West Hobart, TAS
Assessment and treatment referrals for 1870s–1920s Victorian and Federation homes in West Hobart.
Plenty of West Hobart houses have a wet wall and no idea which of three problems they have. Rising Damp Hobart arranges an on-site assessment that settles it — readings through the wall, the ground levels outside, and a written finding you can take to any contractor.
West Hobart climbs steeply behind the city, and its Victorian and Federation cottages are terraced into that hillside on cut-and-fill blocks. That is the defining feature for damp here: a great many houses have a retaining situation on the uphill side, whether or not anyone would call it a retaining wall, and the damp that appears on that wall is frequently lateral rather than rising. The streets also sit in shade for much of a winter day, which slows drying further. Where the original damp proof course has failed on a downhill elevation and lateral water is entering uphill, both problems exist in one house and need separate treatment.
West Hobart is predominantly 1870s–1920s Victorian and Federation, on ground that is steep, terraced into the hillside. That combination sets what tends to go wrong: the era decides whether there was ever a damp proof course to fail, and the way the block sits decides whether you are dealing with water rising through the base of a wall or pressing against its side. Both are treatable and they are treated completely differently, which is the whole reason the assessment comes first.
The climate is the multiplier. Hobart is not an especially wet city — about 611.0mm a year across 86.8 days of rain — but it is a cold one, and cold walls under a 78 per cent morning humidity in July do not give moisture back.
Costs vary more by wall than by suburb. Sandstone takes more material and more drilling time than solid brick, and a wall you can only reach from one side costs more than one you can work from both. The cost page sets out the ranges.
Nearby: Moonah, Battery Point, Sandy Bay, North Hobart.
We cover Hobart and the surrounding suburbs, from the Georgian cottages of Battery Point to the post-war brick of Glenorchy and Moonah.
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.