ATi Damp SurveyIndependent damp surveys in Ealing
Ealing built its reputation on generously proportioned Edwardian and interwar suburban housing, and the stock is largely still that. Big roofs, deep bays, tile hung and rendered elevations, and a lot of houses that have since been divided into flats. The damp follows the divisions and the additions rather than the original construction, which was generally sound.
Ealing housing, and what it does when it gets wet
The Edwardian houses are solid walled at the front and often have rendered or tile hung upper elevations. Tile hanging sheds water well while the battens behind it are sound and the tiles are all present, and it fails invisibly: a slipped or cracked tile lets water onto felt or battens that then rot, and the first sign inside is a damp patch on a first floor wall with nothing obviously wrong outside. It needs looking at from a ladder or a drone, not from the pavement.
A large share of these houses are now flats, and the conversions are old enough that the first generation of work is failing. Rear extensions with felt roofs at the end of their life, bathrooms fitted into former bedrooms with extracts ducted into a roof void rather than outside, and a shared rainwater system that nobody has cleared. Water entering high in a converted house travels through the structure and appears in a flat that has no defect of its own.
The interwar stock further out, towards Northolt and Greenford, is the cavity walled semi with airbricks and a suspended floor, and it fails the way that stock fails everywhere: bridged damp proof courses from decades of raised drives and patios, and blocked underfloor ventilation. Those are cheap problems misdiagnosed as expensive ones more often than anything else we see.
What we are usually called out to in Ealing
- Damp on a first floor wall from a slipped or cracked hanging tile, invisible from ground level
- Failed felt roofs on old rear extensions in converted houses, presenting in the flat below
- Bathroom and kitchen extracts ducted into a roof void rather than to outside air
- Bridged damp proof courses on interwar semis after successive drives and patios
- Blocked airbricks and a musty suspended ground floor, with decay starting at the joist ends
- Second opinions where an injected damp proof course has been recommended on a cavity walled house
Where we cover
We cover the borough and the streets around it, from Acton and Hanwell out to Greenford and Northolt.
- Ealing
- West Ealing
- Acton
- Hanwell
- Northfields
- Greenford
- Perivale
- Southall
- Northolt
Postcode districts
- W3
- W5
- W7
- W13
- UB1
- UB5
- UB6
Book a survey in Ealing
Same day response to every enquiry, and your written report within 24 hours of the visit. Put your postcode in the form and we will confirm cover and fee the same day.
Book a surveyOr call 020 3355 4944.
Ealing questions
There is a damp patch upstairs but nothing looks wrong outside. Where do you start?
Above it, usually. Water entering high in a building travels down and sideways through the structure and appears at the first place it can get to a surface, which is rarely directly below the defect. On Ealing stock the usual suspects are a slipped hanging tile, a chimney flashing, a blocked or overflowing gutter and a failed extension roof, none of which are visible from the ground. We look at the roof and rainwater goods properly rather than assuming the wall is the problem because the wall is where the stain is.
Our flat is damp but the leak seems to be in the flat above or the roof. Is a survey still useful?
It is arguably more useful, because the report is what moves the conversation on. It establishes where the water is entering, the route it takes and which part of the building it passes through, with readings and photographs behind it. That is what a freeholder, a managing agent or an insurer will actually respond to, and it is what stops the discussion being one leaseholder's word against another's.