# How to choose a damp proofing company in Northern Ireland What to check before hiring anyone to treat damp, woodworm or rot — accreditations, diagnosis, and the questions worth asking before you commit. Damp proofing is an unusually easy trade to get wrong as a customer, because you generally cannot check the work. Once the plaster is back on, you are trusting that what happened behind it was correct — and you will not find out for two or three years. So the decision has to be made on evidence available *beforehand*. Here is what to look at — and, since we see the alternative every week in properties other firms have already been at, where the trade most often falls short of it. ## 1. Are they accredited, and by whom? Anyone can print "damp specialist" on a van. Plenty do, with nothing behind the sign. The meaningful accreditations in this trade are: - **Property Care Association (PCA)** membership. Full membership means audited standards on workmanship and materials as standard. This is the main one. - **TrustMark** — the government-endorsed quality scheme. You can look up any registered firm and see their record; [ours is here](https://www.trustmark.org.uk/firms/Radication-Ltd-476116/). - **QANW** — Quality Assured National Warranties. We hold all three. Ask any firm which they hold, then check it independently rather than taking a logo on a website as proof — a surprising number of logos don't survive that check. ## 2. Does the survey explain what's happening, or just what to do about it? **This is the single most important question in this article.** Damp, woodworm and rot are almost always symptoms. Something is keeping the fabric wet: a failed damp proof course, a leak, blocked ventilation, ground levels raised above the DPC, condensation from an unvented bathroom. Treatment recommended without an explanation of what's making the fabric wet has skipped the part that determines whether the repair lasts. Injecting a wall or spraying timber addresses what you can see. If the water is still arriving, you will be doing it again — and paying someone again. So ask: *what is making this wet, and is fixing that included in the price?* We answer that on every survey. A quote that can't isn't a diagnosis, it's a guess with a price on it. ## 3. Are you told clearly before committing? Before you agree to anything, you should be told plainly: - what the problem is, and the evidence for that conclusion - which areas are affected, and how badly - what work is recommended, in what order - what it costs Verbal reassurance and a number on the back of a card is not a survey. If a firm will not set out the diagnosis clearly before you commit, that tells you something — and it's a lower bar than it should be, given how often we're told it wasn't met the first time round. ## 4. Is the diagnosis actually right? An uncomfortable number of the properties we survey have been misdiagnosed before we arrive — sometimes by people selling the treatment. The most common error by a wide margin is **condensation sold as rising damp**, because a chemical damp proof course is a far larger job than improving ventilation, and a far more profitable one for whoever's quoting it. They look similar and need entirely different work. Our guide on [rising damp or condensation](/blog/rising-damp-or-condensation) sets out how to tell, so you can sanity-check what you are told. Two other frequent ones: - **Woodworm treated as active when it is dormant.** Old holes from decades ago need nothing at all. See [is my woodworm still active](/blog/is-my-woodworm-still-active). - **Tanking specified where a damp proof course would do**, or vice versa. [Cementitious tanking](/blog/what-is-cementitious-tanking) is for below-ground walls under water pressure, and it is a much bigger job than a DPC. A good firm will sometimes tell you that you need less than you feared. That's a reasonable signal to trust them — and a fair test to put to whoever else you're getting quotes from. ## 5. How long have they been doing it, locally? Longevity matters more here than in most trades, precisely because failures surface years later. A firm that has been trading locally for decades has had time to be found out. One that started last year hasn't, and won't necessarily still be there when a guarantee matters. We've been doing this since September 1967. That's not a marketing line — it means we've treated properties that are now being reinspected for the first time since, and the record is there to check. It also means we know the local stock in a way a firm covering a wider patch, or one that's newer to the area, generally doesn't. Damp in a [Belfast solid-wall terrace](/areas/belfast) behaves differently from damp in a [coastal property in Bangor](/areas/bangor) taking wind-driven rain, or a [lakeside house near Enniskillen](/areas/enniskillen) with a high water table. Someone who works across the province every week recognises the pattern; someone passing through once doesn't. ## 6. Will the treatment suit the building? Two things to ask, particularly for older property: **Is it appropriate for the construction?** Solid stone and brick walls with lime mortar are designed to breathe. Cement render and impermeable paints trap moisture inside and cause more damage than they prevent — and it's a mistake we still see specified, because it's a faster job to sell than doing it properly. If a contractor proposes sealing a breathing wall, ask how the wall is then meant to dry. **How disruptive is it?** Modern low-odour, water-based, non-flammable treatments let a building stay occupied. Older solvent-carried products did not, and some firms still use them because they're cheaper. For a home with children, or a business that has to keep trading, that is a practical difference. For listed buildings there is a further layer — alterations need consent from the [Historic Environment Division](https://www.communities-ni.gov.uk/topics/historic-environment), and a specification proposing removal of original fabric may not receive it. ## 7. Is it a survey, or a sales call with a meter? Firms price surveys differently, and either approach can be thorough or perfunctory — so what you pay tells you very little on its own. What matters is whether the visit is genuinely diagnostic. Signals that it is not: pressure to sign on the day, a discount that expires this week, and a diagnosis reached in under ten minutes without getting into the roof space or properly checking the affected areas. A survey carried out properly — roof space entered, meters used, the affected areas properly checked, the problem properly explained — is worth considerably more than a quick look from the hallway. ## A short checklist Before you agree to anything: - Accreditations named, and verified independently - The diagnosis explained clearly before you commit - Fixing the underlying problem included in the price - Treatment appropriate to the construction - No pressure to decide on the day Run any quote you're given against that list. It's a shorter list than it looks, and a surprising number of firms don't clear it. ## Where we stand on all of this Plenty of firms will tick one or two of the boxes above. Few tick all of them. We've been trading in Northern Ireland since September 1967 — not since a rebrand, a franchise licence, or a fresh trading name put on after the reviews for the old one turned bad. Over 50,000 contracts completed, and we're still here to stand behind every single one. We are Property Care Association members, TrustMark registered and QANW members — real, checkable accreditations, not a logo lifted off a stock site and stuck on a van. You get a clear diagnosis before you commit — we don't sell a rising damp job when the real problem is a leaking gutter or a blocked airbrick, the way an uncomfortable number of the quotes we see do. We'll tell you when you need less than you feared, not more than you need. Properties we treated three decades ago have been reinspected since with no recurrence — ask a firm that has only existed for a few years to make that claim. If you want an actual survey rather than a sales call with a meter, [get in touch](/contact-us) or ring **028 9061 8343**. We cover [the whole province](/areas).