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Building black holes
There are some areas when you are either looking at a new property or thinking about renovations, extensions and refurbishments that always have to be approached with extreme caution. These are the 'black holes' of the building game, where your hard-earned cash can vanish quicker than a ship in the Bermuda Triangle. It is often very difficult to predict exactly how bad these black holes can be but the crucial thing is to be aware of their existence before you start work or exchange contracts.
Before you actually expose the foundations or start ripping off the wallpaper it can be hard to tell the extent of the problem, but a good builder should always flag them up for your attention and make you aware of a cost that may well go up. It is also worth getting specialist advice from the likes of structural engineers, damp and timber specialists or architects depending on the exact nature of your problem area.
Common 'black holes'
Damp
Damp is one of the easiest problems to predict. Your surveyor should pick up on the problem and a comprehensive survey will usually reveal the extent of the problem. Rising damp cannot go over 1.2 metres up the wall so if the damp course has been breached, the normal scenario is hacking off the plaster of the affected walls to 1.2 meters, injecting the walls with a damp-proof product and then re-plastering the walls with a Sika mix to ensure against any future penetration. It is expensive but straightforward. Complications can arise, however, if the damp is rising through your flooring. In which case, you may have to expose the foundations and re-pour a properly insulated concrete slab with a damp proof membrane lapped up into the walls.
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