Damp Proofing Survey
As always when contacted by potential clients requesting a damp proofing survey I always ask a few questions like age of property, are the ground floors timber suspended or solid, and any renovation work been carried out just to name a few. The client said she had damp on one wall in the kitchen and was quoted rising damp the front & middle rooms were timber suspended and rear kitchen is solid but has been replaced.
On arrival for survey we always look at front, side & rear elevations for potential problems before entering the property, on this occasion we noticed the row of terraced buildings were on a split level and so straight away I had a good idea where the damp problem could be.
On inspection the property showed a retro fit DPC installation & re-plastered in sand/cement render, also an existing slate DPC was found protecting the timber joist bearing ends and still doing a good job so the retro DPC in our opinion was wasted money, but that’s another story.
Upon entering the rear kitchen area I asked the client a few more Qs like is the neighbouring property constructed the same with timber flooring to front & middle rooms and solid at the rear, she replied “yes” so when metering the damp party wall in question I knew the problem was lateral damp penetration caused by the raised solid floor levels on neighbouring property and not rising damp, report & costing were emailed and received notification within minutes to carry out the remedial work.
