An entire industry has grown up on the back of dpc & the need for it to be installed...
Another fuxin hoax
America not one dpc seen , Holland same & build out of the water
This list is the most likely cause of damp in your home ....
- Insulation
- Heating on/off - must be constantly ON, but low temp = 15 degrees C
- Avoid your house getting warm, then cold
- Modern paints
- Cement render
- Gypsum plaster
- Ground levels outside higher than inside
- Broken guttering or missing downpipes
- Vegetation growing near the wall
- Trees creating shade and moist air near a wall
- Lack of ventilation - double glazing, no vents
- Blocked chimneys - fireplace blocked up, no vents
- Furniture against walls creating cold, damp areas
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I don't disagree with your list or that the DPC/Rising damp is over hyped and generally inaccurate.
But,..
you are wrong about foundation design in America and Holland. Some do have DPC, but they also have entirely different methods to achieve the same aim and avoid the same problem. Where they have not they have problems. Most houses in Holland before 1970 had wood foundations, many in the US too. Eg., they use a tanking and gravel sytem with now, a polyethylene wrap around the treated wood, basement, the lot, and a gap (circa 8", States vary) to above-ground sheathing etc. Others use a concrete slab foundation with concrete block suspended floors, there are variations but are all to avoid capilliary and bridging water ingress, generally called Rising Damp.
Right now there is a massive foundation failure problem in the Netherlands, affecting over a million homes, because in essence they have a floating foundation system and the ground is actually sinking due to falling water table levels and gas extraction. Hence why we should object to the underground shale oil and gas extraction in the UK.
I have personally seen what we call rising damp due to DPC failure several times, and seen it fixed with replacement DPC or chemical injection. I have also seen and that it works, to use the old lime plaster and render method on solid non-dpc foundations. Right now I have a visually obvious DPC failure in a corner of my house, needing bricks/lime mortar replacing and a bit of new DPC - and improving external surface drainage, my own fault.