My house is Georgian. Can it be injected like any other?

Soft handmade brick and lime mortar behave differently, and cement-based repairs on them cause more damp than they cure. Breathable lime plaster and repointing, plus fixing ground levels and rainwater goods, is usually the better specification.

Why is my Stockton cellar wetter than my neighbour's?

Depth and proximity to the river both matter, as does whether the original ventilation grate is still open. Cellars near the Tees sit closer to the water table and take more pressure.

Damp appeared on one wall a year after cavity wall insulation. Coincidence?

Usually not. On an exposed elevation the fill can bridge water across to the inner leaf. Check whether the installing scheme's guarantee is still live before paying for extraction yourself.

Damp proofing in Stockton-on-Tees

Damp surveys, damp proof course work, penetrating damp repairs, condensation control and cellar waterproofing across Stockton TS18 to TS21, from the Georgian buildings behind the High Street to the interwar semis of Norton, Hartburn and Fairfield.

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Older than it looks

Stockton has some of the oldest domestic building stock in the conurbation, and the streets running off the High Street include Georgian and early Victorian property built in soft handmade brick with lime mortar. Those walls are designed to breathe: they take up water and give it back. Treating them with cement render, gypsum plaster or a modern masonry paint traps moisture inside the wall and pushes the damp somewhere else, which is why breathable lime-based repairs are usually the right specification here even when they cost more.

Cellars and river ground

Deep cellars are common in the town centre streets, and the ground water table close to the Tees keeps them wetter than an equivalent cellar three miles inland. Where those rooms are being converted, a cavity drain membrane with a sump and twin pumps is the realistic system, because holding water back by tanking alone against that kind of pressure asks a great deal of a bonded coating.

Norton, Hartburn and Fairfield

The interwar and 1950s semis in these areas show a different pattern. Cavity walls, so rising damp is rare, but mortar snots left in the cavity during construction bridge water across to the inner leaf and produce isolated mid-wall patches with no visible external fault. Retrofitted cavity fill on the weather elevation is the other regular finding, particularly where damp appeared across a whole face of the house a year or two after the insulation went in.

Roseworth, Hardwick and Billingham Road estates

Post-war estate housing across north Stockton is mainly a condensation and mould story: bedrooms on the cold side of the house, missing or ineffective extraction, and washing dried indoors through the winter. Extraction and background ventilation resolve it at a fraction of the cost of any damp proofing.

Prices in Stockton

Damp survey £150 to £350. Damp proof course with replastering £70 to £120 per linear metre. Lime repointing on older brickwork £55 to £100 per square metre. PIV ventilation £600 to £1,200 fitted. Cellar membrane systems from around £6,000 for a full conversion.