Hi- Having read some of the posts on this site I am starting to worry – I hope someone can help me.
I bought a house in November and my mortgage company put a retention on the mortgage until the damp that was identified during the survey was treated.
I hired a building company to complete the work which involved injecting the walls with a damp proof course and pulling off the plaster on the internal walls of the house, putting a new waterproof membrane in place, covered by some plaster board, then re-plastering.
The work was completed, I have my 25 year guarantee and my mortgage company have released the retention of the back of the guarantee.
All looked good until a couple of weeks ago when I noticed some damp – I contacted the building firm that did the work and they asked me to take some photographs. It turns out that there is no evidence from the outside that the damp proof course was put in place - there are no holes either in the brick or mortar, and a soak away channel that was supposed to have been dug is not in place either.
The building firm that I employed to do this work subcontracted it out to a company that they deal with on a regular basis and are coming to my house next week to survey the property again to identify what work should have been done, what has been done and what needs to be done to put this right.
The property is a 30’s semi, brick construction – it’s those very red shiny bricks. The entire downstairs should have been treated. My concern is that we are now 8 months down the line and fully decorated with new carpets in and I’m being told that the damp proof course was never put in place.
So – the building company are telling me that they can re-do the injection from the outside of the house – in to both of the walls – it’s a cavity wall construction. I can see how theoretically they could do this – but would like to know whether this method is really going to work, or whether they need to perform the work on the inside wall of the cavity from the inside of the house. Further – the builder tells me that because of the type of brick they should be injecting the mortar and not the brick – is this true?
Whilst the external facing walls may be treated in this way the inside wall cannot – so – if they have not been treated we are in for some serious disruption in order to carry out the re-work. In order to check whether the damp proofing injection has been done what should I be looking for? And – should the injected damp proof course be at, above or below the wood floor level – the reason for this question is that there is only a void of approx 2 feet in the ground floor of the house – thus no room to get a person under the floor, therefore am I to expect that the contractor should have uplifted my floor boards to inject the damp proof below the floor line ? Or can this fluid that they inject be injected at floor height and seep downwards?
What I really need to understand is what I should be able to see at ground level from inside and outside of the house if the interior and exterior walls had been damp proofed? What should the contractor be able to show me to prove that they have/have not done the work and I’d like to understand whether the injection of the damp proof course should be done at, or below the floor board level.
Advice most gratefully received
Thanks
I bought a house in November and my mortgage company put a retention on the mortgage until the damp that was identified during the survey was treated.
I hired a building company to complete the work which involved injecting the walls with a damp proof course and pulling off the plaster on the internal walls of the house, putting a new waterproof membrane in place, covered by some plaster board, then re-plastering.
The work was completed, I have my 25 year guarantee and my mortgage company have released the retention of the back of the guarantee.
All looked good until a couple of weeks ago when I noticed some damp – I contacted the building firm that did the work and they asked me to take some photographs. It turns out that there is no evidence from the outside that the damp proof course was put in place - there are no holes either in the brick or mortar, and a soak away channel that was supposed to have been dug is not in place either.
The building firm that I employed to do this work subcontracted it out to a company that they deal with on a regular basis and are coming to my house next week to survey the property again to identify what work should have been done, what has been done and what needs to be done to put this right.
The property is a 30’s semi, brick construction – it’s those very red shiny bricks. The entire downstairs should have been treated. My concern is that we are now 8 months down the line and fully decorated with new carpets in and I’m being told that the damp proof course was never put in place.
So – the building company are telling me that they can re-do the injection from the outside of the house – in to both of the walls – it’s a cavity wall construction. I can see how theoretically they could do this – but would like to know whether this method is really going to work, or whether they need to perform the work on the inside wall of the cavity from the inside of the house. Further – the builder tells me that because of the type of brick they should be injecting the mortar and not the brick – is this true?
Whilst the external facing walls may be treated in this way the inside wall cannot – so – if they have not been treated we are in for some serious disruption in order to carry out the re-work. In order to check whether the damp proofing injection has been done what should I be looking for? And – should the injected damp proof course be at, above or below the wood floor level – the reason for this question is that there is only a void of approx 2 feet in the ground floor of the house – thus no room to get a person under the floor, therefore am I to expect that the contractor should have uplifted my floor boards to inject the damp proof below the floor line ? Or can this fluid that they inject be injected at floor height and seep downwards?
What I really need to understand is what I should be able to see at ground level from inside and outside of the house if the interior and exterior walls had been damp proofed? What should the contractor be able to show me to prove that they have/have not done the work and I’d like to understand whether the injection of the damp proof course should be done at, or below the floor board level.
Advice most gratefully received
Thanks
