Damp & Timber Surveys, Remedial Works Isle of Man - Nigel Fairclough Ltd

Damp & Timber Surveys, Remedial Works Isle of Man - Nigel Fairclough Ltd Our specialist surveyor with 38 years experience can provide Damp & Timber, Roof, Remedial Building & Electrical Surveys suitable for your mortgage lender.

Have you got walls or ceilings that look like this?These are just two of many many photographs that I have taken whilst ...
09/12/2024

Have you got walls or ceilings that look like this?
These are just two of many many photographs that I have taken whilst carrying out surveys on properties around the Isle of Man this last year.
We as humans put a lot of moisture into the air within our properties. But, inherent property defects, temporary property defects, weather conditions, etcetera, can all add to the internal moisture issues.
Mould & condensation issues most times aren't as simple a fix as opening your windows &/or turning your heating up, especially in older properties. If you have had any damp-proofing work carried out in your property, whether that is wall tanking plastering systems, or similar cementitious wall plastering work, or an injected damp-proof course, or a plastic membrane systems, then these alterations to the building fabric can exacerbate any condensation & mould issues.
Mould & condensation can be bad for your health, but what it also does, is damage your decoration, damage your personal items, damage your furniture, it can damage the building fabric, it can cause timber decay, it encourages dust mites, it can encourage wood boring insect damage, etcetera, it can also cost you a lot of money to remediate.
Washing the walls down with mould killers is a short term fix, it removes the mould temporarily, but it does not address the root causes of the problem. What mould killers can do is introduce hygroscopic salts to the wall plaster. Hygroscopic salts encourage more condensation to form at that location, & inevitably, more mould.
We carry out property mould & condensation surveys regularly. This will include a full property survey, because a leaking gutter, or a crack in the external wall render, or a blocked drain, etcetera, can be a partial cause of the internal mould & condensation issues.
We charge for the surveys that we carry out, simply because we are happy to be independent. It is then up to you, to go forward & use your own preferred contractors to carry out the remediation works based on our findings, or we are also happy to carry out the remediation works for you, should you require this.
The truth is that our ultimate aim is that you have a warm, dry, mould free, healthy environment to live in.
Guess work doesn't cure these condensation & mould issues, but a scientific type survey will.

23/11/2024

Another day, another survey or two.
Condensation & mould survey on a modern property in Douglas.

We all suffer from mould in our properties, to a greater, or lesser extent. If you need some answers to the causes of th...
16/10/2024

We all suffer from mould in our properties, to a greater, or lesser extent.
If you need some answers to the causes of the mould, then get in touch, to book one of our condensation & mould surveys.

The thermal imaging camera is only one piece of kit that is used in a loft space, this to identify the source of the wat...
16/10/2024

The thermal imaging camera is only one piece of kit that is used in a loft space, this to identify the source of the water ingress into a party wall structure.

Some modern houses have vents through the wall structure in several rooms, both upstairs & downstairs. The survey on thi...
15/10/2024

Some modern houses have vents through the wall structure in several rooms, both upstairs & downstairs. The survey on this property was carried out on a warm autumnal day. But you can only imagine how cold the wall & ceiling areas around that wall vent will be on a windy cold winters day, or night.
Personally, I'm not a fan of trickle vents in windows, or un-insulated passive air vents through walls. Mechanical extractor fans, yes, insulated passive air vents, yes. Changes of stale moisture laden air in a property are important.
These passive air vents didn't do their job of minimising the mould & condensation issues in this property, if fact, probably the total opposite. In my opinion, they have made it worse, exacerbating the mould & condensation issues.
In many houses, I see trickle vents taped up, passive air vents filled in & painted over, this because they let in too much cold air at the wrong times. And whilst cold air doesn't hold much water vapour, it can be uncomfortable for the householder who is paying large heating bills.

I really don't know why, but I'm still constantly amazed that homeowners are still spending long thousands of pounds to ...
14/10/2024

I really don't know why, but I'm still constantly amazed that homeowners are still spending long thousands of pounds to have chemical damp-proof course injection treatment, & cement based wall tanking systems inflicted on their properties, when almost all of the time they aren't needed, & these systems aren't going to work.
From a large manufacturer of damp meters:
In resistance damp meters the two most common causes of false high readings are metals & salts. “Contrary to popular belief, a moisture meter is not a diagnosis tool. Rather, it helps an inspector/surveyor make an informed call about moistures presence within a space or material. If your damp meter is giving you a high reading, that merits further investigation. Dampness may not be the reason for the measurement; metals & salts cause false-positive readings.”
BS 5250: 2011 says that 'One of the most reliable ways that may be used to differentiate between dampness due to condensate & due to rising dampness, is to compare the moisture contents of samples of masonry, or preferably mortar, from within the depth of the wall, & near the inner surface of the wall; samples from within the wall will not be damp if surface condensation is the sole cause'.
You cannot accurately diagnose rising dampness with resistance meters & Wood Moisture Equivalent (WME) measurements.
There are official documents that also state this. Here are extracts from some of them:
BS 6576: Code of practice for diagnosing rising damp in walls & buildings & installation of damp-proof courses, says; ‘Electrical moisture meter…surface measurements cannot alone give proof of rising dampness, so further evidence may, where permitted, be obtained by measurements taken within the depth of the wall. Chemical, (Calcium Carbide), or gravimetric methods can be used.’
BS 5250: Code of practice for controlling condensation in buildings, says; ‘Accurate measurements of the moisture content of brick or mortar cannot be obtained by the use of electrical moisture meters, because the presence of salts increases the electrical conductance of the water, giving falsely high readings. Gravimetric methods carried out on samples taken from the fabric give the most reliable results. The use of chemical (Calcium Carbide) absorption type moisture meters will give a result in a short space of time & are almost as reliable.
BRE Digest 245 RISING DAMPNESS IN WALLS – Diagnostics and treatment says; 'They, (resistance meters), quite commonly give high readings on the walls of old properties where some accumulation of salts occurs on internal surfaces. This does not mean, however, that the property necessarily have a damp problem: high readings can be obtained from a wall where the concentration of salts is high, even if the wall is virtually dry.’
We use various types of equipment on our pre-purchase surveys, including: Moisture Meters, Thermal Imaging Cameras, Anemometers, Hygrometers, Thermo-Hygrometers, Surface Temperature Equipment.
Plus on owned properties, we can use: Calcium Carbide Speedy Meter, Gravimetric Testing, & Salt Analysis, amongst others as required.

10/10/2024

Experience tells me that there is something amiss in this property.

09/10/2024

Window reveals are always an issue where mould is concerned.

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Ramsey
IM8

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