Rising damp in Glenorchy, Tasmania

Damp in Glenorchy is rarely a mystery once someone has metered the wall and looked at the ground outside it. Rising Damp Hobart arranges that assessment, in writing, in Tasmania, before any repair is priced.

What we see in Glenorchy

Glenorchy is mostly post-war housing on flat ground near the Derwent, which means a working damp proof course in most cases and a different set of causes. Flat ground drains slowly, so surface water sits against footings for longer after rain, and decades of added concrete — paths, carports, extensions — have often raised the outside level past the course. Weatherboard homes here can also show damp at the base of a masonry pier or chimney breast without the walls being affected at all, which is a much smaller job than it first appears.

Why Glenorchy walls hold moisture

The housing in Glenorchy is 1940s–1970s brick and weatherboard and the ground is flat river plain. Read together those two facts narrow the possibilities a long way before anyone has touched the wall, which is why an assessor asks about the block before looking at the damage.

Hobart's winter makes either worse. Nine-in-the-morning humidity across the city sits at 76 to 79 per cent from May through July and there are under four hours of sun a day in June, so a wall that takes up moisture has very little opportunity to release it again before spring.

Getting an assessment in Glenorchy

Indicative ranges are on the cost page — injection runs $220 to $450 a linear metre and replastering $90 to $180 a square metre. What moves those numbers most is access and what the wall is made of, which is why the fixed price follows the assessment.

Nearby: West Hobart, Moonah, Battery Point, Sandy Bay.