Damp survey in Folkestone

Folkestone homes, and how they get damp

The Leas and the West End are lined with tall stucco and brick buildings, many with basements, bays, balconies and complex roofs with parapets and valleys. Converted into flats, they have shared roofs, gutters and drains, and damp in a top floor flat is often a parapet or valley problem in a common part. Basement flats often retain ground at the rear.

Around the harbour and the Old High Street, the buildings are older and smaller, in brick, render and sometimes local stone, on steep ground. Rear walls retain the slope, and the steep streets send water downhill quickly in heavy rain.

Cheriton, Morehall and Hawkinge are mostly interwar, post war and newer. Mould, condensation and ventilation are the main issues, with flat roofed extensions and bridged courses.

Ground, water and weather in Folkestone

Folkestone sits where the chalk of the North Downs meets the Lower Greensand and the Gault clay. The Warren to the east is famous for landslips, and Sandgate to the west sits on ground known for slow movement. Clay holds water and moves with the seasons, while greensand drains freely. The mix makes local drainage and ground conditions especially relevant to damp.

Big houses, small flats

Folkestone's grand houses were built with large roofs, many chimneys, parapets hiding valley gutters and long runs of cast iron rainwater pipes. Divided into flats, these are now nobody's in particular, and maintenance can slip for years. Water from a blocked valley can travel a long way inside a wall before it shows, often in a flat two floors down, which is why the source and the symptom are frequently in different flats.

Chimneys are another recurring source. Stacks that have been capped without ventilation trap moisture in the flue, which condenses and soaks through the breast, leaving brown stains on chimney breasts in flats far below. The fix is at the top, not in the room.

At the other end of the building, many basements were once kitchens and service rooms, now converted into flats. Their rear walls hold back the ground and their front walls face an area or lightwell. Damp in them is lateral or from blocked area drains far more often than it is rising damp.

What we find most often in Folkestone

• Leaking parapets, valleys and flat roofs on converted houses along the Leas
• Basement flats retaining ground at the rear with no drainage behind
• Wind driven rain and salt through stucco, bays and balconies facing the Channel
• Steep streets sending surface water at the uphill walls of older houses
• Condensation and mould in twentieth century houses in Cheriton and Hawkinge

Around Folkestone

The Leas and the West End

Large Victorian and Edwardian houses, mostly flats. Roofs, parapets, basements and freeholder responsibility are the recurring issues.

The harbour and Old High Street

Older buildings on steep ground. Lateral damp on uphill walls, drainage and render are typical.

Cheriton, Morehall and Hawkinge

Twentieth century and newer housing. Mould, ventilation and extension details make up most surveys.

Telling the kinds of damp apart

Most of the cost of a damp problem comes from treating the wrong one. Water rising from the ground, rain getting in from outside and moisture condensing from the air inside all leave marks on a Folkestone wall, and the marks overlap.

The differences are in when and where. Damp that comes and goes with rain points outside. Damp that is worst in a cold snap, behind furniture and in corners, points to condensation. Damp that is constant, rises to a fairly even height and falls off above it, on a wall with no outside fault, is the one that might be rising. The survey records which of these the evidence supports.

What a DampScan survey in Folkestone covers

A survey here is a morning or an afternoon with one qualified surveyor, not a salesman with a meter. In Folkestone that means:

• Moisture readings across a grid on every affected wall, not just the stain, so the shape of the damp is on record
• A look at Victorian brick, stucco and stone or brick outside, joint by joint where it matters, because the cause is usually on the outside face
• Ground and path levels against each elevation, measured against the damp proof course or the internal floor
• Gutters, downpipes, gullies and any drain covers we can lift
• Air temperature, humidity and surface temperatures, so condensation is measured rather than guessed
• Ventilation: whether fans extract to outside and how much air they actually move
• Floor voids and exposed timbers where they can be reached, for rot and beetle

The report, and what you can do with it

You get it in writing within 24 hours. It is built so you can use it, whether you are living in Folkestone, letting there or buying there:

• Hand it to two or three contractors and compare prices for the same job
• Put it to a seller or agent during a purchase, with the evidence attached
• Give it to a landlord, managing agent or freeholder as an independent record
• Check a damp proofing quote you already hold against what was actually found
• Keep it with the deeds, so the next survey starts from facts
• Ask us questions about it afterwards, at no extra charge

Buying or letting in Folkestone

Many Folkestone buyers are buying a flat in a converted Leas or West End house. Damp in those flats often comes from the building, not the flat, so knowing the source and responsibility before exchange is essential. An independent survey gives you that, and gives you evidence for the freeholder if work is needed.

Letting in Folkestone? Damp and mould in rented homes are a hazard under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, and social landlords in England now have fixed timescales to investigate and act under Awaab's Law, with the government planning to extend similar duties to private renting. An independent report that separates building defects from condensation is the evidence both landlords and tenants need. See our guide to landlord damp and mould duties.

How it works

1. You send the form or call. We reply the same day and confirm the fee in writing.
2. A qualified surveyor comes to your Folkestone address at a time that suits you, including evenings and weekends.
3. The survey takes one to two hours for most homes, longer for large or period buildings.
4. Your written report follows within 24 hours, and we are on the phone if anything in it needs explaining.

Most damp firms in Kent survey for free and earn their money on the treatment. We charge for the survey and sell no treatment at all, which is the whole point: finding nothing wrong with a Folkestone wall costs us nothing. There is more on that on our page about damp proofing in Folkestone.

Damp survey questions from Folkestone

Where we cover around Folkestone

• Folkestone
• Sandgate
• Cheriton
• Hawkinge
• The Leas
• East Cliff
• Morehall
• Broadmead
• Capel le Ferne

Postcode districts

• CT18
• CT19
• CT20

Other towns we survey near Folkestone

In the same district

• Hythe

Nearby

• Dover
• Ashford

Every town and district we cover

Book a damp survey in Folkestone

Tell us your postcode and what you have noticed. We confirm the fee the same day and arrange a visit around you, anywhere in and around Folkestone.

Book a survey or call 07386 225526