Is it still business as usual?
In light of the Covid-19 outbreak, it is impossible not to acknowledge its impact on our business as well as to our personal lives but we remain able to carry out inspections of properties where instructed. Most of our inspections are to vacant properties so we remain able and committed to meeting client’s current needs. People still plan to move house, carry out repairs, prepare for alterations or retire and move house so we at Heritage & Design Ltd Building Surveyors remain committed to providing you with the necessary expertise in the meantime.
How will we protect you?
Equipment will remain in their boxes until needed then will be returned to their boxes without coming into contact with any internal fabric. Equipment boxes will be thoroughly cleaned prior to the survey and cleaned again prior to being returned to our vehicle. Where it is necessary to use door handles, they will be cleaned prior to leaving the property but a list of areas contacted will be left at the property to assure you and inform you of the contact to allow you to carry out another clean.
How will we protect ourselves?
We already wear shoe covers as a matter of course and use latex gloves and face-masks where things get dirty so we will use them all as a matter of course for the time being, together with avoiding cross-contamination by changing gloves and masks regularly and avoiding touching even door handle where possible.
Surveys concentrate on the external fabric – that’s where the majority of defects are. Internally, most of the inspection is by digital photography and use of moisture meters or infrared cameras so there is no need to come into contact with any fabric other than our own equipment or by the moisture meter sitting against the lower part of a wall for instance. We are confident that we will remain as safe as possible while still continuing to function as a business.
Heritage and Design survey buildings! We survey every type and size of building, but we specialise in the old, damp unloved ones that are generally given such bad press mainly because of bad advice.
We are passionate about old buildings, we love everything about them for their undulating slated roofs, leaking gutters, rotting windows and delaminating stone and for their damp interiors.
But best of all, we love them because we can explain to you how to love them too.
Services
The most comprehensive type of survey. A full examination of al accessible parts of your house from chimneys to drainage including all parts in-between.
A detailed investigation into the causes of dampness and an assessment of any damage and on-going risk or decay, and a detailed explanation of possible remedies.
Diagnosing the numerous and, sometimes, complex reasons for failure takes experience and a full understanding of different types of construction and materials to be able to give accurate advice.
What You Should Know
There are numerous ways for moisture to affect a building and it is impossible to categorise them simply as it suggests equally simple fixes.
Rising damp is used as an umbrella term and is actually an accumulation of defects at ground level none of which are solved by waterproofing walls.
Penetrating damp is not a defect, it is caused by ANY and all external defects so not simple to diagnose and with no simple fix either no matter what you are told by anyone else.
Damp proofing and rising damp remedies is big business so it attracts people who want to make money with no conscience. At worst they are fraudsters, at best they are idiots.
A 3-day course to sell chemicals. They are not damp experts or surveyors or preservation professionals. They are salesmen who need to sell you damp proofing to make money.
Why stone? Why lime? What makes it so special? Solid walls v cavity walls. Good quality materials.
