What the hell do these moisture meter readings actually mean? or, Have I got rising damp or not?

  Electrical Moisture meters for damp diagnosis – oh yes. A thing that raises an eyebrow amongst some independent surveyors is the way we so called ‘specialists’ seem happy to diagnose rising damp, or damp of any kind, using nothing more than our eyes and a conductivity moisture meter. “Ha; I can get a reading […]

Damp problems solved “the green way” (or how to spend a pile of cash for nothing at all).

I was asked to have a look at a cottage, just off the A1, near Pontefract last week. Arriving on site, I was greeted by my clients; the owners. A couple in late middle age, with two dogs and a cat. I thought this was a standard damp survey, which usually means checking for all […]

Damp. The (very) basic guide. part 3

Now that you have read part 1 and part 2, we can move onto more problematical damp.  This is rising damp. Despite what some daft journalists and conservationists say, it’s very common. However, it is also often misdiagnosed and I’d say that quite a few expensive damp courses are installed when they needn’t be (I […]

Surveyors! Do you fancy taking part in a national study on condensation?

The Property Care Association and Graham Colman of Remedial technical services have some interesting research in progress. This is a study of the vapour pressure differentials inside randomly chosen homes around the UK, compared to external measurements. Condensation problems are common and seem to be growing. Those of us involved in condensation and mould control […]

Mould remediation

Last week I spent two days in Farnham, Surrey, at the National Flood School. The course was Mould Remediation.  I’ve spent many a happy hour learning how to avoid mould growth,by controlling humidity and temperature. Flooding doesn’t respect normal precautions and sadly, mould growth is often a result of any flood, be it ground water […]

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.