We have a large collection of complaints about a bloke running around the country flogging Aquapol as a means to dry out 'damp' houses. He trades now under the name of Core Conservation. The only problem is that the bloke has zero qualifications in conservation. In fact the only 'qualification' he cites is some obscure Hungarian 'Ing...' after his name and supposedly a business degree - which probably helps defraud people even more. He has tried to convince people that this system works - and quotes very happy clients - none of whom have a clue whether the system works or not, because usually there wasnt a problem to start with. The website is very cleverly laid out with lots of supposedly scientific articles, and discussions (mostly lifted from our site) about rising damp, diagnosis of damp, and damp surveys. Core Conservation is indeed a Con..
Even the client references mention 'quotes' - which I guarantee will be in the thousands of pounds, and always involve one of these ridiculous magnets. His example surveys are a joke - covering very little of the real issues involved - critical measurements of parameters we always monitor are missing, and the poor victims are presented with a very pretty report that looks 'oh, so scientific - thermal images, pretty colours.. ' all of which are meaningless.
I had to laugh at the section about salts, and ground salts. There's zero understanding - and his descriptions of the sources of these salts defy scientific comprehension. Reading his website, you'd think we all lived in a seething mass of over applied agricultural nitrates (which are so hard to actually measure, as they are 'here today, gone tomorrow'... I should know - I ran the largest agricultural soil testing laboratory in Australia) - and as a Geochemist by training, I know a thing or two about things like salts. Again, his website is crammed full of bull crap.
The trouble is - people believe what they are told - and if it is dressed up enough (Emperors New Clothes springs to mind) they accept complete bulldust without hesitation.
This bloke even talks about lime as though he knows a thing or two about it - the fact that he is pushing a bunch of very expensive Italian lime based products as 'renovation plasters' puts him at the back of a long line of people flogging similar crap - this is a quote from some of the site : "RINZAFFO MGN is a natural hydraulic lime mortar, made salt resistant with the addition of pozzolanic hydraulic binders"... Guess what - research in this country by ourselves and many others has largely discredited hydraulic limes as being too hard and unbreathable - we've moved on from that position, and almost NEVER suggest hydraulic limes of any kind.
This is just one small example of the absolute tosh that this bloke is touting - he's desperate to appear credible - but as long as our clients complain, and he keeps pushing his brand of fraudulent bulldust, he ain't going very far.
Until recently he was quoting me as some sort of case history on his site - unsurprisingly that case history now appears to have disappeared. He appeared at our premises very late one night claiming to want to see me - he vanished as soon as we called the police.
Oh - and remember what I said about there's no such thing as a free lunch? Here's the booking form for his 'professional surveys:
"Here you can request a professional dampness survey - offered for FREE for a limited time. Feel free to tell us as much about the building / project / problem as you feel necessary."
I can feel a problem coming on here - that you'll get this bloke in to do a damp survey, be taken in with the smooth talk - and then get a quote for a magnetic bollocks machine...
What the German property industry thinks of aquapol
Beobachter is a German property website, doing similar things to this site really - protecting the public from scams.
This is the text of their article on Aquapol (With thanks to Beobachter Live - we reproduce an English translation here - and acknowledge their copyright of the original article - the link for which is here: Beobachter Live
With mysterious "space energy" a device should drain walls for a lot of money. The science smiles, and the provider's proximity to Scientology is obvious.
Confidence-inspiring certificates and well-honored awards have already helped many a business. Both can be found on the homepage of the Austrian company Aquapol. The "Aquapol-Wall Dehydration System" works without electricity, works solely by "space energy", "capillary forces" and "magnetokinesis". It can boast a European patent, an "EMC test report" from the TÜV Rheinland, its inventor Wilhelm Mohorn is holder of the "Kaplan Medal for Basic Research" and much more.
With a big advertorial on newsnetz.ch, Aquapol also went to Switzerland again in January. She could "recommend Aquapol in any case", beamed Barbara Weil from Gunten BE in: "The climate is generally more pleasant and the ground much drier." The same thing she affirms to the observer.
The acclaimed apparatus looks surprisingly unspectacular, and the interior does not remind of revolutionary technology: a few copper cables and rods, depending on the model, two parallel green discs, more is not there.
Aquapol proudly announces 43,000 homes that have been drained with the apparatus for 25 years. This can not be verified and there are no independent scientific studies on the effectiveness of the device. Although Aquapol cites the professors Karl Ernst Lotz and Josef Gruber in a statement to the observer, they are both on the board of the Austrian Association for Space Energy. Its president: Wilhelm Mohorn, Aquapol inventor and marketer - and friend of the Scientologists (see nachfogender «background»). Independence looks different.
An effect, however, the miracle thing undoubtedly has - the account of the company Aquapol and its franchisees. The device costs between 6000 and 13,000 francs. Michael Müller, a professor at the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg-Stendal, who screwed the apparatus on behalf of the ZDF, attested the components a material value of about 20 euros. Aquapol sells "no devices for wall drainage, but a comprehensive service," inventor Mohorn leaves his media spokesman align. These include "comprehensive masonry diagnostics" as well as a "wealth of meaningful measurements and special services".
«Association of magic box farmers»
Even the certificates and awards turn out to be more pretense than being. The EMC test report of the TÜV only certifies the electromagnetic compatibility, that is: Aquapol, which requires no electricity, does not disturb electrical equipment. Also, the certificate of the "European Masonry Restoration Working Group", according to a specialist who does not want to be named, not much, "This is an association of magic box farmers who certify each other." And anyone can register a patent, something to have invented. Whether the invention works, does not matter.
Professionals who are not affiliated with Aquapol doubt the effect of the device straight out: "The system can not develop a dehumidifying effect," writes the German Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics. Rainer Bunge, professor of environmental technology at Rapperswil University of Applied Sciences, sees it similarly: "From a scientific point of view, it is clear that Aquapol can neither function nor function theoretically at all." The explanation for the effectiveness of Aquapol is to read "as if someone were using the random generator a physics encyclopaedia would have been ». The researchers also say little about the alleged "gravomagnetism" with which Aquapol should work: "Gravomagnetic energy has never been demonstrated in a scientific experiment," writes physicist Kolja Prothmann of the Max Planck Institute:
Background:
Lots of money for Scientology
Aquapol inventor Wilhelm Mohorn proudly mentions his membership in the federal senate of the honorable Senate of Economics in Austria on his website. Those inquired there are astounded: The Senate had to "distance itself from Mr Mohorn's Scientologists' activities and thus also his companies", says a spokeswoman. In the Scientology publication, Mohorn is "Impact" of 2006 listed as "Patron Meritorious". This title is awarded to anyone who has donated at least $ 100,000. Mohorn does not want to comment on that. Incidentally, in Switzerland Aquapol is distributed by the company Delphin Bürkli & Partner - old acquaintances in the Scientology scene: the observer already reported in 1995 on the cult membership of the owners.
Stephen Boniface, former chairman of the construction arm of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS ), has told the institute’s 40,000 members that ‘true...
Ian Rock has written another of his great books. This one is even better - We've helped Ian with this one and there's loads of photos of our guys doing timber frame work. A great book, with lots of practical information you need if you have an old home. Treat yourself and buy this - you won't regret it!
