Reliability of chemical damp proofing Damp can be a major issue in the home. Find answers to questions or post your own here.

[laurenk]

Hi

I have just bought a victorian terrace property and have had a survey and several quotations for damp work. All with conflicting diagnoses and recommendations, so I am looking for some impartial words of wisdom if anybody can help?

The property has had a history of damp, the previous owner had some chemical DPC treatment 3 years ago, but my surveys have found that rising and penetrating damp have recurred and in many more areas of the property this time around.

One quotation (the most expensive) recommended chemical injection and tanking pretty much all throughout the property. However, another company recommended that the only way to 100% cure rising damp for the long term would be with the insertion of a physical DPC membrane plus cementitious tanking to the most affected walls, plus chemical injection on a couple of other walls.

My main concern is making sure I eradicate the damp issues once and for all with a reliable and effective long term cure so that I am not plagued by recurring issues in 5 years time when I come to sell the property onwards.

Which treatment should I go for? I'm concerned that chemical DPC appears to have failed in the past so I may be wasting my money unless I go for the physical DPC option?

Thanks in advance for your advice

Lauren

[welsh brickie]

There is no problem with dpc injection,Its the installation,if done correctly it will work.And your covered for a 25 year guarentee.
but here is an alternative method.
For the floor in victorian properties I would use ashphalt its installed hot in 1 day and you can walk on it a few hours later,absolutly no damp will penitrate it,
for the walls You can use buitumin paint,
start by pointing the brickwork internally with sand&cement when set paint a pva solution on the wall,then 3 coats of buitumin on the last coat throw coarse sand on it,to give the plaster something to grip to.