Paying attention to the small details is always fundamental when completing any form of Damp proofing but never more so than in Basement and Cellar works. We recently completed a Free of charge survey on an unoccupied Basement that has had numerous details to cure damp over many years, most with no or little success.
Recently we provided a FREE OF CHARGE survey report for a large basement below a retail unit. With multiple rooms it was for the main part in good order and dry throughout however one wall to the front elevation had proven problematic over the years and at one point tanking slurry had been applied and a stud wall constructed.
Allready well into a project to extend his home into an adjoining outbuilding a client asked us to provide some advice on how he could stop water from entering his building everytime it rained. A concrete slab had been laid with a DPM (damp proof membrane) and the builders had applied a rubber bitumen style product to the wall/floor junction. Externally to two elevation the ground level was higher than the internal floor and it was these walls that had evidence of water ingress.
In late 2015 we were asked to inspect and report on the condition of a single room basement in a large period property in Crewkerne.
With exposed stone walls and a rough rubble floor there was a musty smell and salt residue on most of the stonework. It was not viable to use even as an area of storage with high moisture meter readings throughout. There was no evidence of any physical water ingress and there had been no reported flooding in the buildings history.
