Structural drying & moisture monitoring in Hertfordshire & Essex

After water has been extracted, the building is still wet. Water that has soaked into plaster, screed, brick, timber joists and insulation does not leave on its own in any reasonable time, and if the property is put back together before it is dry, the result is lifting floors, blown plaster, rotting timber and mould – usually a few months after the decorators have left.

On the first visit we take moisture readings across the affected rooms and beyond them, because water usually travels further than the visible damage. Readings are taken in unaffected areas of the same materials to set the dry standard for that building: the target we are drying back to.

Different materials dry at different rates. Plasterboard dries quickly; a sand-cement screed or a solid brick wall can take weeks.

Water moves from wet materials into the air, and the air has to be dried or replaced for that to keep happening. Drying a building properly means controlling three things:

• Humidity. Dehumidifiers pull moisture out of the air so that the wet materials keep giving it up. The number of units depends on the volume of the space, how wet it is and the temperature.
• Air movement. Air movers keep air passing over wet surfaces, so the layer of damp air next to the wall or floor is constantly replaced.
• Temperature. Warm air holds more moisture. Where the building is cold, drying slows, and we take that into account in the plan and the programme.

Where water has got under a floating floor or into a cavity, drying the room air alone does nothing, so we open up to reach it. See strip-out and reinstatement.

We revisit to take readings and adjust equipment. Every visit records:

• Readings at the same marked points, so the trend is clear.
• Room temperature and relative humidity, so the equipment is working in the right conditions.
• Equipment on site, running hours and any changes made.

As areas reach their target we move or remove equipment, so the set-up gets smaller as the job progresses.

Day to day. Equipment runs continuously. It is noisy and uses electricity, and we tell you roughly how much at the start. Doors and windows in the drying area stay shut so the dehumidifiers are drying the room, not the street. Please do not switch the equipment off overnight; every hour off adds to the programme.

When the readings reach the dry standard and stay there, the building is dry. Not before. That is what goes in the drying report.

For a policyholder, the report is the document that lets reinstatement be approved and, later, shows a buyer or a surveyor that the leak was dealt with properly. For an insurer or loss adjuster, it is the evidence that drying was necessary, proportionate and complete. See how we work with insurers.

Some materials cannot be dried in a sensible time or will not recover even when dry: saturated chipboard flooring, MDF skirting, soaked insulation, plasterboard that has stood in water. These are stripped out so the structure behind them can dry. See strip-out and reinstatement.