Penetrating Damp Repairs in Crawley, West Sussex

Damp has a way of making itself known, but the signs can be subtle at first. You might notice a faint musty smell when you walk into a room, or perhaps your wallpaper has started to peel away at the edges. One of the most common tell-tale signs we see across Crawley properties is 'tide marks'—those unsightly brown or yellowish stains on your plaster. You might also see bubbling paint or even white, powdery deposits on the surface. These are 'hygroscopic salts' that have been pulled through the wall by moisture. If you look outside, keep an eye out for 'spalling' (where the brick face starts to flake) or 'blown render' that sounds hollow when you tap it. If you've spotted any of these, it's worth getting a damp survey done before the structural timber or internal finishes take a real beating.

Every area has its own building quirks, and Crawley is no different. We see a real mix here, from the older Victorian and Edwardian terraces that need sensitive care to the post-war and modern builds in neighbourhoods like Tilgate and Broadfield. The main culprit in our part of the world is often 'wind-driven rain.' When the weather hits the side of your house hard, it can force water into tiny cracks in the 'pointing' or through bricks that have become porous over time. If your external render has failed or you've got blocked gutters, that moisture has nowhere to go but in. Because we're local, we understand the specific building stock in West Sussex and how our coastal-adjacent weather patterns affect your walls.

Our approach to penetrating damp repairs is thorough because we know that half-measures just don't work. First, we identify the external fault. There's no point fixing the inside if the outside is still letting water in. This might involve anything from specialist external rendering to repairing the pointing. Once the source of the 'lateral damp' is sealed, we move inside. This often involves 'hacking off' the damp-damaged or salt-contaminated plaster right back to the original brickwork. We then use specialist materials to replaster, ensuring that any remaining salts can't ruin your new finish. As Approved PRB Systems Contractors, we use industry-leading materials that offer much better breathability and protection than traditional methods.

We know that having tradespeople in your home can be stressful, especially when it involves 'messy' work like hacking off plaster. That’s why we take extra care to protect your floors and furniture, leaving the site spotless when we’re done. We aren't a faceless national franchise; we're a local Sussex team with over £1 million in public liability insurance. Whether you need a small repair in a single room or a full external wall insulation system to keep the cold and damp at bay, we treat every job with the same level of respect. We also provide a wide range of other services, from internal plastering to rising damp treatment and monocouche rendering.