Just been quoted over £3k for treating damp in one ground floor room

[Gingernaut]

As per title

Removal of old plaster, treatment of brickwork, injection of new damp course, installation of a new damp proof membrane and replastering.

Skirting to be re-fitted by customer, once it's all dried out.

Is this reasonable?

This is the only quote I've had, even though I've approached four different companies

It's an expensive business. Had an even higher quote than that and we have to strip the room bare before they will start - trove floor tiles etc

Generally injection damp proof courses are not recommended now as rising damp is unusual.
what type of property is it and have leaks from drains and pipes been ruled out and is the ground level lower than the floor outside.

This won't fix the problem. It will just cover it up. Where is the damp coming from? Does the subfloor need ventilation? is the external ground level lower than the damp proof course? Is there a water leak somewhere? Are the gutters clear and working properly?

That’s a cover up not a fix. It could be (temporarily) cheaper than fixing the problem or a lot more expensive.

Find PigletJohn on here…

Oh Gawd, this is not reassuring.

They will usually only replaster 1m up the wall, and then you will forever have a visible ‘join’.

Help is out here. Why did you contact them? What sort of floor do you have? Are the walls external? Where is the ground level outside?

We had all this work done at the beginning of the year in a small utility.
Was £6k.

The damp was from a mains water leak and that repair was a separate cost (£900).

The 6k was gutting the room, new walls and floors including damp prof membrane, some electrical and plumbing work, decorating and they did the injections along the whole house.
The injections were offered as an add on and I thought couldn't hurt as we'd not long bought the house.

As others have said you need to find the source of the water causing damp to solve the issue

I thought the source had been dealt with

There are two patches of efflorescence in two separate corners of the room after a mains leak

The leak was dealt with about 5 years ago

The efflorescence hasn't spread in all that time - it's just two distinct and stubborn patches on opposite sides of the room, which are resistant to treatment

I want them treated as the whole room is effectively in limbo until it's sorted.

the injection won’t cure this and if the bricks/stone are not allowed to dry out before re plastering the staining will just return.
It needs a long time to dry out or heater things I once left a wall 6 months without plaster and it wasn’t long enough

I very much doubt what they are suggesting will help at all. It could even make it worse.

1. are you certain there are no other sources of damp?
2. what's the construction of the wall, and how old is it?
3. is there wallpaper or paint on the wall?

Check out Heritage House's website before spending anything on this.

I'm selling my house and survey bought up rising damp. It's currently empty as tenants vacated. Got a builder to look at the issue and he found a leak in the bathroom and advised no sign of rising damp.

Having seen the Heritage House website, it looks like the salt from the bodged plaster may have triggered the meter

It is not getting worse, it simply can't be superficially treated and needs to be knocked back to the brick

Sound like it would be fixed by knocking back to brick and then letting it dry out. If you get it replastered in lime plaster then that will let any remaining moisture in the wall continue to come out and it will cost less than 3 grand. You might even just be able to lome plaster without waiting for it to dry out any more.

I think there are treatments for it if it is just salts. But if it ought to be lime and isn't, you're probably better going back to brick- take th advice of a plasterer who does lime work. My plasterer told us there are 2 sorts he can do- authentic heritage standard, which takes many months to dry, and a somewhat faster drying modern kind which is still lime, the latter of which we're going to give a go with where we need to patch our lime due to inappropriate patching with two kinds of obviously lousy plaster, in some places over wallpaper(!), done in the past under a bay. Oddly enough, where it is lime, it's fine- even the low points by the skirtings. It's worst higher up where plaster has been put over paper and then painted with what seems to be some glossy grey stuff. PAss the chisel.....

Don't commit to that approach until you've done your research. Companies who offer this don't always recommend for suitable buildings ..
You will find lots of fantastic information here for a start
https://www.spab.org.uk/advice

You need objective advice.
Injected damp proofing is rarely helpful.
If you have single skin brickwork and not cavity you need a different approach. You need to work with damp not against it... Give it somewhere to go... otherwise it's like having curly hair and trying to keep it straight all the time, you're just fighting nature...