Regretably, from time to time, I am asked to inspect sub-standard work undertaken by damp specialists, timber repair companies and builders.
This week I looked at a period farmhouse, principally in relation to building work but was taken aback by the unsympathetic approach to resolving a damp issue. It was absolutely apparant that the damp specialist had not understood the type of property in question and the materials employed. The remedial work extended to injection of a chemical damp proof course (partly in to stone!) and internal replastering with a modern ‘hard’ plaster.
This was not, however, a property suffering from rising damp but from poor external repair, inadequate disposal of rain and surface water and a combination of other factors which prevented the walls from ‘breathing’. Because the causes of the damp had not been addressed, the damp was still present and problems of cellar fungus had continued to spread behind new plaster and skirtings. In short, all the work undertaken was a waste of time and money.
Not all damp specialists are bad. Some take a very sympathetic approach but be careful that they do not have a vested interest in simply selling a product. More often than not, a so called cured damp problem as a consequence of chemical injection is actually a concealed damp problem.
In the vast majority of cases, chemical injection damp proof courses are neither required or desirable.