Damp rotten disaster - recommendations needed

[JupiterJon]

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

[Stuart Noble]

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?

[hzatph]

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.

[Pete C]

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

cheers, Pete.

[Stuart Noble]

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.

[dom]

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.

[meow2222]

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

[Stuart Noble]

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

[Pete C]

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

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:

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

cheers, Pete.

[JupiterJon]

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

[meow2222]

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

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

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. ;-)