Cavity wall insulation removal in Newark

Newark sits on the Trent, and in a river town any damp problem deserves one question before all others: is the water arriving from outside the wall, from inside the house, or from the ground. Cavity insulation is only one of those three answers, and quoting an extraction before you know which is how people pay for the wrong job entirely.

Telling the three apart

Cavity bridging shows on the weather side of the house and worsens after driving rain. Ground water shows low on the wall and stays low, more or less regardless of the weather. Condensation shows in corners, behind furniture and on cold external walls of rooms that get steamy, and it is at its worst in winter. On a decorator's report all three look much the same, and they need completely different work. We would rather spend the visit establishing which than assume.

When the cavity genuinely is the cause

Fill that has slumped over the decades, or was blown into a wall too exposed for it, can bridge the gap and walk water from the outer leaf to the inner one. Extraction is then right: holes drilled through the mortar joints of the outer leaf, material drawn out under vacuum, the cavity checked, the holes made good.

Matching mortar on soft red brick

Much of Newark's older housing is soft red brick, where grey cement patches announce themselves from across the street and do the brick no favours either. Making good in matching mortar is part of the job rather than an afterthought.

What is usually really wetting the wall

More often than not, something above it: a split gutter soaking one strip of brickwork every time it rains, a cracked downpipe, pointing gone on an exposed gable, lead at a roof abutment that has let go. Those are our trade, they cost a fraction of an extraction, and we look at all of them while we are there. Ring 01406 704369 and we will look at the roof and the wall together.