Independent damp surveys in Waltham Forest
Waltham Forest has a housing type that barely exists outside it: the Warner flat. Purpose built Victorian and Edwardian maisonette pairs, thousands of them across Walthamstow and Leyton, each half with its own front door and a shared structure. They were built as flats rather than converted into them, and they fail in ways that a converted house does not.
Request a survey Fixed-price surveys from £215, report included
Waltham Forest housing, and what it does when it gets wet
A Warner pair splits a building horizontally with the upper flat holding the roof and the lower one holding the ground. The rainwater goods, the roof and often the rear addition are shared in practice even where the leases divide them on paper. When a valley or rear addition roof fails, it is the lower flat that gets the damp and the upper flat that owns the defect, and the leases are frequently unclear about which. Establishing the physical path is what settles it.
The wider Victorian terraced grid through Walthamstow and Leyton is conventional solid brick, densely built, with rear closet wings and shared passageways. Ground levels in the rear yards have risen with successive resurfacing on a great many of them, bridging otherwise sound damp proof courses.
Chingford, at the northern end, is a different borough in effect: interwar semis with cavity walls, gardens backing onto the forest and Lea valley, and the usual interwar failures of raised ground and blocked airbricks. Proximity to Epping Forest also means mature trees, leaf fall and gutters that block every autumn without fail.
What we are usually called out to in Waltham Forest
- Warner flat pairs where a shared roof or rear addition defect lands on the lower flat
- Leases that do not clearly allocate a shared roof, valley or rear addition
- Raised rear yards bridging the damp proof course on Victorian terraces
- Gutters and valleys blocked by leaf fall near the forest and the Lea valley
- Interwar semis in Chingford with ground built up above the damp proof course
- Timber decay in rear addition floors and roofs after years of slow overflow
Which kind of damp is it?
In a London building the same stain can have four or five different causes, and in Waltham Forest 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 Walthamstow and across Waltham Forest
- 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
What you receive
A written report with photographs within 24 hours, in plain English, that stands on its own whoever reads it.
- Findings by room and by elevation
- Readings and the pattern they form
- The diagnosis, and the causes considered and excluded
- Recommendations in priority order
- Notes for a purchase, a lease or a disrepair matter where relevant
- A clear line where a quote you hold for a Waltham Forest property goes further than the defect
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 Waltham Forest, 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.
Leaseholders, landlords and buyers in Waltham Forest
Buying in Waltham Forest? A homebuyer or building survey that recommends a damp specialist should be followed by somebody with nothing to sell. Our report arrives within 24 hours of the visit, in time to negotiate, and it separates what is wrong from what simply needs maintaining. Landlords and tenants use the same report to settle what is a building defect and what is condensation; see our note on Awaab's Law and landlord duties.
By town
Walthamstow
Long streets of Victorian and Edwardian terraces, many with bays and rear additions, plus the village conservation area. Bays, closet wings and raised yards are the most common sources of damp.
Leyton and Leytonstone
Victorian terraces and conversions. Rear yards, party wall damp in conversions and condensation in busy households recur.
Chingford
Interwar and post war suburbs near Epping Forest. Drives over the course, extensions and mould make up most surveys.
Where we cover
We survey across the borough, from Leyton and Leytonstone up through Walthamstow to Chingford.
- Walthamstow
- Leyton
- Leytonstone
- Chingford
- Highams Park
- Wood Street
- Blackhorse Road
- Upper Walthamstow
- Whipps Cross
Postcode districts
- E4
- E10
- E11
- E17
What customers say about us
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
Really happy with the damp survey by ATI. Tom was friendly, professional and took the time to explain everything clearly. We’d been dealing with the issue for over a year, and Tom managed to find the root cause, which was such a relief. Really appreciate his help and would definitely recommend him.
Nala Nala, on Google
Waltham Forest questions
We are in a Warner flat and the damp is coming from above. Whose repair is it?
It depends on the lease and on exactly where the water is entering, which is why the physical diagnosis has to come first. Roofs, valleys and shared rear additions are commonly the freeholder's or shared between the two flats, but Warner leases vary and many are ambiguous. Our report records the entry point and the route the water takes, so the conversation becomes about a documented defect and who is obliged to fix it, rather than about which neighbour is at fault.
The gutters block every autumn. Is that really enough to cause damp?
Comfortably, yes. An overflowing gutter puts a continuous sheet of water down a wall in exactly the spot where it can find pointing defects, and it does so during the wettest months when the wall has least chance of drying. Near the forest and the valley it is a predictable annual event rather than bad luck. A great many damp diagnoses in this borough end in cleared gutters and repointing rather than anything applied to the inside of the wall.
Our Walthamstow bay has damp underneath. Why?
Bays leak at the roof junction, leadwork and sill, and water runs down inside the bay. A roofer or joiner fixes that.
Our Leyton flat has damp on the party wall. Is it ours?
Party wall damp in conversions often comes from next door: a leaking pipe, a raised floor or a neighbour's defect. The report records it as evidence.
Do Chingford interwar houses need damp proofing?
Rarely. Courses usually work; bridging by drives or patios is the common cause.
Will you try to sell me damp proofing in Waltham Forest?
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 Waltham Forest
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