Meoww wrote:

I think you'll find that he's wrong in his general assumption - very
much so!

Central heating doesn't dry out the roof space, the beneath
ground-floor space, it's only on for half the year and he completely
ignores the fact that timber in bathrooms (for instance) can easily
absorb enough moisture from the atmosphere to happily support these
little beasts.

I get the feeling that he "over eggs" the argument a little for dramatic
effect (as you say it pays the wages). Having said that I think he is
right that many people assume the little blighters will eat the whole
house if unchecked. Perhaps he ought to say they will just eat the
bathroom! ;-)

I believe he also spouts similar nonsense about the non-exstence of
rising damp. It pays his wages though )

What he seems to say about rising damp is that it is very rare to find
genuine rising damp - and is often mis-diagnosed when the real reason is
more likely to be some other source of dampness (penetration, bridging
etc). He also suggests that the "damp" treatment industry is full of
cowboys.... no sure he is going to get much disagreement there.

ISTR that there was a university research project that attempted to
study "rising damp". It involved building lots of brick (and other
materials) piers which were then sat in a shallow tank of water. They
then measured the moisture content drawn up into the pier. The general
conclusions were that it was actually quite difficult to get much
moisture to rise in most common building materials. They did manage it
by using a very soft brick with a mortar of very nearly plain sand with
a bit of lime though.

--
Cheers,

John.

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