The worst of discoveries this weekend: there is significant damp throughout
the ground floor of my new home/renovation project/money pit. The damp
affects the solid floors and some of the walls. There could be several
sources; pipe work behind kitchen units leaking under the vinyl floor,
condensation, bridged / failed damp proof course. I've also discovered some
rot, possibly dry rot (ironically) and a few woodworm flight holes which
hadn't bothered me before. How the surveyor missed the damp is beyond me, I
'll certainly be pursuing him.



The best course of action seems to be to get it properly surveyed to
identify root causes and treat, so any recommendations of good damp & wood
rot firms in South Suffolk / North Essex??



Thanks

Jon

JupiterJon wrote:
The worst of discoveries this weekend: there is significant damp throughout
the ground floor of my new home/renovation project/money pit. The damp
affects the solid floors and some of the walls. There could be several
sources; pipe work behind kitchen units leaking under the vinyl floor,
condensation, bridged / failed damp proof course. I've also discovered some
rot, possibly dry rot (ironically) and a few woodworm flight holes which
hadn't bothered me before. How the surveyor missed the damp is beyond me, I
'll certainly be pursuing him.



The best course of action seems to be to get it properly surveyed to
identify root causes and treat, so any recommendations of good damp & wood
rot firms in South Suffolk / North Essex??

Best course of action to avoid it becoming more of a money pit is to
strip the floors and see what dries out and when. Observation over time
and a little commonsense will probably tell you more than a one off
visit from an expert. The remedies are straightforward but identifying
the problem is the difficult bit.
A lot of solid floor damp can be improved by the french ditch method,
which would be a cheap and easy first step. Was the house originally
built with solid floors?

"JupiterJon" wrote in message
...
The worst of discoveries this weekend: there is significant damp
throughout
the ground floor of my new home/renovation project/money pit. The damp
affects the solid floors and some of the walls. There could be several
sources; pipe work behind kitchen units leaking under the vinyl floor,
condensation, bridged / failed damp proof course. I've also discovered
some
rot, possibly dry rot (ironically) and a few woodworm flight holes which
hadn't bothered me before. How the surveyor missed the damp is beyond me,
I
'll certainly be pursuing him.



The best course of action seems to be to get it properly surveyed to
identify root causes and treat, so any recommendations of good damp & wood
rot firms in South Suffolk / North Essex??



Thanks

Jon



If you are going to use a damp surveyor make sure that you use a reliable
one who knows what he is talking about and is not a salesman in disguise.
Expect to pay for the survey. Depending on the nature and extent of the damp
consider whether it is best lived with, allowing it to breathe. For example
old solid floors can have small amounts of damp coming through that are no
problem unless sealed under carpets etc enabling it to rise to higher
levels.

Checking damp proof courses are not bridged and the levels inside.outside
are easy tasks and don't need a surveyor. Also things like poor guttering
allowing water to run down the outside walls are simple fixes.

Woodworm may be old or new - if old it may not need treatment. Look for
fresh holes and signs of recent activity. Dry rot needs damp timber, wet rot
is even wetter timber.

On Mon, 4 Sep 2006 08:02:37 +0100, "JupiterJon"
wrote:

The worst of discoveries this weekend: there is significant damp throughout
the ground floor of my new home/renovation project/money pit. The damp
affects the solid floors and some of the walls. There could be several
sources; pipe work behind kitchen units leaking under the vinyl floor,
condensation, bridged / failed damp proof course. I've also discovered some
rot, possibly dry rot (ironically) and a few woodworm flight holes which
hadn't bothered me before. How the surveyor missed the damp is beyond me, I
'll certainly be pursuing him.



The best course of action seems to be to get it properly surveyed to
identify root causes and treat, so any recommendations of good damp & wood
rot firms in South Suffolk / North Essex??

Maybe best to buy a dehumdidifer and read up on the subject.

cheers,
Pete.

Pete C wrote:
On Mon, 4 Sep 2006 08:02:37 +0100, "JupiterJon"
wrote:

The worst of discoveries this weekend: there is significant damp throughout
the ground floor of my new home/renovation project/money pit. The damp
affects the solid floors and some of the walls. There could be several
sources; pipe work behind kitchen units leaking under the vinyl floor,
condensation, bridged / failed damp proof course. I've also discovered some
rot, possibly dry rot (ironically) and a few woodworm flight holes which
hadn't bothered me before. How the surveyor missed the damp is beyond me, I
'll certainly be pursuing him.



The best course of action seems to be to get it properly surveyed to
identify root causes and treat, so any recommendations of good damp & wood
rot firms in South Suffolk / North Essex??

Maybe best to buy a dehumdidifer

What exactly will that achieve?

and read up on the subject.

Yes, it's so fantastically complicated that you will probably have to go
to night school.

Best course of action to avoid it becoming more of a money pit is to
strip the floors and see what dries out and when. Observation over time
and a little commonsense will probably tell you more than a one off
visit from an expert. The remedies are straightforward but identifying
the problem is the difficult bit.

Tip-top advice.

Having rectified my problems in an old chapel, they were casued by:

Build up of earth close to, but not bridging the slate damp course
outside.
Partially blocked airbricks.
Rainwater creeping around rotten timber windows.
Panelling on lower portion of walls (probably an attempt to "block" the
damp, whilst in fact making it worse).
I also found old wet rot, caused by a now disused soakaway.

All simple stuff to fix (well apart from 17 huge windows) - and none of
it would be fixed by "specialist damp treatment" - avoid them.

Most damp problems are that simple - rising damp (ground moisture),
penetrating damp (rain), and/or poor ventilation of water vapour
generated by the occupants.

Step one: Find the source(s) of the problem.

Step Never: Specialist damp treatments.

JupiterJon wrote:

The worst of discoveries this weekend: there is significant damp throughout
the ground floor of my new home/renovation project/money pit. The damp
affects the solid floors and some of the walls. There could be several
sources; pipe work behind kitchen units leaking under the vinyl floor,
condensation, bridged / failed damp proof course. I've also discovered some
rot, possibly dry rot (ironically) and a few woodworm flight holes which
hadn't bothered me before. How the surveyor missed the damp is beyond me, I
'll certainly be pursuing him.



The best course of action seems to be to get it properly surveyed to
identify root causes and treat, so any recommendations of good damp & wood
rot firms in South Suffolk / North Essex??

damp and wood treatment cos are the one lot to avoid. Woodworm holes
are normal in old properties, and are rarely either active or severe,
thus not normally a problem.

Understand how damp works, what its causes are, remove the causes and
avoid doing things that would make it worse. This knowledge best found
at
http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/discussion_forum.htm


NT

wrote:
JupiterJon wrote:

The worst of discoveries this weekend: there is significant damp throughout
the ground floor of my new home/renovation project/money pit. The damp
affects the solid floors and some of the walls. There could be several
sources; pipe work behind kitchen units leaking under the vinyl floor,
condensation, bridged / failed damp proof course. I've also discovered some
rot, possibly dry rot (ironically) and a few woodworm flight holes which
hadn't bothered me before. How the surveyor missed the damp is beyond me, I
'll certainly be pursuing him.



The best course of action seems to be to get it properly surveyed to
identify root causes and treat, so any recommendations of good damp & wood
rot firms in South Suffolk / North Essex??

damp and wood treatment cos are the one lot to avoid. Woodworm holes
are normal in old properties, and are rarely either active or severe,
thus not normally a problem.

Understand how damp works, what its causes are, remove the causes and
avoid doing things that would make it worse. This knowledge best found
at
http://www.periodproperty.co.uk/discussion_forum.htm


You obviously have a vested interest in generating traffic to this site
for you seem to do little else on here.

On Mon, 04 Sep 2006 13:53:11 GMT, Stuart Noble
wrote:

The best course of action seems to be to get it properly surveyed to
identify root causes and treat, so any recommendations of good damp & wood
rot firms in South Suffolk / North Essex??

Maybe best to buy a dehumdidifer

What exactly will that achieve?

Oops, a dehumdifier would be better than a 'dehumdidifer', LOL!

and read up on the subject.

Yes, it's so fantastically complicated that you will probably have to go
to night school.

Why the need for night school?

I reckon 95% of it has been covered on here in the past, a look
through the archives would be well worth it:

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk.d-i-y/search?group=uk.d-i-y&q=damp+problem&qt_g=1&searchnow=Search+this+grou p

May not be in a logical order but a lot of good info is there.

cheers,
Pete.

wrote in message
ups.com...
Best course of action to avoid it becoming more of a money pit is to
strip the floors and see what dries out and when. Observation over time
and a little commonsense will probably tell you more than a one off
visit from an expert. The remedies are straightforward but identifying
the problem is the difficult bit.

Tip-top advice.

Having rectified my problems in an old chapel, they were casued by:

Build up of earth close to, but not bridging the slate damp course
outside.
Partially blocked airbricks.
Rainwater creeping around rotten timber windows.
Panelling on lower portion of walls (probably an attempt to "block" the
damp, whilst in fact making it worse).
I also found old wet rot, caused by a now disused soakaway.

All simple stuff to fix (well apart from 17 huge windows) - and none of
it would be fixed by "specialist damp treatment" - avoid them.

Most damp problems are that simple - rising damp (ground moisture),
penetrating damp (rain), and/or poor ventilation of water vapour
generated by the occupants.

Step one: Find the source(s) of the problem.

Step Never: Specialist damp treatments.


Thanks for all the advice, the damp floors are uncovered and its will be a
couple of weeks before the damp surveyors come around, so hopefully that
will give it some time to try to make the source more obvious. Will also do
some (more) reading.
thanks
Jon

Stuart Noble wrote:

You obviously have a vested interest in generating traffic to this site
for you seem to do little else on here.

its ok, Im getting used to your dense time wasting ways.

NT

In article ,
JupiterJon wrote:
Thanks for all the advice, the damp floors are uncovered and its will be
a couple of weeks before the damp surveyors come around, so hopefully
that will give it some time to try to make the source more obvious.

I'd re-emphasise to make sure you get hold of an independant expert who
will charge for the survey. A 'free' one from a damp treatment company
will be anything but as they'll more than make up the cost with
unnecessary work. Just remember very few houses indeed had damp when
new. ;-)

--
*i souport publik edekashun.

Dave Plowman London SW
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