Hard cement pointing can destroy stone buildings within a few decades

  It’s a sad irony that within 100 years of the introduction of cement and its complete dominance in new buildings, that the downside should be the destruction of buildings which have stood for hundreds of years; well before cement was invented. Cement is a truly wonderful product, easy to use, forgiving and offering incredible […]

Brick-Tie have a day out wall tie surveying with Safeguard.

I enjoyed the company of Hudson Lambert and Robert Deary for a day of wall tie surveying in Leeds last week. Hudson is Managing Director of Safeguard Europe, who are a leading manufacturer, developer and distributor of waterproofing and preservation products. Robert Deary is his Northern Area sales manager. I’ve done good business with Safeguard […]

Mould, damp and condensation seminar for Leeds Met Building Surveying students

Last week I was summoned to Leeds Metropolitan University to speak to the students. Dr Beverley West is senior lecturer in Building surveying at the University and asked me to speak to the students as part of their building pathology module. So once more it was a boot full of diagnostic equipment and armed with […]

Six things to check and do before you choose a damp-proofing specialist.

Damp-proofing, timber treatment and waterproofing specialists are ten a penny – Google or Yell will find you lots of them when you need one. However, like all trades there are good ones and bad, ignorant and clever, honest and not – how do you stack the odds in your favour? The thing is, that damp […]

An informal CPD on condensation, for the Leeds independent RICS surveyors forum

Yesterday I spent an hour or so chatting with building surveyors in North Leeds.  The subject was damp, with particular attention to condensation and mould growth. The Leeds independent surveyors forum is a long established group of RICS members who meet up to help each other stay with trends in the housing market in West […]

Copyright © 2010 Preservation Expert. Legal Stuff: All the advice and information in the posts on my blog is made in good faith and is based on my experience and knowledge at the time of writing. However, nobody is infallible and whilst I’m confident that most of what I write about preservation issues is accurate, there’s a good chance there’ll be an error or two somewhere. I do change my mind about stuff, as I gain more experience. In view of this you must make your own decisions on whether to follow any advice I write and think about this; I could be wrong. No responsibility will be accepted by the author for any losses anyone may suffer as a result of any mistake or for the consequence of any action you take as a result of reading this blog. If you do suffer a loss, resulting from anything I’ve written, a verbal heartfelt apology will be your only compensation.