Independent damp surveys in Bexleyheath, Sidcup and Welling
Bexley is chalk and gravel on the higher ground and river marsh at Erith and Crayford, with interwar and post-war suburb covering nearly all of it. The geology is the useful thing to know here: chalk drains fast, so damp arrives quickly during rainfall and goes again, which gives it a distinctly episodic character.
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Bexley housing, and what it does when it gets wet
On the chalk, water moves through the ground quickly rather than accumulating. Damp that appears during heavy rain and eases within days is normally surface and near surface water reaching the building, not a rising problem, and the answer lies in ground falls, gullies and drainage rather than in anything applied to the wall. It is one of the clearest diagnostic patterns available and it is regularly ignored.
The interwar and post-war semis that make up most of the borough are cavity walled with working damp proof courses and airbricks under suspended timber floors. As everywhere in that stock, the dominant fault is external ground built up over decades until it bridges the course, and the second is airbricks blocked by patios, conservatories or render. Neither needs a chemical.
At Erith, Crayford and the marsh edge the ground is low and alluvial and the water table is high, so solid floors and any below ground space behave quite differently from the same house half a mile uphill. Older riverside industrial housing there also brings solid walls and, in places, no effective damp proof course at all.
What we are usually called out to in Bexley
- Episodic damp on chalk after heavy rain, pointing at surface water rather than rising damp
- Ground levels built up above the damp proof course on interwar and post-war semis
- Airbricks blocked by patios, conservatories or render, starving the underfloor void
- High water table affecting solid floors and below ground space at the marsh edge
- Older riverside housing with solid walls and no effective damp proof course
- Slumped or bridging retrofit cavity insulation on exposed elevations
Which kind of damp is it?
In a London building the same stain can have four or five different causes, and in Bexley we regularly find two at once. Water rising from the ground through a wall with no working course. Rain entering through a parapet, a gutter, a cracked render or a window head. Moisture from the air condensing on a cold wall. Water from a pipe, a bath seal or a flat upstairs. Each needs a different repair and, in a shared building, often a different person to pay for it.
Our readings are taken to separate them: at depth as well as at the surface, at heights up the wall, on either side of the damp, and alongside humidity and surface temperatures. The pattern, not a single number, is what the diagnosis rests on.
The inspection, around Bexleyheath and across Bexley
- Every wall showing damp, and the walls either side of it for comparison
- Rainwater goods and roof junctions from the ground and from windows, and closer where access is safe
- Basement and lower ground floors for water table, drainage and bridging at the lightwell
- Condensation risk measured with temperature and humidity readings
- Visible timber for decay and beetle, with moisture content recorded
- Anything that would need opening up, identified and agreed with you rather than done unannounced
Inside the report
Each Bexley report follows the same order, so it reads easily to a buyer, a landlord or a court:
- Scope and conditions on the day
- Observations, with photographs
- Measurements, with where each was taken
- Conclusions on cause
- Recommendations and an outline cost
- Limitations: what was not inspected and why
What happens when you request a survey
- A same day reply, with the fee and our first available times in Bexley.
- One surveyor, no sales visit to follow, because there is nothing to sell.
- A visit of one to two hours for most flats and houses.
- A written report with readings and photographs within 24 hours.
Most of our Bexley surveys are for one of four people: a buyer whose survey flagged damp, a tenant or landlord with mould, a leaseholder trying to get a freeholder to act, or an owner holding a damp proofing quote. Each needs the same thing, an account of the cause from somebody with no interest in the remedy, and that is all we provide.
Leaseholders, landlords and buyers in Bexley
Leaseholders in Bexley often discover that the cause of their damp sits in a part of the building they do not own. Our report says where the water is coming from and which element of the building it passes through, which is the evidence a freeholder or managing agent needs under the lease. For landlords, damp and mould are hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, and social landlords in England now work to the fixed timescales of Awaab's Law. Our guide to Awaab's Law explains what that means.
By town
Bexleyheath
Bexleyheath is 1930s semi detached housing almost without exception, and its front gardens have mostly become parking. Each layer of drive laid over the last raises the ground a little, and after three or four of them the damp proof course is buried and the front room reads wet at skirting level. It is the single most common finding here, it is cheap to establish, and it is the finding most often diagnosed as rising damp and quoted for injection.
Sidcup
Sidcup has older Edwardian stock around the village and station and interwar housing beyond it, with the River Cray and the meadows at Foots Cray on the low ground to the east. Houses down the slope towards the river sit on a higher water table than those on the ridge, and a solid floor or a cellar there behaves differently from the same house on the high street. Flat roofed 1930s rear additions are the other recurring source: felt that has reached the end of its life, wetting the wall below from above.
Welling
Welling was built almost entirely between the wars, densely, on small plots, and the decorative half timbering on the gables is the detail that fails. The render behind the applied timbers cracks, water gets in behind it and cannot get out, and a first floor bedroom develops a damp patch below a gable with nothing wrong in the room at all. Because plots are narrow, a neighbour's paving or extension frequently meets the party wall, and the damp shows on the wrong side of the boundary from its cause.
Where we cover
We survey across the borough, from Bexleyheath and Sidcup out through Crayford to Erith and the riverside.
- Bexleyheath
- Sidcup
- Erith
- Crayford
- Welling
- Barnehurst
- Belvedere
- Blackfen
- Slade Green
Postcode districts
- DA1
- DA5
- DA6
- DA7
- DA8
- DA14
- DA15
- DA16
What customers say about us
Massive thanks to Ben and the team, came over very quickly, very professional and at a great cost.. wld recommend them all very highly
Track day Junkie, on Google
Best servey i have had done fast easy and everything got sorted A+++
Lee, on Google
Bexley questions
The damp comes and goes with the weather. What does that rule out?
It largely rules out rising damp, which is a slow, steady process that does not switch on and off with rainfall. Damp that tracks the weather is arriving from outside: surface water reaching the wall, an overflowing gutter or hopper, driving rain on an exposed elevation, or ground water moving quickly through chalk. That pattern is genuinely useful evidence, so it is worth telling us when it happens and what the weather was doing.
Two houses in the same street, one damp and one not. How?
Usually because something has been done to one of them and not the other. Ground level is the most common: one house has had three layers of drive laid over eighty years and the other has not. Blocked airbricks, a rear extension, a conservatory across a wall, or retrofit cavity fill in one and not the other will all do it. Identical houses do not have identical histories, and the history is generally where the answer is.
Our Bexleyheath semi has damp along the front wall. Is that rising damp?
In interwar houses it is usually the drive or path laid above the damp proof course. The repair is at the ground.
Do you survey bungalows in Bexley?
Yes. Bungalows have large roof and wall areas for their size, and mould on ceilings and corners is common. We measure surface temperatures and humidity.
Is damp near the Thames in Erith groundwater?
On the lowest ground it can be, particularly in floors. The survey separates groundwater from other causes.
Will you try to sell me damp proofing in Bexley?
No. We carry out no remedial work, so there is nothing to sell after the survey. The report states the cause, the work that would actually fix it and an outline of what that work should reasonably cost, so you can get like for like quotes from contractors of your choice, or put it to a seller, landlord or freeholder.
Nearby
Book a damp survey in Bexley
We survey and report only, with no treatment to sell, so what the report says is the whole of our interest. Same day response to every enquiry, and a written report with photographs within 24 hours of the visit.
Book a survey or call 020 3355 4944