RETROFIT
John & Alison completed training in the Energy Efficiency Retrofit of Traditional Buildings at the Environment Study Centre with Professor John Edwards, both achieving the Level 3 award. Apart from the prescribed process in considering retrofit, the main thing we learned is that the system is likely to fail since the people undertaking the assessment of buildings for retrofit are being taken from all walks of life.
While we encourage retraining and developing new skills, the fact is that most qualified building surveyors do not understand traditional buildings, their materials or the way moisture may affect them so how are laypeople with somewhat rudimentary training supposed to understand the nuances of dampness and the knock-on effects of applying blanket specifications.
Soil has displaced lime mortar in this damp stone wall and adjacent mortar is cement so it all has to be removed for retrofit work to have a chance of being successful
Large construction companies offer retrofit services so there is a clear commercial imperative to sell as much as possible and little interest to ensure the buildings are suitable both in terms of the condition of their fabric but especially all the plethora of possible defects which may be causing dampness.
Consider a building with water ingress around windows, a blocked drain causing water to be absorbed at ground level (rising damp? No, a blocked drain, but that is another discussion) whose owner has expressed interest in external wall insulation (EWI). How does the assessor proceed in this case without first carrying out a detailed survey of the property to determine the causes of the dampness. They do not have the training or knowledge to correctly identify these defects and the companies they feed into have no interest in waiting for 12-18 month after the repairs for the buildings to become sufficiently dry to then be able to install the EWI with any hope of it actually being of benefit.
We can provide that clarity. Our high resolution drones can inspect chimney pots; flaunching; flashing; structures; roofs; valleys; gutters; slating and tiling; high level masonry etc, various moisture meters and thermal imaging to assess, test and measure moisture and actually identify the defects that will cause the retrofit to eventually fail. Only once these defects have been remedied, can retrofit be considered, no matter what the big commercial companies promise. Just consider all the times big companies in search only of profit have got things disastrously wrong.
Email john@durieheritage.co.uk or alison@durieheritage.co.uk or call us on 07944 611844 to discuss it in more detail.
