ATi Damp SurveyIndependent damp surveys in Lambeth
Lambeth is late Georgian at its northern end, dense Victorian terrace through the middle, and large post-war estate at several points across it. The borough also has a great many houses converted into flats in the seventies and eighties, and that generation of conversion is now old enough that its weakest details are failing all at once.
Lambeth housing, and what it does when it gets wet
The Kennington and Vauxhall Georgian terraces are solid brick with lower ground floors and front lightwells, and they suffer the same way as their counterparts north of the river: a lightwell that has been decked or planted bridges the wall, and a rear garden raised by successive landscaping puts ground above internal floor level. What gets called rising damp on a lower ground wall here is usually external ground doing exactly what it is being allowed to do.
The Victorian terraces through Brixton, Clapham and Streatham are mostly flats now. The recurring defect is the rear closet wing and its valley or parapet gutter, frequently shared with the neighbour and almost never cleared. Water from a blocked shared gutter enters both houses at the same level and is generally blamed on whichever flat notices it first.
The estates fail at cold bridges and panel joints. In a borough with a lot of disrepair activity, the useful distinction is between mould that follows the structure, which is a defect, and mould distributed evenly across a room with an extract that moves nothing, which is a ventilation failure and also a defect. Neither is a lifestyle problem, and our reports say so with readings rather than adjectives.
What we are usually called out to in Lambeth
- Front lightwells decked or planted over, bridging the wall of a lower ground room
- Shared valley gutters between closet wings overflowing into two houses at once
- Ageing seventies and eighties flat conversions where roofs, stacks and extensions are failing together
- Cold bridging in estate housing, showing as mould that follows slabs and reveals
- Extract fans ducted into voids rather than to outside air
- Timber decay in closet wing floors after years of slow overflow
Where we cover
We survey across the borough, from Waterloo and Kennington out through Brixton and Clapham to Streatham and West Norwood.
- Brixton
- Clapham
- Streatham
- Kennington
- Vauxhall
- Herne Hill
- West Norwood
- Stockwell
- Tulse Hill
Postcode districts
- SW2
- SW4
- SW8
- SW9
- SE11
- SE24
- SE27
Book a survey in Lambeth
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.
Lambeth questions
Our neighbour has damp in the same place we do. What does that mean?
In a terrace it usually means a shared defect rather than a coincidence. Closet wing valley gutters, parapet gutters and rear passageway drainage are frequently shared between two houses, and when one blocks it affects both. That is generally good news for diagnosis, because it points at something specific rather than at your wall in particular. It does mean the repair may need both owners, which is a further reason to have an independent report saying precisely what and where the defect is.
The flat conversion was done in the eighties. Is that relevant?
Very. Flat roofs over rear extensions have a service life, and a lot of Lambeth conversion work is now well past it. So are the felt, the flashings and the boxed in stacks that were installed at the same time. When several details reach the end of their life together, a building that was fine for thirty years develops three leaks in two winters. Knowing the conversion date changes where we look first.