Rising Damp Ruins Bathroom

This property, located near St Albans's town centre, suffered from Rising Damp throughout the ground floor, with evidence of further damp affecting timbers in the loft space.

Evidence of penetrating damp was particularly clear in the bathroom, where the walls had suffered extensive superficial water damage. Unfortunately, water was seeping into this part of the house around badly fitted flashing where the main structure met a small lean-to extension built a number of years earlier.

The flashing was severely cracked, and had already begun to crumble away entirely. The exposure to damp appeared to have been compounded by the wall construction of the property itself, which was in places a lath and plaster construction common to the era, but difficult to maintain and liable to develop issues such as these over time.

It is strongly recommended that action be taken to ensure the sources of damp are identified, and remedied. Given the age of the property, asbestos may have been used in its construction, though the results of the investigation were unclear.