Information Sheet
These information sheets have been designed to help if you are faced with timber decay and other damp related building defects.
We will try to help you identify if the defects are historical with no intervention necessary, or active requiring further investigation.
You will find tips on how to monitor damp walls and beetle activity in timbers.
The same principles are applied to modern or older buildings whatever their size and historic or commercial value.
Please contact us if you have an idea of a subject that we have not covered but that you think that the general public will benefit from and we will try our best to help.
Timber Defects
For many years the solution to the problem of timber decay has been to spray chemical preservative treatments onto suspect timbers or to cut-out timbers with signs of often, insignificant decay.
This approach has been responsible for the loss or historically valuable materials and the introduction of disproportionate amounts of chemical preservatives into our homes.
Timber decay in buildings will only occur if the timber becomes sufficiently wet. Once the problems that allowed the timber to become wet are resolved, the timber will begin to dry and the decay will be controlled
Damp
The effects of dampness in buildings is a subject that is often misunderstood, exaggerated, misdiagnosed and has given rise to an industry which sells many different products that are marketed to remedy damp problems. Unfortunately, many property owners have unwittingly spent good money on unnecessary and damaging works.