Rising damp in Silkstone, QLD

Why Silkstone walls behave the way they do

Silkstone was built for the mines and the workshops, and it shows in the housing: small, plain, close together and old. A cottage of this kind may have been built with no damp proof course at all. They have coped for a century because they were built to breathe, and they stop coping the moment they are sealed.

The housing stock in Silkstone

Modest timber and brick cottages, some extended at the back. An extension is a place to look first. A 1990s addition on a slab, butted against a 1910 wall with no barrier in it, gives water a route from the new floor into the old brick, and the damage appears in the old part of the house while the cause sits in the new one.

The ground under Silkstone

Where the soil under a Silkstone house is clay, it holds water against a footing for days after rain rather than draining it away, which keeps a wall wet long enough for the water to climb. It also moves, which is why cracked render and damp can turn up on the same wall.

Silkstone in figures

What the Silkstone figures mean for a damp wall

Silkstone's centre is 2.1 km from the Bremer River. Where clay holds rain against a footing, note how fast the ground beside the wall dries after rain, and look for cracks on the same wall.

Prices and next steps for Silkstone

The six signs are on the home page, the order of the work on how it works, prices on the cost page and the measuring method on the about page. On a cottage with a newer extension, the cost can sit at the join between old and new. Cracks from clay movement are a separate repair from the damp itself.

Talk it through in Silkstone

Call 0489 270 985

Rising damp help in other suburbs

We work across the Ipswich local government area and the western corridor.