No Such Thing ....

[Flyfisher]

Fair point, Lime, about sugar lumps also being a bad analogy due to them dissolving in water (good job we don't have that problem with bricks!).

However, your earlier comment about plants drawing up water made me wonder. Plants manage to draw up water many tens of feet by evaporation through their leaves, could brickwork draw up water from below due to a similar mechanism in certain circumstances I wonder?

 

[Penners]

apart from holiday adventures, I'm now a castor sugar man myself

I love the idea that using a lump of sugar, instead of caster sugar, is a "holiday adventure"! :wink:

 

[Lime]

apart from holiday adventures, I'm now a castor sugar man myself

I love the idea that using a lump of sugar, instead of caster sugar, is a "holiday adventure"! :wink:

A demonstration of the result of a wet week in Cromer.

Dull overcast wet weather is now described as cromery in my household .

 

[middi]

Try a length of plasterboard immersed at one end in a couple of inches of water and see what happens.

 

[Lime]

I can't stand the suspense any longer.
The paint I have been watching dried long ago.
What does happen if you stand a sheet of plasterboard in several inches of water?

I don't own or possess any so can't try it.

 

[Penners]

At the risk of stealing middi's punchline, I can tell you.

It soaks up a considerable amount of water and eventually becomes a poor substitute for porridge.

 

[Nick]

Recently found this site.

Interesting topic of discussion, whats the name of the chap who wrote this book to which you refer.

Nick

 

[Lime]

Nick, "The Rising Damp Myth" by Jeff Howell.

http://www.ask-jeff.co.uk/jeff_howell.htm

 

[Lime]

At the risk of stealing middi's punchline, I can tell you.

It soaks up a considerable amount of water and eventually becomes a poor substitute for porridge.

So am I to construe from what you say that porridge is better as a ceiling than plasterboard?

And is organic porridge the preferred choice for period properties?

 

[Penners]

So am I to construe from what you say that porridge is better as a ceiling than plasterboard?

It depends who makes the porridge.

My wife's porridge makes an excellent breakfast, but as a ceiling I wouldn't entirely trust it to resist the force of gravity. Mine, on the other hand, would stick to the laths like you-know-what to a blanket. But as a breakfast... well, let's just say that it's best eaten with a knife and fork.

 

[Nick]

Curious................

Is this the same 'Jeff Howell' that about 8 years ago, when investigating dampness in around 50 properties found rising damp in most of them.

Can't be the same chap can it?

Nick

 

[Flyfisher]

I don't know, but the Jeff Howell who wrote the previously referenced book (published 2008) states in the foreward "Since 1993 I have been trying to explain to Chartered Surveyors, householders and builders, that rising damp is a myth".

 

[Lime]

Curious................

Is this the same 'Jeff Howell' that about 8 years ago, when investigating dampness in around 50 properties found rising damp in most of them.

Can't be the same chap can it?

Nick

A bit more detail would be useful.

 

[Schoolmarm]

Curious................

Is this the same 'Jeff Howell' that about 8 years ago, when investigating dampness in around 50 properties found rising damp in most of them.

Can't be the same chap can it?

Nick

give us your source and we could check.

 

[Nick]

Jeff Howell produces a book called 'Rising Damp the Myth', and those who are prepared to accept its content are also prepared to ignore decades of research by far more eminent persons that Mr Howell.

Whilst it is accepted that most of his book covers the obvious, which is already in the public domain (and has been for years and is well accepted), his claims that rising damp doesn’t exist is based on what.........

Now if he were to write a book called .........'Rising Damp, yes it does exist although is not a common as some might think' ......... well

Nick

 

[Lime]

Jeff Howell produces a book called 'Rising Damp the Myth', and those who are prepared to accept its content are also prepared to ignore decades of research by far more eminent persons that Mr Howell.

Who?
What research?

And what did you refer to before when you said howell had investigated dampness in around 50 properties and found rising damp in most of them?

 

[PC]

Hi

I’ve tried to avoid responding to this posting as it does tend to frustrate me slightly.

Yes I now that there is a lot of damp proofing work that goes on that is wrongly diagnosed, but to claim it doesn’t exist. Jeff himself did lecture on the very subject in the mid 1990s and now he claims it doesn’t exist.

I'm assuming that Nick’s comments relate to the likes of BRE etc and others to which I would agree.

I did hear the recent radio programme on Radio 4 and was staggered that Jeff had surveyed 600 properties and not found Rising Damp in any of them, sorry don’t accept that, although do respect much of what Jeff says with regards to the methods of investigation and amount of works undertaken etc, wrong diagnosis, as I to come across this every working day.

Nick Ill drop you a private email as would welcome further discussion on this if you able.

PC

 

[Lime]

Nothing like the annoyance I feel when I see 15th century buildings (and far too many other buildings) disfigured by irrevocable and absurd damp proof work.

While I'm quite prepared to consider the idea of rising damp it does surprise me that there is no scientific evidence of it.
What I do see is a lot of assumption and extrapolation on the basis of an inadequate test for damp usually compiled by someone who will make a lot of money if damp is found.

 

[PC]

Totally agree with your comments, however I think that you will find there plenty of objective and independent work been done on rising damp over the years by organisations who have nothing to gain financially by its existence.

BRE, Oliver, Coleman, Trotman to name but a few. I guess these are some of which Nick refers!

Regards

PC

 

[Penners]

I know I keep banging on about this, but if there's no such thing as rising damp, what exactly is the large damp patch rising up the wall about 3 feet from where I'm sitting?

And I'm not talking about something diagnosed by a dodgy "Damp Consultant". I'm talking about the evidence of my own eyes and hands.

There's an old saying: "If it looks like fish and smells like fish - it's fish". Well, this looks like rising damp and feels like rising damp.