Property CareHome › Damp, condensation and ventilation
Most damp is not damp.
Damp, condensation and ventilation work across Godmanchester, Huntingdon and Cambridgeshire. Before anybody injects anything into your walls, it is worth finding out what is actually happening. Usually it is condensation, and usually the answer costs a fraction of what you were quoted.
They look identical on the wall and could not be more different
Condensation, and it is most of them
Warm moist air meets a cold surface and gives up its water. Streaming windows, black spots in the corner behind the wardrobe, a musty smell in a cupboard on an outside wall. A family of four puts several litres of water into the air every day simply by living. The house has to be able to lose it again.
Penetrating, and it is a real fault
Water getting in from outside: an overflowing gutter, a cracked sill, failed pointing, a bridged cavity, a flowerbed built up above the damp course. It leaves a patch that is worse after rain and better in a dry spell. This one genuinely needs fixing, and the fix is usually outside rather than inside.
Rising, and it is rare
Genuine rising damp exists. It is also diagnosed far more often than it occurs, generally by people who sell the cure. If a survey finds it, ask what else was ruled out first, and ask whether the person holding the meter also holds the invoice.
We do not sell chemical damp proof courses. Not as a matter of principle exactly, but because we would have to find a reason to use one, and we would rather look at your gutters. It means that when we do tell you something needs doing, we have nothing to gain from saying it.
A house has to breathe, and this is where it stops being a metaphor
Prana is an old word for breath. On most of this website that is an idea about care. On this page it is building physics.
A solid wall built with lime deals with water by letting it move through and evaporate away. Modern cavity walls deal with it by keeping it out and venting what gets past. Both work. What does not work is treating one as though it were the other, which is what happens when a Victorian cottage is sealed up with cement render, gypsum plaster and vinyl paint by somebody trying to help.
The same instinct causes most modern condensation. Draught-proofing, new windows and a sealed chimney make a house warmer and cheaper to run, and they also stop it losing moisture the way it used to. Do the first without the second and you get mould in a house that was dry twenty years ago. That is why we will not draught-proof a room without talking about ventilation.
Find the cause, then do the smallest thing that fixes it
- A proper look at the whole house, inside and out, with the findings written down
- Extractor fans replaced with properly sized humidity-sensing units, which is the single most effective thing in most homes
- Extractors ducted to the outside, because a great many are quietly ducted into the loft
- Trickle vents fitted to existing windows, and airbricks opened up or added
- Positive input ventilation in the loft, which is quiet, cheap to run and fixes whole houses
- Cold walls insulated and finished so the surface never reaches the temperature where water forms
- Mould treated, killed and made good, alongside whatever was feeding it
- Penetrating damp traced to its source, which is usually a gutter, a sill or some pointing
- Subfloor ventilation cleared, because blocked airbricks under a suspended floor cause a lot of trouble
The cheapest fix is often free, and we will tell you about it anyway. Drying washing on radiators in a closed room, a tumble dryer venting into the utility, a bathroom fan nobody has cleaned since 2018, furniture pushed hard against an outside wall. If that is what is causing it, you should hear so from the person who came to quote, not from a forum at midnight.
The questions people actually ask
Do I have rising damp?
Probably not. Genuine rising damp exists but is uncommon, and a great many houses quoted for a chemical damp proof course turn out to have condensation, a leaking gutter, a bridged cavity or ground raised above the original damp course. We look for those first, and we do not sell chemical damp courses, so we have nothing to gain from finding one.
Why are my windows streaming with water?
That is condensation, and it means moist air is meeting a cold surface faster than the house can get rid of it. Cooking, washing, drying clothes indoors and breathing all add moisture. The answer is almost always ventilation and a little insulation on the coldest surfaces, not a damp course.
Will treating the mould fix it?
Only until it comes back. Treating mould without fixing what is causing it is decorating rather than repair. We will treat it and make good, but we will also tell you what is actually feeding it, because otherwise you will be paying somebody again next winter.
Does an old house need to breathe?
Yes, and this is not a figure of speech. Solid walls built with lime handle moisture by letting it move through and evaporate away. Seal them with modern impermeable render, plaster or paint and the moisture stays in the wall, which is how well-meant improvements make old buildings damper than they were.
What usually comes with this
A warmer, quieter home
Draught-proofing and ventilation are one conversation, not two.
The Home Health Check
The whole house looked at properly, written down, no obligation.
Gutters and the outside
Where a surprising amount of inside damp actually begins.
We cover Godmanchester, Huntingdon, St Ives, St Neots, Brampton, Buckden and the villages between them.
Quite often we recommend nothing at all. A written explanation of why your wall is wet, and the news that it will dry out once the gutter is fixed, is a perfectly good outcome and we will charge you for the visit rather than inventing a cure.
The whole of our thinking is in the Book of Care. Chapter One opens: neglect is rarely a decision, it is an accumulation. Damp is the clearest example of it in any house.
Damp patch, or black spots in the corner?
Send a photograph and tell us when it is worst. Often we can tell you a great deal before we even visit.