“Thank you once again for an excellent service, from initial consultation to the work’s completion. We are extremely pleased with the work carried out. Your men are a credit to your company.”

Ben Says

In his monthly blog, Ben tackles a common building headache; damp

Damp We expect quite a lot from our buildings these days. In the last hundred years the accepted norm has changed from draughty, cold and damp to well sealed, comfortable and ventilated. In this time our acceptance of any sort of damp at all has been almost totally eroded. However, as many of our clients live in properties that preceded these modern ideals, the difference between our expectations of clean, dry buildings is rather in contrast to what the buildings we are living in can offer. Damp is one of the trickiest problems caused by this juxtaposition. Most causes of draughts can be solved inexpensively and often without a good builder and despite it not being the best for our pockets or the planet, in buildings most prone to being cold you can at least turn up the heating. Damp on the other hand is not so simple.

We find that the majority of damp problems we attend to fall into two quite distinct categories. With older buildings, chimneys are the real favourite. Chimneys were designed to be used. In the summer the chimneys would normally be dry due to the ambient temperature but in the winter it was expected that they would be lit everyday and therefore no Victorian builder or architect ever showed any concern about what would happen if people stopped lighting fires to warm their homes. Common problems are water descending from above, where the damp in the brickwork at roof level percolates down into the living spaces on the floors below and moisture trapped in the chimney due to poor ventilation. The resolution to these can vary from introduction of a lead tray and rebuilding the stack as per the picture opposite of a job we recently completed in Crowborough or can at times be as simple as installing unobtrusive and inexpensive vents.

In more modern buildings the problem is often lack of ventilation. We went through a period in building from around 1960 to 1980 where we had begun to recognise the benefits of making buildings more airtight and less draughty. However, not many designers or house builders recognised that the old draughty nature of the Victorian era housing, was actually an essential part of keeping the building healthy and dry. Once buildings became more airtight, the air inside them circulated less and it can become stagnant. We regularly visit properties with this problem. Ideally, if you live in a house of this age you need to consider how to ventilate it well. The modern windows we fit have trickle vents which you can leave open to allow background ventilation and these are very successful. But changing all your windows is not an inexpensive option. So what can you do? Leaving windows open when you are in, and leaving them ajar on a night latch lock when you are out is very helpful, especially in the winter despite the cold! Keeping furniture a clear two inches off any external walls will really help as air can pass behind it. Equally, just using your house wisely and knowing the signs of bad ventilation can help. These signs include damp collecting in the corners of the room, this can after time become a black speckley mould which is called aspergillus and can lead to breathing difficulties, especially in children. Another sign is excessive moisture on your windows when you pull the curtains in the morning. We often find that simply offering advice is enough to combat some of the worst problems. Keeping windows ajar, using any extractors you have in the kitchen or bathroom and not drying all the wet washing indoors with the windows shut are all sensible bits of advice that may help you combat damp and keep your home more comfortable. If you are worried about any damp, ask us for a free damp survey and we can help you to achieve a more comfortable and dry home.