The instruction
A leaseholder's flat in a concrete-framed block had persistent damp and mould across the rear bedroom, kitchen and living room. The appointed contractor instructed McKay Building Consultancy to find the cause and set out proportionate remedial action.
The challenge
Damp like this usually has more than one cause, and the wrong diagnosis means money spent on the wrong repair. The task was to separate condensation from genuine water ingress — and, where water was getting in, to establish where from.
What I did
I carried out a non-intrusive visual survey with calibrated moisture readings, room by room and across the communal areas, and inspected the external envelope from the contractor's scaffold. I identified two distinct mechanisms: thermal bridging at the building's exposed concrete frame driving surface condensation and mould (a building-wide trait, made worse by blocked trickle vents and a recirculating kitchen extractor); and active water ingress from a defective planter and failed walkway joints above, with tell-tale ferrous staining tracking down the facade to the bedroom window head.
The outcome
The client received a clear report that separated the two problems, prioritised the remedial actions — arrest the water ingress first, then treat the mould and improve ventilation — and recommended targeted monitoring to check whether the thermal-bridging issue ran building-wide, so spend could go where it would actually work.