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Rising Damp HobartSolid masonry & sandstone 0468 163 360

The wider fix

Damp proofing a Hobart home

The whole job is rarely one product. It is usually water management outside plus a barrier inside.

Damp proofing describes everything done to stop a wall taking up ground moisture, not one specific product. Rising Damp Hobart refers the parts of that work to the trades suited to each, because a full job on an older Hobart house frequently involves a damp specialist, an excavator and a plasterer rather than one contractor with one method.

What the work usually includes

Correcting external levels

Cutting soil, paving or garden beds back below the internal floor. Cheapest and most effective single change on a great many properties, and the one most often skipped because it is not glamorous.

Drainage

An agricultural drain or a properly falling surface so water leaves rather than sits. On Hobart's sloping blocks this matters more than the barrier does.

A damp proof course

Injected or, rarely, physically inserted, where the wall genuinely has none or the original has failed.

Salt-resistant replastering

Removing contaminated plaster and replacing it with a render designed to hold salt back from the finished surface.

Repointing in lime

On sandstone and older brick. Lime mortar lets the wall breathe; cement pointing traps moisture inside the stone and accelerates the decay it was supposed to prevent.

Ventilation where it applies

Subfloor vents on suspended floors, and improved airflow in rooms where condensation is doing part of the damage.

Order matters

Water management comes before barriers, and barriers come before finishes. Replastering a wall that is still taking up moisture wastes the plaster; installing a course under a path that bridges it wastes the course. A sequence that looks slower is normally the one that costs less overall, and any assessment that recommends a finish before establishing where the water is entering should be questioned.

What to expect afterwards

Slow, undramatic improvement. Masonry that has been wet for decades releases moisture over months, and salt continues to migrate out of the wall while it does. A finished-looking wall two weeks after treatment usually means somebody sealed it, which traps the moisture and pushes the damage further up the wall instead of removing it.

A garden bed and a concrete path built up hard against the brick wall of an old cottage.
Illustration Ground built up against the wall bridges any damp course there is. This is the cheapest fault to find and often the cheapest to fix.

Suburbs we cover

We cover Hobart and the surrounding suburbs, from the Georgian cottages of Battery Point to the post-war brick of Glenorchy and Moonah.

Book a free rising damp assessment

Someone comes out, meters the walls, looks at the ground levels and tells you what is causing it. You get that in writing before anyone quotes a repair.