How to Save £’000’s Problem Solving with Damp 👌

Ever met a happy damp specialist? Probably not, since they’d never let on, but dampness is a real issue. It can destroy your new...

Ever met a happy damp specialist?

Probably not, since they’d never let on, but dampness is a real issue. It can destroy your new decor, the tenants’ furniture and affect the health of the tenants’, which may mean them moving out. On a day to day basis, it’s one of the biggest issues we see, and preventing it can save you £000’s.

The problem with damp, though, is lots of things cause it. The four main causes of damp are:

1. Rising damp – caused by water rising from the ground into a home. You’ll need a damp course to rectify this.
2. Penetrating dampness is found on external walls caused by missing pointing, cracked render, or missing roof tiles. You’ll need to identify the underlying issue by doing a quick property survey around the affected area before getting a tradesman to resolve it.
3. Defective plumbing can cause dampness with water and waste pipes leaks, especially in bathrooms and kitchens. A quick examination of the area affected should identify the issue so you can resolve it.
4. Condensation – water vapour or moisture within a dwelling when hitting a colder surface can cause dampness. The resultant water droplets, when soaking into wallpaper or paintwork over time, can attract black mould. The best way to deal with this issue is to speak to the tenant to provide steps to reduce the air’s moisture and increase the airflow within the property.

As you can see, when finding damp, it’s not always the best thing to call a damp specialist since the issue could be caused by something else.

As part of our tenant onboarding process, we provide tenants with a handbook (detailing the causes of damp). If there is an issue, they can help us identify the cause without needlessly sending out the wrong tradesman at a cost to the landlord. We also run through the various scenarios above, ask for videos of the affected area, to try and identify the best solution ourselves.

Our aim is always to resolve the issue as quickly as possible since with damp the longer you leave it, the more it’ll cost you in the end. There’s no point pretending it will go away or the tenant will get used to it. Our aim is to provide a consistent income stream to our landlords; in our experience, sticking your head in the sand just means you create a void or a bigger cost later on. If you want to make consistent returns from property, problem-solving and spending your money wisely is KEY!

Chris, our refurb director, was at a property with lots of different damp issues; see our video below showing how he identified the issues to be resolved👇