Damp Survey and Damp Treatment in Soham

Soham sits in the low-lying fenland of Cambridgeshire, positioned between Ely to the north-west and Cambridge to the south-west. The town has a varied housing stock that reflects several distinct construction periods. At its older core there are Victorian and Edwardian terraces built from local brick, many with solid walls and original suspended timber ground floors. These properties rely on damp-proof courses that were either slate, engineering brick or early bitumen-based products, all of which can fail, crack or be bridged over time by raised garden beds, accumulated render or relaid paths sitting above the original damp line.

Between the wars and in the decades following the Second World War, Soham grew with semi-detached and detached houses built to the standards of those periods. Many have cavity walls, but the cavities in older examples are narrower than modern practice and can allow moisture to cross if mortar snots have accumulated or if insulation has been retrofitted poorly. Post-war council-built properties and later system-built housing from the 1960s and 1970s bring their own challenges, particularly where original window frames and airflow have been replaced with sealed double glazing without compensating through improved extract fans, creating conditions where condensation forms repeatedly on cold surfaces and mould becomes established.

The fenland setting of Soham means ground conditions in parts of the town can be persistently damp, with a high water table in lower-lying areas affecting older properties that have any below-ground habitable space. Barn and cottage conversions on the edges of the town present similar challenges, often involving rubble-fill walls, lime mortars that have been repointed with hard cement, and no original provision for managing rising or lateral moisture.

An inspection by Procure Group establishes which mechanism is actually at work before any remedial programme is agreed. A damp survey in Soham will typically involve moisture readings at multiple points and heights, a review of the construction type and age, examination of external ground levels and drainage, an assessment of airflow and heating patterns, and where relevant an investigation of any below-ground structure. Timber elements including floor joists, beam ends, window sills and lintels are checked for signs of rot or woodworm where conditions suggest long-term elevated moisture. Only once the cause is confirmed can a proportionate, lasting remedy be specified.

It is worth being clear about scope in Soham. Procure Group does not undertake full basement or cellar waterproofing installations. Our waterproofing work is limited to appropriate localised applications encountered as part of damp investigation and remediation, which in practice means the base of a wall, a floor-to-wall junction or a short below-ground return found wet during an inspection. Where the water is arriving from outside — ground held against the wall, a failed gully, paving falling towards the building — correcting that is the work we would recommend first.