Our customer had a typical Edwardian terraced house which had been subjected to various works over the years. It smelt of damp when you walked in the front door, and there were high damp readings around the front bay window and fireplace. There was black mould on the inside of the front bay window as well. This was all picked up on the survey when they bought it.

We expected to find ventilation issues and we also expected to find ground level issues on the outside. What we actually found were that new airbricks had been fitted and these had been fitted too high and so weren’t venting below the floor. They were coming out behind the skirting boards.

When we removed the floor we found the entire bay to be rotten including the wall plate.

We had to remove all the floor, and also all the plaster from the walls in the front bay. We then damp proofed the inside of the front walls. We dug out all of the damp rubble from under the internal floor.

We also looked at the ground levels outside and cut out and installed a drain around the front of the house below the original damp proof course. This was filled with pea shingle so that rainwater can soak away.

We installed air diverters so that the original air bricks now vent properly under the floor, and re built the floor structure having replaced the wall plate.