So you need a damp proofing specialist?

There are several explanations why we occasionally need assistance from a damp-proofing specialist. These can range from a damp patch on wall plaster; mould growing on walls and ceilings or, a pre house purchase damp survey.

By far the best way of finding any contractor is by recommendation and when you are lucky, a friend could have first hand connection with utilizing a local damp proofing firm and that's always worth considering.

However, assuming that's not the case, how does one look for a good firm and steer clear of the cowboy trader?

These days the net is the place we have a tendency to start not to mention Google and Bing will provide lots of firms, when you type in 'damp proofing'. But before believing all of the claims on company site like 'honest service', 'high quality workmanship' or 'fully qualified staff' it can pay to look a little deeper.

In saying this we must recognise that most people haven't got countless hours of time and energy to spend pre-vetting a damp proofing company before engaging them, so some short cuts are justified (most of the time).

Gardens Walls Barrow in Furness to pre-vetted damp proofing specialists

In the UK there is only 1 nationally recognised trade association for damp proofing contractors, therefore the Property Care Association is a superb place to begin. The PCA have written standards they work to and companies need to meet these, and pass a strict financial, safe practices and insurance test before they can join. On top of that, member firms are visited regularly and put through an unbiased quality audit.

Okay therefore the PCA want members and the members pay the associations running costs; should they threw them all out they'd be out of business, so can these checks be relied on?

On their own no, they can not; all organisation have the odd bad member and you could be unlucky and obtain the worst PCA member, rather than the best. The truth is though, by selecting a PCA damp proofing member, you're already weeding out the non-members, anyone who has been vetted by nobody. On balance, you've already increased the probability of finding a good damp proofing firm, that are qualified, financially sound and well insured.

Right, so now we've narrowed the field down and an instant search utilizing the PCA find a contractor widget on the PCA internet site will give you a summary of PCA members in your area.


That is the main shortlist of damp proofing firms complete but how will you really find the best?

What next? Visit the web site of each in turn and have a quick scan. These days building a web site is really a snip and a flashy site template with several generic images and photos is common - this lets you know hardly any about those behind the business.

Look deeper though... You are interested in some real facts; some sign of substance behind all that damp proofing gloss.

Clues to an excellent firm include images of the staff, the boss, his managers and key employees. If the firm is small, all the employees should be represented; in the end, if you can find only ten or so, then each one represents 10% of the service package - check them out. It's hard for a shallow 'front' of a small business to fake this part.

Next consider the footer of the contact and website. In the UK it's the law that company web pages must have the owner details shown. Things like the true holding company name and it's registered company number and registered address. These permit you to check a firm's past records such as for example court cases and financial records at Companies House (this is free). If this information is missing then move on - the business know the law and when they're breaking it in this manner, there's a good reason for it plus they have something to hide - beware vendors who wear masks!

Customer testimonials are used by many firms and it's true that what customers say about damp proofing specialists they've used, mean much more than what the management say. However, anyone can write a few glib sentences and call these a testimonial, just how can you weed out the dodgy ones?

Once again it is a case of looking just a little deeper; are there photographs of these happy clients? Are any commercial clients named (after that you can check these exist with a simple search engine)? Commercial companies guard their brand and goodwill meticulously and most will have Google Alerts setup so they see if anyone is using their name in vain. So if all the testimonials on a traders site are from Mrs Smith or Mr Jones, with no real details - consider why.

Most sites these days could have a news section - that is key to getting beneath the skin of a company. Is the news up-to-date? What sort of news is 'good' in the companies' eyes? Whether it's all about how great they're, without real depth then shy away. Just think, what would you want to placed on your news pages if you were running a company? How about the achievements of your staff? New certificates for training; awards for good service; any charity efforts and events? Of course you will see news about new services and jobs done well too - search for a real story which represents the efforts of several people behind the firm - that is always an excellent pointer to an ethical, good company. Should they care about their staff, they also value their customers - both go hand in hand.

Accreditations are the next good pointer. In the united kingdom the minimum generic accreditation to look for is TrustMark. TrustMark is a government sponsored group of basic consumer focused standards, which must be met by a company before they are able to display the logo. It isn't fool proof, but if it's not there - you will want to? Meeting these minimum standards; having insurance, a complaints procedure, customer deposit protection and similar basic good practice ought to be easy to meet for just about any half-descent company.

In construction related activity in the UK health and safety is growing in importance. Therefore the government has another sponsored scheme called CHAS. This stands for Construction Health and Safety Scheme. The CHAS logo is displayed if the firm have met and so are seen to continue to meet up basic safe practices standards, which are audited every year. CHAS is easy to get, but once more, if it is missing be careful - the firm either never work on real construction sites (where CHAS is mandatory), or they can't be bothered to accomplish the work to meet the CHAS standard. If you use a company without CHAS you may be inviting danger into your home or risking harm to others on the project - I'd avoid non CHAS members.

The Property Care Association is a must as I said, but needless to say we are only considering PCA member companies anyway.

Investors in People can be worth looking for. This is an established accreditation that is quite hard to win and also harder to maintain. IIP is only awarded whenever a firm can demonstrate commitment and good practice in eight areas, all of which revolve around staff engagement, training and development. We've all had poor service from bored, poorly motivated and underpaid staff. IIP is a way of checking that the damp proofing company really put their staff first, so you will probably served by enthusiastic, well paid and well motivated people - I know who I'd rather cope with.

Whilst we're about people why not check out the qualifications of the people in the firm. In the united kingdom you can find national qualifications for damp proofing surveyors and technicians. Search for the letters CSRT following the surveyor's names - this means Certificated Surveyor in Remedial Treatment also it implies that the surveyor has already established his knowledge of damp, timber defects and health and safety validated by independent examination. Anyone can call themselves a damp specialist surveyor - but are they? If they have CSRT after their name they're; if not then you will want to?

It's similar with the damp proofing installer; the people who actually perform the damp proofing on site. THE HOUSE Care Association run validated training for technicians and gleam City and Guilds NVQ level 2 for damp and timber treatment technicians - ask should they have this.