Rising damp cause found after 30 years

By: admin | Posted on: July 25, 2020

This property has been suffering from damp issues for a number of years, and it hasn’t been diagnosed correctly. I was told there were a few suggestions as of why it was thought to be damp, but we have found the cause now. Before you even think about damp proofing a building, it is about elimination before coming to a conclusion. I’ve seen many a times when a damp survey Company have carried out a damp survey, and haven’t eliminated anything in regards to potential causes of rising damp. In this case, this is a classic example of an obvious cause of rising damp, but unfortunately for some people who have paid for a damp survey there is no drain inspection carried out. Now i’m not saying that every property should have a drain survey, but there is British Standards in regards to damp surveys that actually mention this, especially if you have damp internally adjacent a drain. See below from British Standard BS 6576 4.2.1.3 d)

So the question is why doesn’t this get inspected? In my opinion if you ask any surveyor whether the firm is independent or not they will probably not offer a drain survey as this isn’t a piece of equipment they actually have. So it’s unlikely at enquiry stage they would want to lose out on a survey. To be fair though, any prior conversation the surveyor might have had with the client, they might think that from your observations the damp might be more condensation related, and this is reasonable. A decent CCTV drain inspection camera will cost around £5000.00 / £6000.00, plus you will need jetting equipment, and cleaning equipment along with sonde detection. All of this is likely to cost around £15000.00, plus a van to carry it in. You can now see exactly why a general surveyor wouldn’t offer this service.

We have heavily invested in our surveying equipment to ensure we get the diagnosis right first time. If you need a CCTV drain survey along with quantitative moisture analysis following BRE DIGEST 245, please contact us to discuss your issues.

The video below shows the cause of the rising damp. This was caused when the tarmac path was installed over 30 years ago, and damaged the drains.