5 Year Penetrating Damp Treatment Guarantee

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I read this on a national damp proofing company’s website, let’s call them Stichardson and Rarling to maintain their anonymity.  The page was about treating ‘penetrating damp’.

Their solution?

Tank the inside of the property with a thick plastic membrane and replaster.

Dry rot fruiting body

Dry rot returns despite damp treatment

You don’t need to be well-versed in construction to realise that the solution they offer isn’t actually dealing with the myriad defects that could be causing the dampness, penetrating or otherwise.  Their ‘ 5 Year Penetrating Damp Treatment Guarantee’ is their estimation of the time it takes for the continuing penetrating damp (which is only getting worse in the meantime) to fully saturate the property and appear internally.

Think about the possible problems that not repairing the defects will cause.  What will happen to the wet timber joists below this wet wall?  They will rot.  The risk is that it will create dry rot, which is insidious, or wet rot, both requiring additional disruption and cost.

Deep voids allow water ingress

Loss of lime mortar

Reading the small print, you must employ a surveyor or tradesman who can identify and rectify the real causes of penetrating damp for the treatment guarantee to remain valid over the 5 year period.

If that is not a money making scam, I don’t know what is.

Please repair the causes, don’t cover the symptoms.

The tide turning for lenders reliance on damp proofers – but only by your persistance

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As is common, following an RICS building survey, I was asked to carry out a timber and damp survey for my client on an old farmhouse.  This was mainly due to the MRICS surveyor stating the house had rising damp and recommending it be damp proofed by a (3-day trained) damp proofing company.  My client was knowledgeable enough to know better, moreso that the MRICS surveyor, and challenged this with our detailed report.  This the email which summarises the problems, and a happy solution:

Just a quick note to let you know that I eventually got XXXXXXXX to accepted your survey report. It initially took them 4 week to respond. The initial response from their own surveyor was that the report went into great detail however he still wanted a PCA report and all their recommendations performed. Anyway after a few calls and my flat refusal to accept their surveyors request, pointing them to numerous sources supporting the approach I’d taken along with the threat of going to another lender, they did a 180 degree turn around and approved the mortgage with zero retention within 24 hours

A good result but they are few and far between as, like most large companies and corporations, they want to limit any risk of claims so either pass on liability to a 3rd party – damp proofers – or demand abortive and unecessary work gets done because some MRICS surveyors do not understand why your building is damp.  They should understand why, they have had 3 or 4 years to learn about it at university.