Smith & Garratt survey buildings. We understand the fabric of buildings, we diagnose defects, we undertake building pathology. Here are examples of some things we see and write about.

Fungi

Defective chimney flashings – resulted in dry rot (Serpula Lacrymans)18 months later.

Ink-caps (Coprinus Domesticus), sometimes known as ‘plaster mushrooms’. Although not destructive like dry-rot, they are an indicator of extreme dampness and, where found in buildings, the buildings are generally either derelict or water-damaged after extinguishing a fire.

Pezizas (this one is Peziza Domiciliana) are generally harmless but are indicators of damp conditions where other agents of decay may be at work

wet rot (Coniophora Putenea) which attacks timber with consistently high moisture content – often window sills.

Enzymatic Bio-Weathering

Enzymatic bio-weathering of slates – can turn them into powder from the underside.

Wood-Boring Insects

Death Watch Beetle (Xestobium rufovillosum)

Flight holes are much bigger than those of the Common Furniture Beetle (Anobium Punctatum)

The timber here appears to have had three lots of wood-borers – Common Furniture Beetle, Death Watch Beetle and the bigger, oval flight holes were probably left by House Longhorn Beetles (Hylotrupes Bajulus).

Removal of Support

This example, in Yorkshire, resulted from wood-boring insects removing the structural integrity from beams clad in C16 plaster.

Georgian shopfront in Elgin; when the retail space was deepened someone forgot to reconnect the façade. Smith & Garratt were called in to see why the re-pointing works were taking so long!

Taken in Trafford, Greater Manchester, shows brickwork from around 1700 cracked as a result of later alterations.

The support under the corner of this country house in the Scottish Borders was removed by a spring washing fines out of the soil beneath.

Wall Tie Failure

Where possible, we inspect wall ties with a borescope

Sulphate Attack in Masonry

The Spanish City, Whitley Bay. This building also suffered corrosion due to the maritime environment and galvanic corrosion to its early ferrocrete dome.

Inadequate Timbers

Inadequate joists

Inadequate king post

Failure of Injected DPC

Injected DPCs are the biggest con in the construction industry. Proven not to work – and in some cases causing actual harm – they rely entirely on tanking the interior afterwards with a renovating plaster. Mother Nature will, however, have her way … if the moisture can’t escape porous masonry through the face, it will escape elsewhere.

Defective Leadwork

Water damage through defective leadwork

Defective Render

Cement-based renders are inadequately porous, so moisture trying to escape from masonry beneath gets trapped, freezes, and detaches the render. In this example, the masonry was painted with a waterproofing agent and coated in renders up to two inches (50mm) thick. As soon as the render was removed, the building began to dry. It will take a couple of frosty winters to remove the waterproofing agent before it can be wire-brushed and lime painted.

Face-Bedded Stone

The damage here is caused by the stone being laid the wrong way so the face spalls.

Physical damage

The instability of this building is caused by trees, in this case an overgrown Leylandii hedge.

Corroding iron is as capable of splitting stone as frost. The steel window lintel is lifting all the masonry above it.

More Case Studies

Smith & Garratt have acknowledged expertise with heritage property, regularly working on listed buildings and Scheduled Monuments. See some of our previous work.