Independent damp surveys in Romford, Hornchurch and Upminster
Havering is outer London in character and largely interwar and post-war in construction, with a rural fringe that most of the capital does not have. Romford and Hornchurch are suburb; out towards Upminster and the Essex boundary there are older cottages, weatherboarding and buildings that predate anything else in the borough by two centuries.
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Havering housing, and what it does when it gets wet
The suburban bulk is cavity walled semi and detached with a functioning damp proof course. The overwhelmingly common cause of low level damp is external ground raised above that course by successive drives, paths and patios, followed by blocked airbricks under suspended timber floors. Both are cheap to establish and cheap to fix, and both are routinely misdiagnosed as something requiring injection.
On the rural fringe the stock changes completely: timber frame, weatherboarding, and solid walls with lime mortar, some of it several centuries old. These buildings depend on breathing. Cement render, gypsum plaster and modern masonry paint on them trap moisture against structural timber, and the decay that follows is expensive and slow to appear. Any recommendation on a building of that age has to be permeable.
The borough also has a great deal of larger post-war housing and estates where ventilation, rather than water ingress, is the issue. Where windows have been replaced without trickle vents, or an extract discharges into a roof void, condensation appears in a house with nothing structurally wrong with it at all.
What we are usually called out to in Havering
- Ground levels raised above the damp proof course on interwar and post-war housing
- Blocked airbricks and musty suspended ground floors
- Cement render and gypsum plaster trapping moisture against timber frame on the rural fringe
- Weatherboarding that has cupped, split or been over painted until it holds water
- Windows replaced without trickle vents, with condensation following
- Extract fans discharging into roof voids rather than to outside air
Rising, penetrating, condensation or a leak
A tide mark low on a Havering wall is often called rising damp on sight. It may be. It may equally be a patio laid against the outside, a front area drain that has stopped draining, salts left behind by an old leak, or condensation collecting behind furniture on a cold wall. A pin meter cannot tell these apart, because salts and surface moisture make it read high regardless.
The survey works through the possibilities in order and records why each was accepted or ruled out, so that whoever reads the report, a solicitor, a freeholder or a contractor, can follow the reasoning.
How we survey a Havering 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
Inside the report
Each Havering 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
How a survey is arranged
- Tell us the postcode, the property type and what has been noticed.
- We confirm the fee and the time. It does not change on the day.
- On site, outside first, then inside, with findings explained before we leave.
- The report arrives within a day, ready to forward to a solicitor, agent or freeholder.
We do not sell damp proofing, tanking, ventilation units or timber treatment. In Havering, as everywhere in London, that independence is what makes the report useful to a buyer negotiating a price, a tenant raising a disrepair issue, or an owner deciding whether a quote is justified. Quoted for damp proofing already? Read damp proofing in Havering: survey first.
Leaseholders, landlords and buyers in Havering
Leaseholders in Havering 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
Romford
Romford around the market and the station is Victorian and Edwardian terrace, solid walled, much of it rendered in cement since, with the borough's interwar suburb starting a few streets out. In the terraces the findings are the solid wall ones: render that traps moisture, plaster and skirting bridging what damp proof course there is, and chimney breasts wet from a capped stack above. Flats above shops in the centre bring parapet gutters and shared roofs, where the leak and the damage are two floors and two owners apart.
Hornchurch
Hornchurch is interwar suburb with Emerson Park at one end of it: large detached houses on big plots, roofs with several valleys and a great deal of lead, and most of them extended at least once. On a house like that the roof junctions and the flashings are the first place to look, because a lifted flashing over a valley wets an internal wall a long way from anywhere obvious. The ordinary semis of Hornchurch have the ordinary findings: raised drives, blocked airbricks and rear additions covering the ventilation the floor depended on.
Upminster
Upminster is the garden suburb of the 1900s, roughcast render and tile hanging on Arts and Crafts houses, then interwar and post-war suburb, then a rural edge at Cranham and North Ockendon that is older than any of it. Roughcast that has been overpainted until it cannot breathe, and tile hanging with failed battens behind it, are the garden suburb findings. On the edge it is lime built cottages and weatherboarding, and the same rule as everywhere old: whatever is done to them has to let the wall dry.
Where we cover
We survey across the borough, from Romford and Hornchurch out through Upminster and Rainham to the Essex boundary.
- Romford
- Hornchurch
- Upminster
- Rainham
- Collier Row
- Elm Park
- Harold Wood
- Gidea Park
- Cranham
Postcode districts
- RM1
- RM2
- RM3
- RM5
- RM7
- RM11
- RM12
- RM13
- RM14
What customers say about us
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Havering questions
Our cottage is old and the walls read damp everywhere. Is that normal?
On a solid walled lime built cottage, a moisture meter will often read high across the whole wall, and that on its own does not tell you very much. These walls hold and release moisture as part of how they work, and meters respond to salts as well as water. What matters is whether the moisture is at a level that puts timber at risk, whether it is drying, and whether something modern is preventing it from drying. That is an interpretation job, not a reading job.
Is weatherboarding a problem or a benefit?
A benefit, while it is maintained. It is a rain screen: it sheds water off the structure and lets air move behind it. It stops working when boards cup or split at the fixings, when laps have been sealed by repeated repainting, or when ground or paving has been built up against the bottom boards. That last one is the serious version, because the sole plate behind is structural and it is the first thing to decay.
Is our Gidea Park house harder to survey?
Gidea Park has Arts and Crafts houses in a conservation area, and repairs need to suit them. The survey is the same; the recommendations are written with the constraints in mind.
Our Romford semi has damp after a new drive. Is that connected?
Very likely, if the drive sits less than about two courses below the damp proof course. It is fixed at the drive, not in the wall.
Do you survey for landlords in Havering?
Yes. The report separates building defects from condensation, which is what landlords and tenants need to agree what to do.
Will you try to sell me damp proofing in Havering?
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 Havering
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