Independent damp surveys in Camden
Camden runs from Georgian stucco terraces around Regent's Park up to the hill at Hampstead, and takes in a great deal of purpose built mansion block on the way. The three have almost nothing in common structurally, and the mistake we are most often asked to unpick is a diagnosis borrowed from one and applied to another.
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Camden housing, and what it does when it gets wet
The stucco fronted terraces are solid brick behind a lime and later cement render. Stucco is a maintenance item, not a finish: once it cracks or blows, water gets behind it and stays there, and the render then holds it against the brick. Repainting over a blown section with a modern impermeable masonry paint is one of the most reliable ways to make a damp wall worse, and we see the result of it regularly.
The mansion blocks bring parapets, valley gutters, lightwells and long shared soil and rainwater stacks. Water entering at roof level in a mansion block can appear three floors down and two flats along, which makes it an expensive argument between leaseholders and the freeholder unless somebody establishes the actual path. That is normally why we are instructed on a block: not to say there is damp, but to say where it is coming from and whose repairing obligation covers it.
Hampstead and the higher ground bring the London clay and the slope with them. Retaining walls, split level rear gardens and basements cut into a hillside all produce lateral water pressure against a wall that was never built to resist it. Damp on the uphill wall of a lower ground room is a drainage question, and it is answered by looking at what is happening outside, not by injecting the inside.
What we are usually called out to in Camden
- Blown or cracked stucco holding water against solid brick, made worse by an impermeable masonry paint
- Water entering a mansion block at parapet or valley level and presenting several floors below
- Leaseholder and freeholder disputes needing an independent view on where the defect actually is
- Damp on the uphill wall of a lower ground room where the garden retains water against the structure
- Timber decay behind panelling and in joist ends in period property where nobody has opened anything up
- Pre purchase surveys on listed and locally listed buildings where invasive investigation is limited
Which kind of damp is it?
In a London building the same stain can have four or five different causes, and in Camden 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.
How we survey a Camden property
- Externally first: the elevations, the ground or paving against them, and every route water has to the wall
- For flats, the parts of the building outside the demise that can be seen or reasonably reached
- Readings that distinguish surface salts from moisture in depth, rather than a single pin meter figure
- Dew point conditions in the affected rooms, logged and compared with the coldest surfaces
- Ventilation measured, not assumed from the presence of a fan
- Previous damp treatments identified, with whether they addressed the cause
The report
Written within 24 hours of the visit, and structured for the people who will act on it in Camden: you, your solicitor, a freeholder, a contractor.
- A summary of the cause and urgency on the first page
- Photographs and readings, located on the building
- Who is likely responsible for each defect, where it sits outside your demise
- Remedial recommendations as a specification for contractors to price
- An indication of what that work should reasonably cost
- What does not need doing, including any treatment already quoted
What happens when you request a survey
- A same day reply, with the fee and our first available times in Camden.
- 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.
Buyers, landlords, tenants and leaseholders in Camden use our reports for different reasons, but always because the report has nothing behind it. We carry out no remedial work and take no referral fees, so our conclusion is not shaped by what it would lead to. Quoted for damp proofing already? Read damp proofing in Camden: survey first.
Leaseholders, landlords and buyers in Camden
Leaseholders in Camden 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
Hampstead and Belsize Park
Large Victorian houses on the slopes of the hill, many divided into flats, alongside Georgian cottages in the old village and mansion blocks. The sands and gravels on top of the hill sit on London clay, and springs emerge where they meet. Basements and lower ground floors on the uphill side of a house retain ground that can be wet for months, and the damp in them is lateral rather than rising.
Camden Town, Kentish Town and Primrose Hill
Stucco fronted and plain brick terraces from the early and mid nineteenth century, almost all now flats. Front areas with vaults under the pavement, closet wings at the rear and shared roofs and soil stacks are where the water comes from. In converted houses, the flat with the damp is frequently not the flat with the defect.
Bloomsbury and Kings Cross
Georgian terraces around the squares, many in institutional or office use with flats above, and large Victorian and modern developments around the stations. Parapet gutters, valley roofs and lightwells are recurring sources of damp, and listed building constraints shape what can be recommended.
Where we cover
We survey the borough and the surrounding streets, from Bloomsbury and Kings Cross up through Camden Town to Hampstead and Highgate.
- Camden Town
- Hampstead
- Kentish Town
- Belsize Park
- Primrose Hill
- Bloomsbury
- Kings Cross
- Gospel Oak
- Swiss Cottage
Postcode districts
- NW1
- NW3
- NW5
- NW6
- N6
- WC1
What customers say about us
Excellent, came around on the same day, found the issue and gave advice through the process
Morris Seifert, on Google
We were in the process of buying a house and needed a damp survey fairly quickly. Really easy to arrange, they managed to fit us in without any hassle and the report came through quickly afterwards. Great service from start to finish and we’d definitely recommend.
Bradley Hollingdale, on Google
Camden questions
Who is responsible for damp in a mansion block flat?
It depends on where the water is getting in and what the lease says, which is precisely why the survey is worth having before the argument. Roofs, parapets, valley gutters, external walls and shared stacks are normally the freeholder's responsibility; what is inside your demise is normally yours. Our report records the entry point and the path the water takes, so the question becomes a documented one rather than a matter of opinion between neighbours.
Can you survey a listed building without opening anything up?
Yes, and in most cases that is the point. A great deal can be established without intervention: calibrated moisture readings across a grid, thermal patterns, drainage and ground level inspection outside, roof and rainwater goods, and the internal environment. Where something genuinely cannot be resolved without opening up, we say so and say exactly what needs opening and where, so you can seek consent for the smallest possible intervention rather than the largest.
Our Hampstead flat is damp only in winter. Why?
Seasonal damp on the hill often follows the water table in the sands and gravels, which rises through the winter and drops in summer. It reaches walls that retain ground on the uphill side. Condensation is also worse in winter, so the survey separates the two with readings and the pattern of the damp.
Do you survey mansion flats in Camden?
Yes, often for buyers and for leaseholders in dispute with a freeholder. Mansion blocks have shared roofs, gutters, soil stacks and heating pipes, and a damp patch in one flat is often the visible end of a defect elsewhere. The report traces it back.
Is a listed Bloomsbury building harder to survey?
Not harder, but the recommendations are different. The report focuses on repairs that suit historic fabric and are likely to be acceptable, such as lime repairs, rainwater work and drainage, and notes where consent would be needed.
Will you try to sell me damp proofing in Camden?
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 Camden
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