Aqua Damp Wales in Argoed, Blackwood

My name is Andrew Helms and I'm a retired chartered surveyor based in South Wales. After watching a recent edition of Watchdog on BBC 1 where they investigated a corrupt Damp Proofing company the program topic of conversation was bought up at a local community project I'm involved in and it seemed that 4 people I'd spoken to had used a company and were all told they had the dreaded rising damp and it would cost on average £1500 - £3500 to rectify.

I guess the expression "you can't keep a old dog down" is correct because I was curious to know how so many homes could have issues with rising damp when it used to be a rare situation to be in, mainly because it was partly due to blocked guttering or poor maintenance. I inspected the properties where work had indeed been carried out and using a moisture meter I noted the readings down, after 2 months I attended again and noticed the walls were still wet. Upon further investigation of the 4 properties I found that two have defective gutters, and one is missing the lead from a porch roof causing damp.

At our next meeting the subject was bought up again and after an in depth conversation we was all surprised that the same Damp company had been used, Aqua-damp who is ran by a young gentleman call Ryan. Interested to learn more I contacted the governing body to see if he was legit and I was informed that although it is not a legal requirement to be registered any reputable company would be, sadly Aqua-damp was not listed. Iv since investigated Aqua-damp further and he claims to offer other forms of building work. I called to verify this with him and asked does he hold any formal qualifications in the services he offers, after avoiding my questions the phone call was ended.

I've done some more digging over the last 2 weeks and it would seem Mr Aquadamp has a different Monday to Friday job fixing commercial catering equipment. I find it hard to believe that a company can specialise in areas of remedial work but hold no qualifications and can only work on a Saturday or Sunday?

This review is solely to identify Ryan at Aqua-damp, the work he carried out was to a satisfactory standard but was misdiagnosed. The job could of been completed on one of the properties for £2.75 and not the £1570 he charged, I guess this is where the qualifications and experience matters. Although Ryan seemed to be able to speak all day about damp it was the same I had learned in 60 minutes off Google and youtube. The remedial works industry is booming since the recession, but sadly most of these people that offer the service started up over night with only basic DIY knowledge.

Thank you for reading my review.