We receive literally hundreds of phone calls from people who are being 'quoted' in excess of £4,000 or £5,000 for damp proofing by Kenwood, Peter Cox, Rentokil along with numerous other fly by night scam artists. In EVERY case, we can show that this 'damp proofing quote' is nothing more than a scam.
There is ALWAYS a sensible and usually inexpensive way to deal with 'damp' problems.
London has more than its fair share of problems with damp. It has a vast range of building materials which are susceptible to dampness. Many properties in London have basements, and often these have problems with condensation and so called 'rising damp'. The 'Timber and Damp Survey' industry has a strong hold on London and the surrounding areas, and is happily wreaking havoc on lovely old London brick buildings as you read this. Kenwood proudly boast that they do over 10,000 surveys a year. We need to send them packing, together with their damp proofing creams, injection guns, tanking, slurries, waterproofing plasters and renders.
We've worked on some beautiful properties in central London for example, where brick is covered with cement render, and falls to pieces underneath. Peter has ripped gypsum plaster off brick basement walls internally and exposed wet walls which have dried out in days. Injection damp proofing is useless in any of these buildings - you've just got to get them breathing!
London does have a severe problem with basements generally - because they are below ground, this lowers the temperature of external walls and makes solid walled buildings more susceptible to condensation.
Insulating London homes needs to be done very carefully - too much insulation without ventilation will trap humid air in the building with disastrous results. Insulation must be done as a strategy for the whole house, not a quick visit from the local insulation salesman. Fibreglass insulation is nasty, toxic stuff, and considered in many circles as equal to asbestos in its ability to kill. You dont want it in your lovely Georgian townhouse in central London.
We have very effective and simple ways of sorting out high humidity - we can recommend a humidity control strategy and show you the right equipment to use - which is not expensive. Your house will soon be warm and dry, without resort to injection damp proofing, tanking, specialist chemicals which do nothing for you. Humidity control is the key to low moisture content in the air within your building - and that prevents condensation. Dry air = No Damp Problems!
A problem we come across constantly is cement render. Many London properties have been smothered with cement, and are now damp and cold. Its not hard to remove render - so don't fall for your local 'Timber and Damp Surveyor' from Kenwood telling you to inject the walls, or coat them with external insulation - he is talking tosh.
London and the surrounding region has some of the most beautiful heritage in the country - lets keep it that way, and run the timber and damp survey salesmen out of the country.
We undertake timber and damp surveys all over London and the South East - we assess the condition of the building, the materials it is built from, and the things that have been done to it over the years. From this, we can come up with a strategy to get it breathing, dry, and warm. Recent surveys have been done in Central London, Barnet, Colchester, all over Surrey and Sussex, and beyond. We cover all of the London area and suburbs with Timber and Damp surveys, and can advise on preventing 'rising damp'. We will show you how you do not need treatments like holland damp proofing, tanking, electro osmotic wire damp courses, damp proofing plasters, or any of the dozens of so called damp treatments offered by 'timber and damp specialists'
We just tell you how it is - we have no axe to grind - we don't sell you anything - we just diagnose the real reasons for any problems found, and give you sensible advice as to how to solve those problems. Usually, we'll talk about condensation, and how to avoid humidity in your old home - but all of our clients agree - we know what we are talking about, and we are very experienced in old house work.
And by the way - We Love sheepswool insulation - its amazing stuff - warm, doesn't get affected by condensation like fibreglass and chemical foam board, and we tell everyone to use it. It sounds silly to mention it on a page about surveys in London - but if most of the houses we see in London were insulated with sheepswool,we would have a lot less condensation and damp problems!
