Damp Surveys

There are various ways that timber becomes deteriorated and useless, which includes rotting and being attacked by wood boring insects.

Many companies will not distinguish the true cause, or in fact the actual type of rot or infestation, and will purely recommend to treat it with chemicals.

On the vast majority, if not all occasions this is not the answer, and if left incorrectly diagnosed and unresolved, there is a high risk that the issue will return.

Alpine Surveys have many years of experience in diagnosing such issues with property timber, and recommend the correct remedial works.

Dry Rot is caused by fungal spores landing on timber, and taking root. However, if the timber is not suitably moist, the fungus can not develop and grow.

Therefore the correct diagnosis should be made to determine why the rot is spreading within your property.

When the dry rot begins to develop, grey strands spread across the timber in a web formation, draining the moisture from the timber. The result of the process is that the timber dries out, and in turn it becomes very brittle and totally useless.

The fungus will multiply until such time as the web strands become what appears to look like cotton wool, and in turn into a brown coloured pancake shaped fungal body which emits thousands of destructive spores into the air.

Alpine Surveys will undertake the correct survey, in order to diagnose the reason why the Dry Rot has developed, and provide the correct recommendations to eradicate it.

Wet Rot is a fungus that develops in areas of timber saturation.

There are locations where Wet Rot is common, such as areas where water leaks have occurred and are left undiagnosed, external timbers that deteriorate for various reasons and are exposed to rain saturation, and areas that are generally damp, dark and poorly ventilated such as cellars or beneath suspended floors.

It is necessary to understand why the rot has been able to take hold at the area affected, in order that rectification works prove to be effective.

Failure to diagnose the true reason, and just treating the affected area, or replacing the timber, is likely to result in a repeat episode.

Alpine Surveys will investigate the reason for the rot occurring, and will not just recommend the remedial works for correcting the deterioration, but will advise on what is required to stop it returning.

We guarantee to provide the correct diagnosis and recommendations to resolve it.

Alpine Damp have gained a recognised reputation for our accurate and independent surveys of Historic & Listed buildings.

The surveys have included the assessment of historic timber structures, some dating back 800 years. The process that we follow, allows us to assess every individual timber, fully assess it, and report accordingly.

Please contact us to gain a better understanding of our experience, and why we are trusted to assess and report on such structure.

Known commonly as “Wood Worm”, wood boring insects eat away at suitable timbers within our properties.

There are various types of woodworm including Longhorn Beetle, Death Watch Beetle, Wood Boring Weevil, and the more common Furniture Beetle.

The woodworm bore through the timbers, and leave their holes and tunnels, similar to that of a mole underground.

The result of this is a much weakened timber, that will normally become hollow inside. The first step is to establish if the infestation is live, or is in fact just historic deterioration.

Alpine Surveys will undertake a survey, in order to ascertain if the infestation is active, the level and extent of deterioration, and in turn will provide the correct recommendations, which is highly unlikely to involve a chemical treatment, as these are mostly useless.