Damp survey in Ramsgate

Ramsgate homes, and how they get damp

The Regency crescents and terraces on the East and West Cliffs and around the harbour are brick behind painted stucco, with basements and lower ground floors cut into the chalk, and many are listed. Stucco protects the brick when it is sound; once it cracks and is painted over with impermeable paint, it traps water. Basements are often damp at the rear, where they retain the slope.

Behind the front, the streets of smaller Victorian houses are solid brick or flint and brick, with yards and rear additions. Flint walls with brick dressings are common in Thanet, and they rely on lime mortar to stay sound and dry. Cement repointing on flint is a frequent cause of damp and of loose flints.

Newington, Nethercourt and Westwood are post war and later, with cavity walls and concrete floors. Mould, condensation and ventilation are the main problems, along with flat roofed extensions and drives laid too high.

Ground, water and weather in Ramsgate

Ramsgate sits on chalk at the eastern tip of Thanet, with cliffs along the coast and Pegwell Bay to the south west, where the land drops to the Stour estuary and the marshes. The chalk drains quickly, so cellars and basements see damp that arrives with heavy rain and fades. Sea spray and salt reach well inland on easterly winds, adding salts to exposed masonry.

Basements, crescents and the slope

A good deal of Ramsgate's most attractive housing is built on the edge of the chalk where it drops to the harbour, and that shapes the damp. Crescents and terraces on the cliff tops often have lower ground floors cut into the chalk, with the street at the front and a lightwell or area below it. The front wall of the lower ground floor holds back the pavement, the vault under it and anything that drains into them.

Damp at the front of a lower ground floor is therefore frequently a pavement vault, an area drain or a broken pipe under the street, not a wall failure. Damp at the rear may be the slope. Both are lateral, and both are dealt with at the source or with a below ground system, never with a damp proof course injected along the wall.

Above ground, the stucco is the thing to watch. Painted every few years, often with modern masonry paints, it eventually stops breathing, and fine cracks let in rain that cannot get back out. The first sign is usually blown plaster inside on an upper floor of the seaward wall.

What we find most often in Ramsgate

• Cracked stucco and impermeable paint trapping water in Regency brickwork
• Basements and lower ground floors retaining chalk slopes behind the cliff top terraces
• Cement repointing on flint and brick walls behind the front
• Salt from sea spray keeping readings high on exposed walls
• Condensation and mould in post war houses inland

Around Ramsgate

East and West Cliffs and the harbour

Regency and Victorian terraces with basements, many listed and converted into flats. Stucco, parapets, basements and freeholder responsibility are the main themes.

Central Ramsgate

Smaller brick and flint houses with yards. Cement pointing, raised ground and rear additions are typical.

Newington, Nethercourt and Westwood

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

Three kinds of damp, three different fixes

Rising damp needs the ground moisture stopped at the base of the wall. Penetrating damp needs the route in closed: a gutter, a joint, a sill, a flashing. Condensation needs less moisture in the air, more air movement and warmer surfaces. In Ramsgate, as everywhere, these get confused constantly, and a remedy for one does nothing for the others.

That is the case for an independent survey in a sentence. Somebody needs to work out which problem you have before anybody sells you the fix for one of them.

What a DampScan survey in Ramsgate covers

A survey here is a morning or an afternoon with one qualified surveyor, not a salesman with a meter. In Ramsgate 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 Regency stucco, brick and flint 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

A sample report, in outline

No two reports are the same, but a Ramsgate report usually runs in this order:

• Property and conditions on the day, including recent weather
• Findings by room and by elevation, each with photographs
• Readings and the pattern they make, not a single headline figure
• Diagnosis: the cause, and the alternatives that were tested and excluded
• Recommendations as a specification, with the order to do them in
• Anything not inspected, and exactly where to look if it needs opening up

Buying or letting in Ramsgate

Ramsgate has attracted many buyers to its Regency terraces and harbourside flats. Basements, stucco and parapets can hide significant work, and responsibility in converted buildings is often shared. An independent survey before exchange sets out what is wrong, what it will take and who should pay.

Letting in Ramsgate? 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 Ramsgate 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.

We are survey only. DampScan does not inject damp proof courses, tank walls, spray timbers or fit fans, so nothing in a Ramsgate report is there to create work for us. If you are holding a damp proofing quote, read damp proofing in Ramsgate: survey first before you sign it.

Damp survey questions from Ramsgate

Where we cover around Ramsgate

• Ramsgate
• Pegwell
• Newington
• Nethercourt
• Westwood
• Manston
• Minster
• Cliffsend
• Royal Harbour

Postcode districts

• CT11
• CT12

Other towns we survey near Ramsgate

In the same district

• Broadstairs
• Margate

Nearby

• Deal

Every town and district we cover

Book a damp survey in Ramsgate

One qualified surveyor, nothing to sell, and the report in writing within a day. Book online or call, and we will confirm cover for your Ramsgate postcode straight away.

Book a survey or call 07386 225526