TO IRISH-SPREAD
1. Once again you are wrong Steve.
2. Pre second world war has mainly slate dpc s. it's true that house settlement can cause the dpc to crack in places but it beggars belief that a few hairline cracks can cause large areas of wet walls that you call rising damp.
3. My house was built in 1896.
4. I was gutted when it caught rising damp in 1996, the year I bought it. I told the surveyor that this was not rising damp but was caused by high external ground levels.
he told me I was talking rubbish and that I needed a chemical dpc + a certificate. My mate gave me the useless bit of paper for nothing and I put in a French drain and rendered.
5. Guess what, it's been bone dry ever since.
MY ANSWER, HAVE YOU JUSTY GOT BACK FROM THE PUB
Concrning 1. Above I do not know what you mean by suggesting that something was wrong in my post
2. If I goggle slate dpc and bitumen dpc I get 193,000 responses for slate and only 64,000 for bitumen. You might be right that slate is more common nationwide, but I never said or suggested that my point concerned the most common type of pre World War Two damp proof course material. It is simply a common material used where I lived in West Yorkshire and fails due to ageing and consequently allows moisture rise up the wall.
4. I am glad that you did not fall for the damp-proofing industry con. Many houses have no dpc and are dry. Am happy that everything you say is perfectly correct in respect of your experiences. Our disagreement is that I do not accept that rising dampness does not exist.