It’s a sad irony that within 100 years of the introduction of cement and its complete dominance in new buildings, that the downside should be the destruction of buildings which have stood for hundreds of years; well before cement was invented.

Cement is a truly wonderful product, easy to use, forgiving and offering incredible strength it’s not surprising that it’s applied almost everywhere.

I mixed my first batch at work in my father’s damp proofing company in 1976, instructed by my favourite uncle; Derek.. “Three t’ one, lad, that’s it…. Just a squeeze of fairy liquid… lovely”

And so it has been for many lads joining the building trade in the 70’s. One shovel of the grey powder and three of the sand; usually bright yellow builder’s sand, adulterated with finer red sand of exactly the wrong sort for the job – but it was such a pleasure to use.

I know better now.

For those that don’t I’ve written this short post to describe in simple terms why cement should be avoided when applying mortar to external surfaces, as either pointing or render and what to use instead. I am not a conservation specialist so here I am referring to ‘old’ buildings – not historic fabric which may need much more careful consideration and consultation with the local conservation officer.

By ‘old’ I mean any stone building, even if brand new (remember – stone is always old) and all brick buildings which are pre-war. There are arguments against cement even on new-build, but let’s leave that on one side for now and ask why it matters, particularly on older existing ones.

The above image shows destruction of stone on a building in Yorkshire. Look close and you can see that the pointing is standing proud of the stone edges and in effect the stone appears to have almost shrunk away from the pointing; leaving an undercut I could get my fingers in. Think about it; the chap who applied this pointing couldn’t have trowelled that mortar like that; this has happened since the pointing set; against the stone.

Is the cement corrosive or something? What’s happening?

Well, the first thing to remember is, we live in a wet country; it rains lots. These stones soak some of the rain up and have been since they were hewn from the quarry and put in this building. This getting wet and drying out, is all part of a natural cycle and is not that damaging to the stone. The lime mortar bed joints too, soak up this water, maybe even a bit quicker and they too let the moisture back out as the wind blows and the sun shines.

There are buildings like this which have stood for hundreds of years, with little sign of the sort of erosion seen above and then in the middle of the 20^th century things changed.

The thing is, lime bed joints don’t last forever and the weather takes its toll. Eventually after decades the beds may be badly recessed and water can really get in and cause damage. The answer is re-pointing and many old buildings have been repointed several times with no ill effect; until a few decades ago when the well-meaning builders used the new stuff – cement. Unlike lime it sets fast, can be built up quickly – is less susceptible to frost damage and it retains water better in dry weather – rock hard too, so it lasts so much longer. No wonder the builders chose it – anyone would.

So, we have now repointed the old chapel with fancy cement mortar and even used it’s workability to produce a fancy ‘strap’ appearance as below (shudder…).

The next week it starts raining and once more the wall soaks up water. Through the stone mainly, because now the beds are sealed up with this dense cement. The wall gets pretty saturated and moisture gets behind the cement via the stone and the tiny cracks which form between hard and soft materials. Some of these cracks are too hard to see with the naked eye but they are there; cement is sometimes so hard that even the act of curing against a soft stone will cause the face of the stone to be pulled away by tension, induced as the cement imperceptibly shrinks.

Once the sun comes out drying begins, but now the cycle is altered.

Evaporation still happens in the stone, but the water in the bed joints, behind the cement is not wicked away and the beds stay moist for much longer. There are now some subtle additional things to consider; a wet wall is a cold wall because as water evaporates it uses energy. The wall is cold so overall there is less energy to drive evaporation and so the time needed to dry the wall in depth is much longer. Two things lead on from this; it is likely that the wall will be rained on again before complete drying has happened, leading to a wall which is wet for a much longer period. For much of the year it is now never truly dry.

Fast forward into winter and that’s when trouble starts. Night falls and ice forms in the surface of the stone, especially around the edges of it next to the bed-joint. Moisture is concentrated here because its pathway out of the wall is blocked by the bead of impenetrable cement, so it is slowly ‘wicked’ around the cement via the adjacent stone. To make matters worse the cement pointing has the strap detail, so it also offers handy little ledges for standing water to dally, allowing even more saturation of the stone.

When water freezes it expands; ice cubes are always bigger than when they were poured into trays as water. When this happens inside the stone the very structure of the material is burst apart, leaving the characteristic friable surface seen below – often accompanied by a pile of sand on a windowsill just below that.

The tiny cracks at the interface between stone and bed ices up and the expansion puts stress equally into the cement bed and the stone…. which is harder? It should of course be the stone, which was the case, before the lime bed was chased out and replaced with rock hard cement. Something has got to give.

There are other things going on too, but the big killer is the freeze thaw cycle, which may have been there before the cement was applied, but the new conditions have amplified the problem and accelerated it many times over.

The evidence is all over the place and is growing. I’ve seen many buildings where the general condition of the stone is excellent, apart from one area which was cement pointed say 40 to 60 years ago. That is a very short time indeed, especially when you think that actually all stone is millions of years old – why is it suddenly changing back to sand?

You know why now.

For all relevant external repairs I specify natural lime mortars. Occasionally we’re using moderately or weakly hydraulic types when it cannot be adequately protected and fat lime is too risky. This type of pointing won’t last forever – nothing can. But as it succumbs to the weather it will sacrifice itself for the good of the building, rather than selfishly hanging on like a parasite, whilst its host withers away.

For more information try SPAB (Society for the Preservation of Ancient buildings), who have a huge library of useful stuff and contacts galore on their web site. The use of lime is no longer just the preserve of specialist conservation companies, because frankly there are not enough of them to deal with the epidemic of damage which is in progress now. All builders and maintenance companies should, like I, have themselves and some key staff attend at least a basic ‘lime day’ of the type SPAB organise, so that those healthy stone and old brick buildings awaiting pointing, get the right material and don’t end up looking like those in the above images.

If your building is suffering already then the best solution is to remove the cement pointing and replace it with lime.  However, this is not always appropriate if the material is so hard that its very removal will cause damage.  In these cases and only with specialist advice and careful consideration, the use of a water repellent cream such as Storm Dry may help. This will at least reduce the absorption of rainwater so that less time is needed for evaporation and drying – and the freeze thaw cycle is shorter or negated altogether.

Dry Rot

Now that we are so well qualified in all aspects of our specialist work, we have turned to other parts of the business.  This year we are focusing particularly on customer service.

Trudy Mackenzie runs Esteem, a firm she established over 25 years ago and one with a super reputation for innovative and effective business improvement courses and workshops.  We’ve tried these before, attending Esteems Performance plus and Success through Service programs and Katrina Jackson and I achieved our NVQ 4’s in management via Esteem.

All staff were involved in looking at our customer’s journeys in our hands, from survey enquiry, through the damp-proofing, wall tie or structural work and post job too, when we issue guarantees and insurance. Trudy helped us analyse where we are now and where there could be room for further improvement. Everyone had a great time and we surprised ourselves that we are already nearly at the pinnacle of customer service.  Much of this is due to our past efforts and our teams natural tendency to strive for customer satisfaction.  Our attendance on previous Esteem management and leadership workshops helped too of course.

An action plan has been formed and over the next few weeks our processes will be tweaked and adjusted, so that soon we will reach our goal of providing ‘Exceptional customer service’ all of the time, every time.

We were joined on the day by special guest Annabelle Webster of South East damp and timber.  Annabelle and her husband Dean run a small but perfectly formed specialist company in Kent. They are keen to improve their business too, in all areas and Annabelle was introduced to me by Property Care Association general manager Steve Hodgson, as a way of providing some mentoring and development for her growing company – what with me being an old codger with 30 od years in the trade, Steve thought I could help…..

It was a pleasure to share the day with someone of Annabelle’s experience and her incredible enthusiasm blended well with ours; she fit right in. All in all we benefited as much from her presence as she from ours – great stuff and just what the PCA is all about; professionalism and sharing for the betterment of members and consumers.

I was surprised in the afternoon when we were gate-crashed by PCA chairman Martin Hughes. Martin is shortly handing over the Chairmanship to Les Meikle and in his last official duty he presented us with the PCA ‘Highly Commended’ award for training and personnel development.  I’ve known Martin professionally, for over 20 years and it was very special to receive the award from him. Apt too,  that this was on one of our dedicated training days.

I really couldn’t get the grin off my face after that. It’s the second time we’ve been honoured like this in three years and being recognised reflects on all the team – Julie, Kat, Stuart, Ryan, Darren, Craig and Adrian are the heart of Brick-Tie and together we have grown in experience and expertise.  It’s a fun job too, when you know you have the support of all those around you.

My thanks go to Trudy and her team, all my staff, my wife Julie and the PCA too, for helping us through the recession, as we prepare for growth in the future.

Dry Rot.

Hudson is Managing Director of Safeguard Europe, who are a leading manufacturer, developer and distributor of waterproofing and preservation products. Robert Deary is his Northern Area sales manager.

I’ve done good business with Safeguard for many years and I admire them very much; a good, responsible and talented bunch from top to bottom. They have branched into wall ties and structural repair and I was delighted to show them how we do things in my Wall tie company Brick-Tie Limited.

We visited some domestic wall tie surveys, to let the guys get a feeling for the variable nature of wall ties surveying; types of housing, insulated and none-insulated property and the use of boroscopes and endoscopic photography.

We talked about Building Research Establishment Digest 329 and 401 ‘installing remedial wall ties’ and various remedial options were discussed, including mechanical, resin bonded and dryfix type wall tie types. Having run an active wall tie company for over 25 years I have a lot to say about site testing and quality control and we shared views on this and how it can be improved.

The rain was heavy in Yorkshire that day and I’m afraid Hudson and Bob got soaked. I love showing anyone round my offices and unit and I could see Hudson eyeing the rows of his Safeguard products on our shelves awaiting use.  We are using a tonne of Vandex cementitiouse waterproofing and I was able to give Hudson great feedback also, on their new Rendermix pre-bagged sand/cement for use after DPC insertion. One of our qualified damp proofing technicians; Ryan Shann was using it only the other day and said “It’s absolutely fantastic”… can’t get better than that from a site technician – they don’t mince their words.

Julie and I were able to treat them to a nice Italian meal and few beers in Leeds later, so I think they went home happy.

Visiting us, travelling all the way from Horsham, to see how things are done on site was thought important enough, for these guys to take time out. It’s one of the things I’ve come to expect from Safeguard, having visited their HQ last year and seen their dedication up close.

The new BrickFix range of wall tie and crack stitching materials is flying off their shelves and I’m not surprised; they deserve to prosper and I’ll be continuing to support them as a crucial supplier and central to helping deliver a great service for my customers. Hudson has just been elected to the board of management of the Property Care Association and I expect that he’ll be a great help in further advancement of the PCA and it’s 300 plus members.

Dry Rot.

This past week I was involved in a remedial wall tie installation on a prestigious brand new building, which is not yet complete.

Surprisingly the need for wall tie installation on new and fairly new buildings is more common than many would expect. Reasons for this include: new wall ties missed during the bricklaying; poor embedment of ties in one or other leaf; poor choice of new ties and ties installed inclined down towards the inner leaf. There are other reasons too, but the forgoing are the most common.

On this contract some ties had been inadvertently omitted from the structural piers in a commercial/retail building in West Yorkshire.

What happens when wall ties 'off the shelf' don't work.

It wouldn’t be newsworthy in itself, as I deal with this sort of work all the time. However, this job well illustrates the difference between new-build masonry construction, where new ties are installed by the skilled bricklayers – as opposed to remedial wall tie work, which as events on this site illustrate, is a job for trained and qualified remedial tie technicians.

Anyway, the site supervisors and engineers discovered that there was a potentially serious problem with essential cavity wall ties missing. Of course, the masonry sub-contractor was immediately informed and action was demanded to rectify the situation, by installing stainless steel remedial ties.

Keen to clear the matter up, the contractor commissioned the structural engineer to draw up a specification. All went well up to that point – then problems…

If at first you don’t succeed…. get someone to help.

The construction was a stone external leaf and concrete block inner with a 290mm cavity. A helical profile remedial tie was deemed appropriate and was duly integrated into the specification. However, when this was passed to the masonry contractor he was keen (understandably), to save time and cost. A quick internet search found many on-line sites selling remedial ties, including helical ‘friction’ fit ties and easy to follow installation instructions. Within a couple of days the remedial cavity ties were on site and the bricklayers were instructed to install them immediately.

As can be seen in the image, the end result was far from satisfactory. The ties were driven into the blind holes, they deformed and bent into the wide cavity and there was no satisfactory fix in the inner or external leaf. More worrying, this was not noticed and for a few days the original mishap was forgotten, as it had been ‘sorted’

Fast forward a few more days and it became necessary to open up the wall for another matter – the useless installation was revealed and the proverbial hit the fan – that’s when the structural engineer called me to site.

Once there I could see what the problem was and quickly organised a remedial solution using Helifix. However, I have sympathy for the poor bricklayers; being pilloried by the engineer and the main contractor was not pleasant for them at all – Did they deserve this stick?  No way, I’m on their side and here’s why.

Bricklaying is a skill and is taught to a national standard. Those who pass the tests and assessments can turn their hands to build almost anything; stone, bricks or concrete blocks. There is absolutely no mention of remedial wall tie installation in the curriculum or in any module they study… why should there be? let’s face it, they are trained to drop wall ties onto open bed-joints or fix frame cramps to exposed surfaces. Fiddling about down blind holes of various lengths is not something they are used to.

Now imagine the situation on site when something goes wrong; Money is at stake – bills go unpaid and the pressure is on to get the problem sorted. Remedial wall tie work is not rocket science, but some wall tie suppliers go much further to sell their goods;  now dumbing down the skills involved in wall tie installation to the level, which is far below the reality. So when you need wall ties installing and search Google, you get all these adword adverts for web shops, selling wall tie kits and such, with a few simple ‘flash’ animations to show you how easy it is – why not do it yourself?

Is it that simple? Clearly not on the above contract.

I don’t need to employ a wall tie specialist do I?

1. What about the tools to do the work properly, regardless of the width of the cavity or the condition of the stone or blocks?
2. What about a surveyor to asses the job beforehand and make sure that the chosen tie is appropriate and the installation method is sound?
3. What about a quality control system and a tie testing regime and test rig to make sure staff don’t walk away and leave a poor job?
4. What about the experience to adapt the work if the initial specification proves unable to meet the required performance?

This is why I don’t blame the lads who forced those ties in and left the job like it was.  The fault lies with poor supervision, lack of training and a failure to recognise that the remedial work required a specialist in the first place.

In view of the nature of the work testing was carried out to BRE 401.

There is an NVQ in remedial wall tie installation for a reason; it is something which requires diligence and the correct training and equipment. The bricklayers maybe have the diligence, but lack both the other ingredients essential to a correct job.  Lack of experience counts too,  so they didn’t know that with such a wide cavity a special bespoke fixing tool was needed. They didn’t have the testing equipment so of course the defective installation went undetected, until accidentally discovered and they didn’t have the knowledge or spare equipment to fix the problem.

Specialists are dealing with these issues all the time and that is what provides the essential experience they need. They’ve made the mistakes years ago, being guided by their supervisors and they’ve faced having to change installation methods at short notice. All this means that on site, they are not re-inventing the wheel every day; using unfamiliar equipment and they are not using the clients building as a training ground.

My advice is:

Don’t leave wall tie work to a general builder; use a specialist who is a member of the Wall Tie Installers Federation and/or The Property Care Association. Ask for a detailed specification and insist on on-site random tension testing so that any issues are identified and rectified before the specialist leaves site. Staff should have NVQ level 2 in wall tie replacement.

Guarantees are all well and good but experience shows that where work is hidden from view it is liable to be subject to less care on site – this is a sad fact of life, which in the case of wall ties is crucial – they have to work!

Dry Rot

That’s a fair amount to cover, so I used case studies from some of the thousands of wall tie and repair projects I’ve been involved in over the past 26 years, to demonstrate the different methods and solutions available. Of course PowerPoint features, but only as a way of presenting slides – the talk was thin on statistics and figures; heavy on the practical facts of life on site.

PowerPoint can be a bit one dimensional so I took along a few bit and bobs for members to play with including:

1. A 25Kn Hydrajaws tension testing rig.
2. A diamond core drill.
3. Samples of Resin.
4. A Sibtec digital micro-drill.
5. lots of different Cintec and Helifix ties in various sizes and body types.
6. A box of original corroded wall ties, ranging across the spectrum; wrought iron, cast and mild steel.
7. A box of different remedial cavity wall ties I’ve collected over the years.
8. Some tie bars and lateral restraints like Bowties and post tension connectors for use with Cintec Stud anchors.

I started with wall tie replacement;  some background information and a look at examples of rusting and healthy wall ties, taken through my boroscope. BRE digest 329 and 401 was covered of course, with a look at the ‘visual grading of corroded wall ties table’. Wall ties are a bit ‘old hat’ to some, but of course it’s a very common structural defect and is growing, so it was essential to bring the guys and gals up to speed on this.

The section on Helibeam repairs and modern lateral restraint methods, went down well, with some good questions fielded and a large roll of stainless steel 6mm Helifix Helibar was passed around.

Diamond drilling and Cintec heavy duty structural anchors were covered, with examples from case studies from our Cintec tie work on York City Walls, Leeds (ARMLEY) Jail,  various churches and Barn conversion repairs around Yorkshire and York University. The unique fixing method of the Cintec socked anchor was explained and I had a 1.8 meter long 15×15 Square hollow section anchor at the table to pass around.

The fundamental differences between cementitious, epoxy and polyester resin grout were covered too, along with the advantages each would offer in a particular application and fixing situation. The importance of training and using properly trained and certificated technicians to install remedial wall ties was stressed.

I always end my presentations with my light-hearted video of my Superstars, which raised a smile and then it was on to the raffle for the traditional bottle of bubbly – RICS member Richard Brooke BA (Hons) MSc of DTZ went away with a smile.

My thanks go to all who turned up for what I understand was a very well attended meeting – nice to feel wanted; I thought I was the only surveyor in Yorkshire with a keen interest in wall tie corrosion!

Thanks too for the bottle of wine I took home (already quaffed)

Cheers.

Dry Rot.

So once more it was a boot full of diagnostic equipment and armed with a memory stick I turned up.  The room was full, mainly of guys and galls who could easily have called me dad (or even granddad).

I can’t get 35 years into an hour so I chose to concentrate on humidity and condensation. I also spent time on the use of conductivity moister meters and moisture profiling, which went down well and seemed to hold some interest for the group.

Now that it is government policy for us all to live in airtight houses, I expect mould and condensation issues to dominate ‘damp’ investigations over the coming years and I made sure that the students took on board the changes, which the construction industry is going through and how these are likely to impact on the internal environment of our homes and offices. I’m keen on making sure that all surveyors start out with a good grasp of the fundamentals where damp and humidity are concerned. I’m sure that this subject is being squeezed, as surveyors find more demands on the time they can allocate to this area.

I enjoyed the hour, which passed quickly and I’m grateful to Dr West and the University for inviting me along. It was good also to see so many students, especially as times are so hard – this bodes well for the construction industry.

If you were there, feel free to contact me if you need clarification of anything we talked about.

Dry Rot.

PS – Tonight I am in Leeds to present a CPD on structural repairs of old building to the Leeds RICS members as part of their training matrix – happy days!

The thing is, that damp proofing is not rocket science and nor is running a small business – yet we all know horror story’s about bad work and crooked businessmen.  When employing any company, no matter what they do, you need a competent and honest firm, so the first thing to do is narrow down the chances of calling in a cowboy:

1. Narrow down the field by sifting out the ‘high risk’ guys.  That’s easy to do, just by avoiding the ‘unqualified’ or ‘self certified’ specialists. This is done by looking for a company or individual who is a member of The Property Care Association. The PCA has contractors, independent surveyors and consultants who can help with any preservation issues. There are some good none PCA members out there, but the easiest way of saving time and effort double checking credentials is simply using the PCA’s find a member widget to get your shortlist. If the companies are PCA accredited then you know they are a boni-fide firm, with insurance, specific industry qualifications, TrustMark approved consumer standards and they have signed up to a code of ethics and a code of conduct – that’s several quality checks done for you before you’ve even spoken to them. Ask for a PCA surveyors certificate to accompany your report – that will confirm that the survey has been done to the PCA’s standards and can be used to show your vendor, lender and others that the reports findings are credible.
2. Choose the right type of specialist for your situation. There’s no point asking a contractor to comment on someone else’s work or arbitrate in a dispute – for that you need an independent surveyor or consultant – these are all available via the PCA web site. An estate agent or financial advisor may recommend a damp-proofing specialist (if you are buying through them or they are arranging a mortgage for you). There is nothing wrong with that but be careful; Estate Agent’s priorities are to push the sale through, so they tend to value speed and low cost above all else; you may get a well meaning ‘self certified’ jack-of-all-trades. These are very common and some are fine, though most are unqualified and underinsured.  The best thing to do is apply these six checks to the firm the agent recommends and reject if you have doubts.
3. Always visit the company web site and dig deep into it.  You are looking for some evidence other than their own claims for honesty and expertise; who do they work for? what do their staff look like? Are they in premises or a call centre?  Is there some depth and detail; minimum legal information like the owner of the site and company number (so you can check how long they’ve been in business for free at companies house ) If there is no company number they are breaking the law and you should ask yourself what they are hiding -  is the web site just a lot of promises with none of this information?
4. Always speak to them – using an on-line form to request a survey is available on most web sites but frankly, you can’t beat talking and listening to how you are treated and what questions are asked of you by them – this tells you lots about the professionalism of the firm and is a useful indication of how they will deal with you as you go through your journey with them.
5. Make sure you give them good instructions – they cannot read your mind and if there is anything you are worried about tell them in advance. Good firms will have well trained staff in the office who will try to prompt you on this one.  The more information they have, the better they can help you. If you have reports from your building surveyor or valuer, pass a copy on, so they can make sure they cover any points raised; it’s not automatic that their idea of a relevant issue will match the other guy’s so be up front and help them to help you.
6. Meet them on the survey. If you are buying a house and they are inspecting it for you it is not always possible to meet the surveyor on the survey, however, if possible do try to do this. You will see for yourself how thorough and professional (or not), the guy or gal is and he/she will point out issues for you. Meeting the surveyor face to face is the best way of avoiding problems because in my experience, most people can judge for themselves, whereas paperwork alone is a guide (especially if it is miss-spelt and poor), but some quite well written and professional looking reports hide missed problems or hype-up trivial ones as serious. Plus of course you can’t beat being shown the issues face-to-face and being able to point out any changes or plans you may have for the building.

There are other things like costs, guarantees and such, but these six will slim down the chances of wasted time, unprofessional service and even being ripped off.

Dry Rot.

PS – I am a PCA member so of course I view the world through PCA glasses. I can’t yet though, find any reason at all why anyone established in this industry, would not wish to be a member of the PCA, what with all the benefits that brings to members and consumers. Usually the reason for none-membership is an inability to meet the strict membership criteria or an unwillingness to meet the PCA’s standards – buyer beware….

And of course, if you need a good honest specialist in Yorkshire, you could do worse than try my little firm here.

This was the second time I’d been invited along, following a talk I gave for them a couple of years ago, on structural repairs and wall tie corrosion. It was nice to see so many of the best known independent surveyors from my area, with literally hundreds of years of combined experience between them. In fact whilst I was there the group presented long standing member Peter Wardle, with a gift of artwork to mark his 50th year in the business; remarkable.

The talk revolved around environmental conditions in housing, which lead to condensation, excessive humidity and mould growth. The members were brought up to date on the latest high-tech equipment for instant site measurement and on remote data logging for monitoring of home environments 24/7. I have an extensive collection of slides from houses I’ve surveyed over many years and these were used to help illustrate the situations one finds in real scenarios.

I included some science for those who like that, but in the main, I like to talk surveying in surveyors language and in Yorkshire we tell it as it is. The talk soon opened up and I was delighted that the members came up with lots of questions and some strong opinions; on where we are heading with mould and condensation issues.  It seemed that there was agreement that the new Green Deal and the rush for air-tightness will result in many more problems with mould.  I used some infrared imaging to demonstrate the effects of internal furnishings on surface temperatures and the benefits of Positive Input Ventilation as a solution to excessive humidity. BS5250: “Control of condensation in buildings” 2011 was discussed too and I was able to pass on lots of tips about recognising patterns of mould as a useful diagnostic tool for getting to the cause of the problem.

We also covered tenant and customer relations; so important for getting the message across. Toxic mould is a myth of course, but this needed covering and a lively debate ensued.

Anyway, I left the CPD confident that the members were a bit better equipped to deal with this growing problem and member, Bruce Collinson even asked for a repeat for his large Leeds based surveying practice.

My thanks go to The Leeds surveyors forum for putting up with me and for the chips and sandwiches….brilliant.

Dry Rot.

25 points are needed annually to remain ‘current’ and I have 12 thus far. These are from the 6 hour mould seminar with Caoimhin Connell for the PCA and my full day spent with Graham Coleman last month, receiving one-to-one tuition on damp diagnosis.

Why bother? Well, I believe that in life, we never stop learning and there’s always something new to discover. Clients rely on surveyors for up to date information including the latest regulations and methods. Many PCA members already take their on-going training and development seriously, but up to now they’ve had no way of demonstrating that or enjoying a structured program of self improvement. It’s reassuring for customers too because let’s face it, some of us are not getting any younger and on the one hand clients like to think they have an experienced surveyor working for them, whilst on the other they don’t want somebody who qualified 30 odd years ago and has not kept up to date. Clients now  have the best of both worlds – experience and proven currency – brilliant.

I have two CPD presentations in the pipeline (one for structural repairs and one for damp and condensation – both for groups of RICS surveyors) and a session talking to Leeds building Surveying students about damp, plus I am mentoring a student for a days Damp & Timber surveying next week.

My NVQ level 5 in occupational health & Safety starts at the end of the month and I hope that counts towards the scheme too.

I think that the Property Care Association is once more demonstrating that as a trade association they are serious about maintaining standards and they should be applauded.

Mind you – those members that don’t subscribe to this ‘optional’ CPD scheme, may find themselves having to explain why not in the near future, as those who do subscribe start promoting the fact…. like I have here.

Dry Rot

Click here to view pdf..

I’m very lucky to have a team of dedicated people all around me and I’m grateful for their support.

Meet them all here

Dry Rot