Blimey! On Friday night, at the awards in London, I was presented with a ‘Highly Commended’ award in the PCA training category. It was a good night, spent at Lords Cricket ground with the great and the good of the preservation industry. Guest speaker was the superb batsman Alex Stewart, who scored over 8000 runs […]
Archives for March 2010
How a sump and pump keeps a basement conversion dry (Type C waterproofing)
22 Mar 10 by
A Type C cavity drain membrane waterproofing system cannot hope to work without some means of taking water away. If water builds up a head against the membrane – IT WILL FAIL. Gravity drainage works well, where it can be used, but for many occasions a sump is needed, with one or more pumps to […]
This council house has been damp for three years – why?
17 Mar 10 by
The other day I visited a local authority house in the North of England. This semi detached bungalow is occupied by an elderly couple. I was asked to carry out a damp survey because of the persistent damp, which had defied numerous attempts to rectify it. Various opinions had been expressed and much work done. […]
Quick wall tie survey – part 1 – The Boroscope
16 Mar 10 by
For those who wonder just what a boroscope inspection, for wall tie corrosion involves, here’s a short video I shot in North Yorkshire a few days ago. It is clipped to view the relevant bits – three wall ties are normally looked at when I survey a semi-detached house like this one. You may have […]
Damp – but not rising damp
08 Mar 10 by
Damp specialists like me make money treating damp problems. So it’s good news when a domestic client asks for a survey to ‘quote for the rising damp that the mortgage surveyor has found’. With this open invitation to quote for work, the clients is lining him/herself up for a loss – this is why we […]