Dampness & Moisture Problems

What causes it

Persistent damp, musty smell and cold walls — often rising damp from the plinth rather than a leak from above.

Dampness without an obvious leak is the hardest complaint to diagnose and the easiest to treat wrongly. In Pune buildings it usually comes down to:

• Condensation — the most common cause in flats, and the most commonly misdiagnosed. Warm humid air meeting a cold wall, ceiling or the reveal beside a window. Worst in bedrooms and bathrooms, in rooms that are shut up, and behind furniture against an external wall.
• Rising damp from a failed or bridged DPC — a consistent band above the floor, unchanged through the year.
• Penetrating damp from outside — patchy, and it responds to rain within a day or two.
• Hygroscopic salts left in old plaster from a leak that has already been fixed. These pull moisture straight out of the air, so the wall stays damp-looking indefinitely and the previous repair looks like a failure when it was not.
• Trapped construction moisture in a new or recently renovated property, particularly where an impermeable finish went on before the substrate had dried.
• Poor ventilation — sealed windows, no extract in the bathroom or kitchen, and drying laundry indoors during the monsoon.

How we identify the real source

Water travels. The stain on a ceiling is frequently metres from the actual point of entry, which is why we deep-scan the structure before recommending treatment rather than working from the visible damage alone.

How we treat it

The diagnosis decides everything, so we measure rather than assume. Surface readings are compared against readings at depth: condensation is wet at the surface and dry behind, while rising and penetrating damp are wet through. Thermal imaging locates cold bridges. Where efflorescence is present we check for salt contamination, because that changes whether the plaster can stay.

• Condensation — extract ventilation sized for the room, insulation or an internal thermal upgrade at the cold surface, and mould remediation. No waterproofing, and no charge for any.
• Rising damp — injected chemical DPC plus a salt-resistant renovating render.
• Penetrating damp — external cause corrected, then water-facing-side treatment or a breathable repellent.
• Salt-contaminated plaster — hacked off well beyond the visible line, removed from site, and replaced with a renovating render. Skimming over it guarantees the problem returns.

Moisture readings are recorded at the start, at handover and at follow-up, so the improvement is documented rather than asserted. Where drying time is needed before decoration, that period is written on the estimate before work begins.

What it costs

Use the cost calculator for an indicative range, or book a free inspection for a written estimate.