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Sydney’s Specialists in rising damp solutions
Rising Damp.
Sydney’s Specialists in rising damp solutions
Rising Damp.
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.
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 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 in 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 limitations when access is difficult, the chemistry of the product is not quite as good and our system uses about 10x more product.
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.
4. Physical Damp Course
- Usually a polymer sheet 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 a small 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).
6. Gravomagnetic Amplification Devices
- There is a lot on the internet about Aquapol 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 did what they say it does, then the technology would be used elsewhere but it is not.
Time Lapse Video of Rising Damp Injection
Rising Damp Explained
What is Rising Damp?
Rising Damp is called “Rising Damp” because it literally rises up the wall.
The reason rising damp rises up the wall is due to a couple of factors, the main one being salt.
Water rises up the wall to the point of least resistance and evaporates. As the water evaporates (lets say from the lowest 10mm of the wall) the salts gather in the lowest 10mm of the wall.
As the “pores” of the masonry get filled with salt, the water will rise to the next point of least resistance to evaporate.
Now salts are damaging 20mm of the lowest point of your walls. The salt damage keeps on rising until the weight of the water has enough downwards force (gravity) that the water cannot rise any higher even if the “pores” of the masonry beneath the highest point of possible evaporation is already restricted by salt.
From this point on (if you don’t do something about it) the water will continue to evaporate from the already salt effected areas, accumulating until the wall eventually crumbles to dust!
(takes some years for rising damp to become a structural issue).
Rising damp with exposed brick will normally show in mortar deterioration and the bricks will start to collapse.
Rising damp with render will usually show in bubbling paint, salt stains and render breaking back down to its base components (appearing as dust).
Water
Rising damp damage is not caused by the actual water its self, water is just the carrier for diluted salts. The water travels through masonry via capillary action which causes the masonry to become damp.
Salts
The damage you see from rising damp is from salt. When salt is dry it is stable and when it is wet it is stable. As salt dries, salt crystals form between the tiny bonds of the masonry and causes the masonry to be separated to its base components as masonry dust.
Evaporation
The catalyst for the damage caused by rising damp is evaporation. If masonry has water that contains salt, as the water dries it evaporates, leaving 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.
Rising Damp injection creates a layer which stops the water from rising. When the water has been stopped then the salts which cause the damage are also stopped.
Water test of our rising damp solution in Sydney two years after injection.
The video above is of a wall that we injected 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 arise during the Sydney storms in February 2020 and their basement flooded.
We removed all the render from the walls of the basement and the water you see being sprayed on the walls is in preparation for a negative side basement membrane.
As the water is being spayed on the walls the water resistant damp course line is revealed as the water beads off it.
You can see that using pumps for injection of a chemical damp course gives you a new damp course of around 100mm in height.
Illustration of Rising Damp Solution
Services.
providing reliable solutions to build challenges
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.
Basement.
Basement Waterproofing
Basement waterproofing is one of the most difficult types of waterproofing. We have provided solutions for the most extreme basement waterproofing.
Dincel.
Dincel Waterproofing
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.
Retaining.
Waterproofing Walls
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..
