Many people in the building or property industries even ordinary home owners have a story or two about having to sort out rising damp problems. Often on many occasions having to repeat damp repair due to ‘treating the symptoms’ and not the cause.
Rising damp will become an enormous problem unless the cause and or source of the problems are eliminated. This can be anything from underground water, slow leaking pipes, worn damp proof courses (DPC’s), leaking gutters; these are just a few possible causes.
Indications of rising damp are where the interior wall paint work develops a blistery look. By running ones fingers over the lower area of the wall you are left with a powdery substance. This overtime becomes a ‘salt band’ in the wall which is a concentration of minerals left in the wall after evaporation.
There are many “handymen” out there that profess to be able to do damp proofing without offering any guarantees. Often an incorrect diagnosis of the cause, thus six odd months later the problem reoccurs and the owner has to go through a repeat of the whole process again. One should ideally employ a damp proofing specialist thoroughly experienced in solving rising damp problems. With a professional company one would get results in the event of a call back.
The common method of damp proofing is the Chemical DPC’s, basically speaking the problem area is cleaned up and a chemical is “injected” into the wall. There are different methods and applications and over the years have been improved.
It would be advisable to have various damp proofing specialists to come out to inspect the problem and recommend the solution and provide quotations. Rising damp can, if not done properly, be a repetitive beast rather be safe than sorry.
Often In many cases the insurance of a guarantee is not worth much. Property owners either forget to keep an eye on the problem or are told too late of a reoccurrence.
Rising damp is not a myth, it is damaging to buildings and to people’s health.