Dorking in Surrey is a popular commuter town due to its three railway stations and easy proximity into London. Much of Dorking’s original character survives and the town is well known for its many antique shops.

Tapco HomeDry Dry Rot, Woodworm and Damp Specialists are based not far from Dorking in Thames Ditton, Surrey KT where our head office has been for many years.

We were recently instructed to carry out a survey there for a lady who was extremely worried that she might have a damp or dry rot problem due to a musty smell that she’d been noticing.

Our fully qualified timber and damp surveyor attended the property and thoroughly checked walls for damp using the surface mode of an electronic ‘Survey Master’ damp meter and he also inspected all accessible floors, by lifting floorboards and probing timbers with a sharp instrument. What he found was much worse than a normal damp problem, it was in fact a severe case of True Dry Rot (Serpula lacrymans).

The attack of Dry Rot Fungus was found to be affecting the majority of the flooring timbers on the ground floor which was caused by a leaking rainwater downpipe and insufficient sub-floor ventilation. Existing air bricks needed to be unblocked and additional vents needed to be installed in order to increase the sub-floor ventilation.
Our Surveyor strongly recommended that the rainwater downpipe be immediately renewed. Our client was also advised that it is good practice to periodically inspect your home, especially during heavy rainfall, to ensure that there are no leaks.

Following our Survey Tapco HomeDry were instructed to carry out specialist dry rot treatment and complete restoration to all of the affected areas. This involved our skilled operatives cutting out all affected timbers, replacing with new pre-treated timber in accordance with good building practice, applying high performance timber preservatives, re-plastering in accordance with our ‘Tapco HomeDry Dry Rot Re-Plastering System, replacing joinery timbers to match as closely as possible existing and increasing the sub-floor ventilation.

The owner could trust us completely as we have over 44 years of experience with damp and dry rot and woodworm eradication are proud members of the Property Care Association (PCA), Trustmark and offer long term insurance for our work through Guarantee Protection Insurance (GPI).

Don’t let wood decaying fungus destroy your home, call us today for a Dry Rot and Damp Survey.