He's also Certificate in Remedial Treatment (CSRT) accredited. The second surveyor was a cowboy, as you say just looking to sell some expensive work, but his meter readings were showing damp at the bottom of the walls and dryness further up, typical of rising damp.

Apodemus

Take a deep breath... and forget everything that all your damp "experts" have told you!  Start by heating and airing the building - that's going to mean having heating on and windows open...expensive, yes, but much less so than the recommendations of most of the damp experts!

If it is indeed residual moisture from a (now fixed) roof leak, then it will dry in time on its own.

If you feel you really must speed up the process, then get hold of a dehumidifier and run that for a few months.  Have a look under the carpets and fold them back to help the floor dry out if necessary.

Summer is just around the corner and will in all probabilty make a huge difference to the dampness in the building, so don't even think about throwing money at the problem until you have given nature a few months to resolve this on its own. 

ginger_jon

Apodemus said:

Take a deep breath... and forget everything that all your damp "experts" have told you!  Start by heating and airing the building - that's going to mean having heating on and windows open...expensive, yes, but much less so than the recommendations of most of the damp experts!

If it is indeed residual moisture from a (now fixed) roof leak, then it will dry in time on its own.

If you feel you really must speed up the process, then get hold of a dehumidifier and run that for a few months.  Have a look under the carpets and fold them back to help the floor dry out if necessary.

Summer is just around the corner and will in all probabilty make a huge difference to the dampness in the building, so don't even think about throwing money at the problem until you have given nature a few months to resolve this on its own. 

Thanks - we had been hoping to move in the summer and would have no doubt felt differently about the situation if we had. In the meantime a neighbour has lent us a dehumidifier which we're running in the worst room and we had already taken up one stretch of carpet and will gradually take up more, as it's old and we weren't planning on keeping it. So, we'll get a better sense of how much of the wooden boards laid directly on to the concrete have warped or rotted. We had another tradesperson round the other day who didn't do a survey but said we have rising damp we can correct by repairing the damp prof course - a much cheaper and less intrusive job than the other two suggested and within the bounds of what the home survey suggested we might have to do.

Apodemus

Ok, new info there!  Wooden boards laid directly to (uninsulated) concrete will nearly always get damp and warp.  Rubber-backed carpet will also trap moisture and show as damp when the carpet is lifted.  Neither would necessarily be evidence of a failed damp course. 

It quite often works out much cheaper to work with what you have, rather than try to redesign the property to modern standards of construction (which probably would mean digging out the concrete slab and replacing with an insulated slab to current specifications as one of your advisors suggested).