How to get Damp reliably fixed? oh and woodworm.

[akwe-xavante]

Renovated a few buildings in very bad condition over the years and I would never never never use a chemical damp proof solution. I always do a physical damp proof course by a number of ways. But basically described in a simplistic barbaric way you make a cut through, all the way through the wall at an acceptable height above ground level wide enough to physically insert either slate or a damp proof course membrane, point up and move along the wall a metre at a time overlapping as you go. Be careful you don't cut any pipe work or cables!!!!!!!

Works perfectly every time without fail. Cheap to do if you do it yourself but very time consuming therefore expensive if you get someone to do it for you. Materials very cheap, labour very expensive, you could damp proof course a whole house for less than £60!!!!!!! this way if you do it yourself.

If you have old soft porous bricks then you could also be suffering with Efflorescence, this can be solved with the appliance of chemicals and sealants to break the Efflorescent process. A tanking slurry can actually help here, above and below ground ensuring that the Efflorescent cycle is broken for good before you re-plaster the walls.

remove anything that bridges a damp proof course such as render, plaster etc.

It always takes a lot longer for a building to dry out after you have found the root causes of the problem and rectified them than you expect. It helps to get some heating on downstairs and put dehumidifiers in upstairs. Warm damp air rises or get the doors and windows opened for as long as possible as often as possible. It may take months even a year or more before the whole building dries out but you'll see and feel a difference quite quickly.

Ventilate old unused chimneys by adding airbricks on the outside wall and at the bottom of the chimney rather than on the inside of the building.

Identifying the root causes of damp is not always easy to find. I had bad damp in one property 3/4 of the way up a ground floor room as well as rising damp, cured the rising damp quickly but the damp higher up the wall was a total mystery. weeks later I discovered that rainwater at roof level (2nd Floor) was getting in between the bricks 5mtrs away along the same wall and was travelling down and along the wall then coming through into the room below.

Holes in timbers doesn't mean you have active woodworm. If you have a look in the attics of any UK house even newish houses you'll find timbers with holes. These holes may of been present in the timber before it was even felled and processed.

Place a clean white A4 piece of paper under the timber that has holes in it and a wait a month.............. If you have a very fine covering of sawdust accumulating on the paper then you have active woodworm, if not then the timer may of had woodworm in the past but it's possibly no longer active and therefore no longer a problem unless of course it was bad and has effected the timber to the extent that it needs replacing obviously.

[jazzuk777]

Thanks, so......HOW do I go about getting a solid cast iron diagnosis, which is what I need at end of the day? Should I use a RICS surveyor, a PCA member or the ISSE? Can I get any remedy from anyone if I don't get the right diagnosis?

Or do I just chip away at likely causes? And if so, how can I tell fairly quickly it's worked?

[akwe-xavante]

how can I tell fairly quickly it's worked?

Damp depending on the severity can take months to dry out and if there's no heating on and no windows opened even longer. Get the heating on and get those windows and doors open or and get dehumidifiers in. You could hire a damp meter and take controlled readings yourself at regular intervals, once a week or month and monitor the drying out process but the effectiveness of this will be determined by how the problem is fixed as it may not be possible if a dry lining solution is used.

Sometimes solving damp problems is very easy and the root cause is obvious, sometimes the most experienced just get stumped and have to try a few different approaches before it's solved.

You could get half a dozen experts and you'll get 2 or 3 different reports and some very different estimates for the remedies too.

If I wasn't doing it myself I would get an older experienced local builder or a couple or 3 and go with your gut feelings about what they say and tell you. The more tradesmen you get to look at it and talk to about it face to face the better your own understanding of the problem will become.

Forgetting the estimates themselves to a point and go for the one that seems the most confident but truthful and honest even if the person clearly admits he's not completely sure where the root cause is but suggests A, B & C. Sometimes you just can't be sure until you've started knocking the place apart and there are always hidden surprises too to deal with. I would avoid the bigger companies and those that confidently say it's this that's causing it and here's my big fat guestimate without much discussion, sign here!!!!!!

As for the wood worm, you can find out if you have active woodworm yourself very easily within a few weeks. Avoid any person or company that visits and says "Yes you have woodworm, there are holes here, there and everywhere here's my guestimate" without first performing a test that takes about a month to complete. A humble piece of A4 white paper.

I've knocked several buildings apart and started thinking I need to this there and that over there and so on and as the project unfolds and develops what I end up actually doing is sometimes very different and I consider myself to be both a beginner and fairly experienced.

Find a tradesman that you connect and engage with, someone that's honest and experienced. Your gut feeling will tell you when you've found the right person for the job.

[akwe-xavante]

To be Honest your building work / Damp problems specifically may be better resolved here: http://www.diynot.com/ under general DIY.