Some help/advice required about "damp"

If they can screw a reduced price from you, believe me they will....that's their job, after all.
Dig your heels in mate, and be lucky......just yet your lass to pack in drying the washing etc and reduce the moisture content that way (keep your head down at the same time)
John

The PCA is detrimental for the average householder- they are an attempt at a monopoly of D&T certification for their members only. ie those who have paid dues and fees to PCA. They dont & wont protect ripped off consumers.

The PCA exists to make money for itself.

They have been hammered for some years by knowledgeable critics - ever since the PCA emerged out of the debris of earlier attempts to monopolise the certification of D&T surveyors by associations that failed or legged it.

Membership does not "demonstrate commitment and knowledge on damp issues" - far from it. The CSRT can be taken and passed without ever having seen any damp or fungal rotted timber - its a book learning exercise, and even that can be faked.

Here's an example of how these characters operate: you ask the surveyor "do you have CSRT" "oh yes" he or she replies "its a must" - reality is that the boss of maybe 5 or 6 "surveyors"/salesmen holds the piece of paper, the others just use weasel words, & sell dangerous chemicals.

Here is a sample of a (sting) report by construction experts back in the day:the headline was

Staggering Incompetence Revealed by Decay Investigation:
14 D&T companies were asked to survey a simple terraced house. Only one company got it right.

note: a criminal investigation could have found most of these companies guilty of fraud.
For anyone naive enough to believe that longevity is some kind of guarantee of probity i would say guess when the above investigation was made?

Hi Ree

Thanks for your comments.

I agree, I think this whole damp proofing thing is a license to print money. You have consumers over a barrel where

a) Someone trying to sell a house. Buyers mortgage company has valuation done, and flags up damp based of inadequate moisture meter readings, which leads to either buyer having a clause put on their mortgage, or seller having to drop price.
b) Someone like me trying to negotiate a sale with a builder, and again having the possibility of reducing my price, or not buying my new house.

I have to get this damp survey done, otherwise I can't move forward, but by getting it done it's opening the door for this contractor to sell their services.

It's fraud as far as I can see.

I've got a damp proofing salesman coming out to see if I need damp proofing work done. It's laughable, but not remotely funny.

The investigation i referred to above took place in October 1985.

ree said:

The investigation i referred to above took place in October 1985.

Click to expand...

Hasn't it been reported/discussed that damp proofing and injection of chemical damp proof was massively over sold and missold in the 70's and 80's? And yet here we still are with valuers running around with moisture meters, and money being knocked off property prices, due to cowboys running around injecting unnecessary creams and chemicals.

I might be filming this survey on a hidden camera come friday.

Interestingly when I spoke to the lady from Peter Cox today and quizzed her over their operation, she told me that they are actually recommended by Which magazine.

Then I found this

http://www.which.co.uk/news/2011/12/damp-proofing-companies-exposed-in-which-investigation-274087/

Here Peter Cox scored 2 out of 3, and are in no way recommended as far as I can see.

UPDATE: They are actually listed on Which? magazines Trusted Traders section.