A Staffordshire Cottage

It's inevitable you will find damp in an old house - but please.... DON'T be fooled into using injection damp proofing - it's a waste of money. Every damp problem has a specific cause, and it is usually very easy to fix that cause - for example, faulty guttering, external ground levels too high, concrete / cement render trapping moisture on outside walls, and so on. We can conduct a survey which will outline any problems, and suggest solutions, which will never include injection damp proofing!

Look at the adverts and webpages of the 'damp' companies and read the complete rubbish they churn out.  Every site talks about rising damp - none of them ever talk about diagnosing the real reasons that damp is actually there.

For more information on damp in old houses, its causes and cures, look at our pages on damp and condensation...

Why do we use hydraulic lime mortar and plaster?

Until portland cement started to become widely used (during WW2), houses were built using lime based products. The differences between cement and lime are so great, that to use both in the same structure is to invite disaster. One of the major differences is the inability of cement to breathe - moisture is trapped by cement, and this is one of the major causes of damp in old buildings built originally with lime - inappropriate repairs, repointing, plastering or rendering using cement which has prevented the building from breathing. Cement is also ten times harder and more brittle than lime, and old buildings need to be able to move - expansion and contraction is easy and normal when everything is lime - but if you mix the two materials, you will immediately create stresses which cause cracking and potentially, structural damage. Far better to use the materials with which the house was originally built...

How do we know what to do, and how to specify and cost the project?

It takes a lot of collective experience and training to work with old properties. Sometimes answers are in the book, but mostly the solutions come from a great deal of experience. Our Project Manager is a member of the IHBC (Institute of Historic Building Conservation) and meets regularly with like-minded conservation officers from local councils, conservation architects, and builders like ourselves. In addition, our apprentices and staff attend training courses - for example the series of Historic Building Conservation courses run by the Ironbridge Institute (part of Birmingham University) Visits to other historic sites provide a constant feedback of information on what to do and what not to do... Our Project Manager undertakes building surveys on behalf of major corporations and insurance companies in addition to ours, and uses this wealth of knowledge to prepare detailed schedules of work to be undertaken. These are then costed using a variety of information sources to give our clients the best possible solution.