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Sydney’s Specialists in rising damp solutions
Rising Damp Solutions.
Sydney’s Specialists in rising damp solutions
Rising Damp Solutions.
The Truth About Rising Damp
…after reading this page you’ll have knowledge about solutions for rising damp that most rising damp companies don’t want you to know!
Builders: Free
Residential Owner Occupier: $17
Pre-Purchase Inspections: $450
Occupied Rentals & Strata: $350
David Fischl
09/10/2024
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Highly recommended. The team did a brilliant job. They are definitely specialists. Thank you Jason and team for your great advice and top quality work.
lynne dwyer
09/09/2024
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Jason and his team were great to work with, giving a detailed quote with videos of the work to be done, in progress and when completed. He also helped me understand the various methods of treating rising damp and the pros and cons of each method. He protected our precious hardwood floors during the work and cleaned up all work debris. And most helpfully, recommended various tradesmen for other parts of the job. Highly recommended.
Mike Muller
04/09/2024
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. The most honest rising damp expert. I spoke with Jason, and shared some photos and a video of the problem area. He looked at them and let me know that I could do the remediation myself. In doing that he demonstrated his integrity. it stands in comparison to some of the other firms which claim they can fix a problem for a four figure amount of money. Thank you Jason.
Emily Botha
30/07/2024
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Jason and his team were fantastic from start to finish. Highly recommend!
tom sherington
23/07/2024
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Jason and his team go way and beyond to provide best in practice of waterproofing standards to new and remedial applications. We cannot rate Jason highly enough
Peter Hopkinson
02/07/2024
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Jason and his team were great. I was impressed by the detailed quote, which included a video scope of the work. Each day, the team arrived on time, took care to protect the hardwood floors, and left everything clean. They answered all my questions and the damp issue has been resolved.
M C
30/06/2024
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Jason and his team were fantastic.
Super helpful across all aspects of the job, from coming out to quote, completing the job and taking the time to clean up well and put everything back in place, leaving no rubbish behind.
Highly recommend.
Adrian Henning
03/04/2024
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Our company has now used this company on a number of rectification projects and have found their attention to details, quoting, performance and committment to providing service beyond our expectations to be amazing. Other companies we have used previously never performed to this level and we are very satisfied in recommending this company.
Gerard Hogan
07/03/2024
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. First-rate service – from the level of information about what is to be honest a kind of weird problem, to the ongoing communication, the skill and care of the technicians. Wow. Cuoldn’t have asked for a better experience.
Joel Werner
24/02/2024
Trustindex verifies that the original source of the review is Google. Jason and his team were brilliant to deal with, from first call to completion of the job. They’re clearly experts in waterproofing, who were able to assess the issue at our place, offer a few solutions at different price points, and then execute the job once we booked it. Their work was fast, efficient, and flawless. I loved how clean their worksite was, such a rarity! And the waterproofing worked perfectly — even through the recent Sydney deluge, we didn’t experience any damp in the treated space. Would strongly recommend to anyone looking for a waterproofing solution.
Here's What Rising Damp Is NOT
(please read this before calling)
• Rising damp is not damp smells
• Rising damp is not mouldy clothes
• Rising damp is not mould only on your shoes
• Rising damp is not mould only in your cupboards
• Rising damp SPECIFICALY is moisture rising vertically through a masonry substrate from below by capillary action.
• The moisture that rises up has diluted SALT in it and the SALT causes physical damage.
Water does not damage masonry, SALT does.
• If you have timber floors with soil below and you have mould in your house ONLY, then you likely only need subfloor ventilation. (You can have both deteriorating masonry (from rising damp) and a mould issue (from poor ventilation). In this case you may need both ventilation and rising damp treatment)
• Rising Damp Treatment 99% of the time will NOT change the atmosphere of your house to stop mould when you have timber floors with soil below. Most of the moisture that causes mould comes into your house from the soil below the timber floor during periods when it is raining because the earth becomes saturated with water.
• Water homogenises through the soil. i.e. if the soil in your suburb is wet from a lot of rain, then the soil below your house will also become wet due to the water homogenising through the soil (just like osmosis functions).
• If your house has a concrete slab and the floor/walls are getting wet then this can be multiple problems and we’d need to diagnose it in person (Call us if this is happening to you).
• If you are ONLY experiencing mould and mildew then a ventilation company such as Zenith Remedial are specialists in ventilation and air purification and will be able to help you.
• If your house is cut into a hill (often experienced in the eastern suburbs, lower north shore & northern beaches) and your walls are retaining soil (a basement waterproofing situation) then this is a waterproofing issue and we can definitely help you. We are experts in basement waterproofing.
• If you ONLY have rising damp surrounding your bathroom and no where else in your house, then your bathroom waterproofing membrane has likely failed. You need to either have someone come and do a temporary fix which costs around $2000-$3000 or renovate your bathroom entirely which will cost upwards from $15,000. (Even though we are waterproofers, we do not do bathroom waterproofing I am sorry)
• If you ONLY have damp smells and/or mould (and none of the symptoms below) you probably need under floor ventilation and we do not do that I am sorry. You can contact a company such as “Zenith Ventilation” who can assist you with ventilation.
See below for what we can do for you as Basement Waterproofers & Rising Damp Specialists
Next
You need to see this video demonstrating how salt attracts and HOLDS water.
The above video is a demonstration for why you are often recommended to remove the render from the walls when you have rising damp.
Having said all of that, you don’t always need to remove the render. Sometimes there is no damage showing so there may be a lower chance that you get damage in the future. It’s something we review on a case by case basis.
Another little secret most rising damp contractors won’t tell you is that if you have salt in the substrate above the new injection line and it is not removed, the NEW DAMP COURSE can actually CAUSE the walls to result with MORE damage (because when salt is wet it is not crystallising, the dampness in the walls can sometimes hold the salts in a stable liquid state). This additional damage can sometimes happen when the salt is not removed because the installation of the new damp course finally allows the walls to dry fully and as the salt dries, it crystallises.
How do you know how much salt is in the wall from rising damp?
The short answer is you can’t unless you take a sample and get it tested. We can get that done for you but it is not such a cheap process.
Generally we can tell by the reading on the moisture meter, our trained eye and other clues around your house that will point us to the conclusion about if your house had been patched up and previous damage from rising damp had been hidden.
The best way to know what’s going on is to give us a call and we’ll come and have a look at your rising damp.
Here Are The Symptoms of Rising Damp
• Sweating walls during wet weather
• Render that is progressively deteriorating
• Mortar between your bricks is becoming powdery
• Your bricks themselves are slowly deteriorating
• When you paint the walls, the paint does not dry.
Rising damp CAN go hand in hand with mould. The SOURCE of rising damp and mould are the same, damp soil.
You can have BOTH a mould issue due to damp soil below your floorboards AND masonry damage due to a failed damp course in your walls which is causing salt damage to your masonry from the capillary action of rising damp carrying salt past your failed damp course.
If you have a house with a concrete slab, then you can have rising damp IF it is an infill slab.
An infill slab is where the builder installed the footings for the walls of the house, built the walls, and then poured the slab INSIDE the walls after they were built.
Because the walls are still in contact with the soil (and not on top of the slab) you can still have rising damp and salt damage in your bricks and render. Chemical injection in combination with a membrane will fix this.
Watch This Video of The Rising Damp Injection Process
We use more product than the competition
The above injection is into solid sandstock bricks, different types of bricks can have slightly different processes for injecting to get the most optimum product placement.
Now
…Let me be black and white for a second.
I use THE BEST rising damp system in the world.
Why?
I don’t use the best system to impress people and it’s definitely not the cheapest product on the market.
I use the best system because it provides the lowest risk of failure for ME.
I give a 20 year warranty for our rising damp solution and if it doesn’t work, I have to come back and fix it (and that costs me money).
I use the best rising damp system in the world because it limits my liability.
I ONLY use the most amazing rising damp products I can find.
Because I protect myself from any of my work failing then YOU also get THE BEST.
Because I protect myself so well, it also means you’re going to get ULTIMATE security for your money.
Rising Damp Explained
Rising Damp.
Here are the facts.
Rising Damp is called “Rising Damp” because the moisture starts at the base of the wall and moves slowly upwards.
The reason rising damp rises up the wall is due to capillary action, evaporation and salt..
Water rises up the wall by capillary action homogenizing through the masonry to the point where evaporation occurs. As the dampness evaporates from the wall into the atmosphere the solids that had been diluted the water will accumulate in the surface layer of the masonry.
Most of the solids diluted in the water are salts. The salts accumulate in the masonry at the first point where the dampness evaporates (usually the first 10mm at the base of the wall/just above your skirting boards).
As salts accumulate in the surface of the masonry, the pores of the masonry become more and more blocked with salts which slows down the evaporation in that lowest 10mm of the wall. The water then rises above those masonry pores which had been partially blocked by salts to the NEXT point of least resistance (just above the salt which has already been deposited) to evaporate more easily.
Now the salts are damaging 20mm of the lowest point of your walls. The salt damage will keep rising up the wall until the weight of the water has enough downwards force (from gravity) that the water cannot rise any higher, even if the pores of the masonry beneath the highest point of vertical capillary action are already semi restricted by prior salt accumulation.
From this point on (if you don’t do something about it) the dampness will continue to evaporate from the already salt effected areas, accumulating to the point that the surface of the masonry eventually crumbles to dust!
(It can take some years for rising damp to become a structural issue).
Textbook rising damp does not generally go above around one metre in height, there are other factors that can cause it to go above one metre. As a general rule of thumb, if you have what looks like rising damp coming out half way up a wall (say 1.6m above the floor without any damage below that point) or from the ceiling, then it is highly likely that it is not rising damp but a hole in the wall from an air conditioning unit, vent, extension joint, balcony or a crack.
If you have a basement that is RETAINING soil then you may require Basement Waterproofing. We are excellent Basement Waterproofers and have tackled some of THE most difficult basement waterproofing jobs you can imagine.
Rising damp with exposed brick will normally show with deterioration of the mortar between the bricks and after some time the bricks will start to collapse.
Rising damp with render will usually show in “bubbling paint” (it starts out looking more like pimples in the paint), salt deposits, stains and render breaking down to its base components (appearing as sand and cement dust).
Rising Damp Requires 3 Ingredients.
Water, Salt & Evaporation.
Water
The damage resulting from Rising damp is not caused by the actual water its self, water is just the carrier for diluted salts. Water travels through masonry via capillary action which causes the masonry to become damp.
Water is the vehicle that carries the salt.
As waterproofers we see dampness and wetness as two distinctly different problems. There is a difference between damage from water and damage from dampness.
Salts
The damage you can see from rising damp is most often from salt. When salt is dry it is stable and when it is wet it is stable. As salt dries, salt crystals grow. These salt crystals grow between the tiny bonds of the sand and cement particles that make up the masonry and causes the bond between the sand and cement to “unstick”. When the bond is broken, the once solid masonry will return to its base components of individual grains of sand and cement, showing at the base of the wall as masonry dust.
Salt is transported up the wall by water (the vehicle).
Evaporation
The catalyst for the damage caused by rising damp is evaporation. If masonry is holding water that contains diluted salts, the water evaporates, leaving the solids behind. The solids are the salts. The accumulation of salt crystals is what causes your masonry to turn to dust and bubble your paint.
Therefore, MORE evaporation actually SPEEDS UP the damage being caused by the rising damp.
Evaporation is the “ENGINE” that drives rising damp.
Summarised Explanation of Chemical Injection
Rising Damp injection creates a barrier in the masonry at the base of the wall which stops water from rising through the masonry by capillary action. When the water stops rising, no more additional damaging salts can be deposited in your walls above the newly injected layer.
Any salt that was deposited at the old evaporation point before you had DPC chemical injection WILL remain in the substrate/wall (above the new line of chemical injection) unless the salts are removed. The salts can be removed by either removing your render and re-rendering OR the salts can be removed from raw masonry (not painted or rendered) by using the cocoon salt removal system.
Below you can read more about if you *really* need to remove the render from your walls or if you can AVOID the additional cost of render removal and re-rendering.
It is a good idea to know as much as possible about rising damp. Rising damp and the solutions for rising damp are basic physics and are very logical.
Watch This 60 Second Time Lapse Video of Rising Damp Injection
You can see the rising damp injection fluid above is totally penetrating and flooding the bricks.
(Further down this page there is a video you’ll watch of a wall which we will spray with water 2 years after our injection was completed. In that video you’ll clearly see that the the whole wall and floor changes colour as it absorbs water EXCEPT the chemically injected damp course which clearly remains dry as the water beads off it).
Rising damp is an industry that has exploded over the past twenty years due to aging buildings built with obsolete construction methods.
There are many rising damp solutions available and it is worth knowing all your options before making a commitment.
Read this page to learn more about rising damp so you can make a more informed decision when either choosing us or any other provider.
Here’s a summary of the 6 main types of rising damp solutions
1. Chemical Injection (our choice)
- Chemical injection is the lowest viscosity (thinnest) liquid available for damp proofing and is pumped into each brick under pressure using electric pumps. This pushes the rising damp solution deep INTO the brick while simultaneously forcing water OUT of the brick. We allocate around 300ml per brick (injecting until product overflow) to make sure the whole brick (not just the mortar) is treated before moving to the next brick (videos below).
We chose this system because the chemical composition is by far the best rising damp solution in the world (to our knowledge). If there was a better system developed, we would change systems. To date, the one we use is the best in the world.
Because this product is injected into the masonry under pressure using 450mm long injection lances, it means we can inject deeper into the masonry ensuring we get all the difficult locations like around fire places, thick walls and complex masonry junctions which other products can’t access nearly as well.
- Chemical injection is the lowest viscosity (thinnest) liquid available for damp proofing and is pumped into each brick under pressure using electric pumps. This pushes the rising damp solution deep INTO the brick while simultaneously forcing water OUT of the brick. We allocate around 300ml per brick (injecting until product overflow) to make sure the whole brick (not just the mortar) is treated before moving to the next brick (videos below).
2. Damp Course Creams
- Damp course creams are a toothpaste consistency which is inserted into the mortar layer (10mm in height) and soaks into the masonry slowly. It is more of a DIY solution which can be installed using a basic caulking gun. We did not choose damp course creams due to the limitations it has in delivery of the product, the low quantity of product used and its chemical composition.
When access is difficult it is not possible to have 100% certainty that some spots were not missed (like around fire places, double brick intersections or triple brick walls). The chemistry of damp course cream is not quite as good as the damp proofing product that use. We inject around 10x more product than what is applied with damp course creams. Much less product is used with damp course creams so obviously it is cheaper than the system we have chosen.
- Damp course creams are a toothpaste consistency which is inserted into the mortar layer (10mm in height) and soaks into the masonry slowly. It is more of a DIY solution which can be installed using a basic caulking gun. We did not choose damp course creams due to the limitations it has in delivery of the product, the low quantity of product used and its chemical composition.
3. Gravity Fed Systems
- Gravity fed damp courses are installed by drilling a hole in the top of a brick and placing empty silicone tubes in the holes. These silicone tubes are then filled with damp course solution and it is supposed to soak into the bricks slowly.
We started with this system and had failures when the bricks were waterlogged. Gravity does not provide enough pressure to displace the water from and brick and replace it with the rising damp solution. Also, if there are cracks in the bricks then the produce can simply pass through the cracks and drain into the soil, wasting product.
We did not choose the gravity fed damp course application due to the limitations it has. It will NOT delivering the product 100% every time, its chemical composition and the chance that it may fail of the conditions in the masonry are not perfect. We will not take the risk on a rising damp product that doesn’t predictably work 100% the same way every time.
- Gravity fed damp courses are installed by drilling a hole in the top of a brick and placing empty silicone tubes in the holes. These silicone tubes are then filled with damp course solution and it is supposed to soak into the bricks slowly.
4. Physical Damp Course
- Usually a high quality polymer sheet which is installed by a technician who cuts your old mortar with a saw, inserts a new polymer damp course, then re-packs the mortar joint. Installing a physical damp course is a dying art due to it being messy, expensive and highly labour intensive. There are however few installers in Sydney who still do it.
5. Sub-Floor Fans
- Sub-floor fans do not cure rising damp. While sometimes they are needed, they cause much higher evaporation rates in your bricks below the floor which can cause major structural damage from salt accumulation. Subfloor fans are used to dry rotting timber, remove damp smells and help with mould control (videos below). Sub-floor fans NOT cure rising damp.
6. Gravitomagnetic Amplification Devices
- There is a lot on the internet about Aquapol, EcoDri and similar companies who sell these devices. I strongly suggest doing your due diligence on Google/Youtube before spending thousands of dollars on a circuit board inside a shiny bubble.
- If the device actually did what they say it does, then the technology would be used elsewhere, but it is not. You can’t even buy a rip-off of it on Alibaba! (That’s saying something!)
If you could actually amplify the gravitomagnetic waves (of planet earth) then rising damp would surely not be the ONLY use of this technology.
What they say is something like, “it reverses the polarity on the water molecule which reverses capillary action” and the water goes back down the wall. You know how plants drink by capillary action? Well, all of your plants inside your house would be dead if this thing really worked, case closed.
I have photos of what it inside these expensive bubbles. Just ask and I’ll be happy to show you. I believe they have been banned in some european countries.
Here's The Reason That We Use The Most Comprehensive Rising Damp System In The World
We are Licenced Waterproofers and we have a reputation for dealing with some pretty crazy underground waterproofing problems. When we deal with running water through the wall of a basement in Vaucluse and the client puts a cinema in the room after we have finished waterproofing, what we do REALLY needs to work and we need to trust the products we use so we get the longest lasting result.
We use the best systems because it almost totally limits our liability and the chance of failure is very close to zero.
Because we use the very best rising damp products to protect ourselves and mitigate failure, it means YOU are also getting the best rising damp products and workmanship.
We don’t take any chances with people’s homes.
Illustration of Rising Damp Solution
See The Damp Proofing Product Working With Your Own Eyes.
The video above is of a wall that we injected for rising damp in Sydney.
This wall was in a basement and they had an infill slab. An infill slab is when your house’s footings are built, then the walls are constructed on the footings and at a later stage the slab is poured INSIDE the walls (modern houses usually pour the slab first and the walls are built on the TOP of the slab).
We successfully stopped the rising damp although they had another issue 2 years later during the huge Sydney storms in February 2020 where their basement flooded through their basement retaining wall.
We removed all the render from the walls of the basement from floor to ceiling. The water you can see being sprayed on the walls is in preparation for a negative side basement membrane (the substrate needs to be damp for the membrane to be applied for proper adhesion).
As the water is being spayed on the walls you can see the water resistant damp course line is clearly revealed. The bricks above the damp course and concrete on the floor immediately change colour as they absorb the water but the damp course repels the water and remains dry.
You can see that using pumps for rising damp proofing injection installs chemical damp course that gives you a new damp course of around 100mm in height and that our chemical rising damp proofing injection works.
Do You *Really* Need To Remove The Render From Your Walls?
(A lot of rising damp contractors will tell you that you need to remove the render from your walls)
The short answer is NO you don’t always need to remove the render, but often you do.
Why?
As mentioned on this page, rising damp is moisture rising up your walls to the evaporation point, at the evaporation point the moisture obviously evaporates and the solids (that were diluted in the water as it passed through the earth and building materials) stay behind.
These solids accumulate at the evaporation point which is the surface of the render. Salts are HYGROSCOPIC meaning that they attract moisture, water and salt “bond” together very easily.
You know when it rains and you leave the salt open in the kitchen and it all sticks together? That’s because the salt is “bonding” with the water from the air.
If you have a high level of salt in your walls, the SALT pulls the moisture from the atmosphere and the water accumulates in the walls until the walls are visibly wet. Your walls can even sweat and have water beading on the surface to the point that water runs down the wall (just because of high salt content).
Taking the above into consideration, if you install a rising damp solution and there is a high percentage of salt that was deposited at the evaporation point due to the prior rising damp, the salt will remain in the wall unless the salts are removed. If the salts are left in the substrate above the newly installed damp course, they can still attract enough moisture from the atmosphere to be RELIQUIFIED. As these WET salts dry out, they RECRYSTALISE (turn from liquid to a solid again) which causes the bonds between the sand and cement in the render to be pushed apart (again) and the damage continues.
In summary, if you have a high percentage of salt in the substrate from rising damp (even if you have had a new chemical damp course installed) and the salt is not removed by either cocoon or removing the render, then that salt can be liquified by humidity and when the salt dries out, salt crystals form, which damages the render… The SAME salt from your original rising damp problem (that damaged the walls the first time) can be reactivated by humidity then dry AGAIN causing crystals to form to damage your render AGAIN. This damage will reoccur over and over again until the salts are no longer present.
Rising Damp Soluition Product Penetration Test
The video above is of a wall that we injected for rising damp in Sydney.
This is a great example of a wall that was injected, waterproofed and then cut open again by electricians to install their electrical cables and switch points.
We make the substrate damp in preparation for the negative membrane in the exposed brick. While wetting the bricks you can clearly see the water beading from the centre of the bricks that have been cut.
The water is clearly being repelled where the injection product had been installed around 7 months earler.
This house Is In URGENT Need Of Rising Damp Treatment
Why Sub Floor Fans Do NOT Fix Rising Damp & Can Damage Your House
Services.
providing reliable solutions for rising damp in sydney
Rising Damp.
Solutions for Rising Damp
Rising Damp in Sydney is a common problem and we are specialists in rising damp. Click below to see our rising damp solutions.
Cocoon.
Salt Removal
Basement waterproofing is one of the most difficult types of waterproofing. We have provided solutions for the most extreme basement waterproofing.
Fans.
Sub-floor Ventilation
Dincel waterproofing is needed when you never want Dincel to leak. While dincel is sold as being waterproof, often it still leaks.
We can stop Dincel leaking.
Lateral Damp.
Lateral Damp Proofing
Retaining walls or below ground walls need special treatment so the waterproofing doesn’t fail over time due to salt breaking the membrane. Learn More..
P.S. I can get pretty busy during the day so if you cant get through by phone then please use the form on this website (it’s a little easier for me to keep track of).
Location
Rising Damp Solutions Sydney
Spalling Brick Treatment
Eastern Suburbs
Lower Northern Beaches
Lower North Shore
Sydney Metro
Inner West
Concrete Slab Lifting
Our hours
07:00 – 18.00
Monday – Saturday
Contact us
Phone: 0474 499 309
★ – Money back guarantee terms and conditions.
Money back guarantee applies if we cannot fix the specific problem we had been contracted to solve. If there is any issue with the job, we have 12 months from the date of the callback from a client to rectify the situation. If a job has multiple facets or areas, and only one part has not been achievable, then the money back guarantee will apply to that component or area only, and not the other components or areas which were successful. We not not leave our cusomers hanging and we will bend over backwards to try and leave our customers happy and with their problems resolved.
Money back guarantee applies to residential customers only, and does not include strata, builders, government or commercial customers. For strata, builders, government or commercial customers the 10 & 20 year product warranty still applies.
Further details about your specific job will be outlined within your quotation.
Full details about product warranty will also be outlined in your quotation and a certificate of warranty will be issued at the time of your job’s completion.