So you need a damp proofing specialist?
There are several reasons why we occasionally need the help of a damp-proofing specialist. These can range from a damp patch on wall plaster; mould growing on walls and ceilings or, a pre house purchase damp survey.
By far the most effective way of finding any contractor is by recommendation and if you are lucky, a pal could have first hand connection with using a local damp proofing firm and that is always worth considering.
However, assuming that's not the case, how would you find a good firm and avoid the cowboy trader?
These days the web is the place we tend to start not to mention Google and Bing will throw up lots of firms, once you enter 'damp proofing'. But before believing all of the claims on company site like 'honest service', 'high quality workmanship' or 'fully qualified staff' it can pay to check a little deeper.
In saying this we must recognise that a lot of people haven't got hours and hours of time to spend pre-vetting a damp proofing company before engaging them, so some short cuts are justified (more often than not).
An easy short cut to pre-vetted damp proofing specialists
In the UK there's only one nationally recognised trade association for damp proofing contractors, therefore the Property Care Association is an excellent place to begin. The PCA have written standards they work to and companies have to meet these, and pass a strict financial, safe practices and insurance test before they are able to join. Better still, member firms are visited regularly and put through an unbiased quality audit.
Okay so the PCA want members and the members pay the associations running costs; should they threw them all out they'd be out of business, so can these checks be relied on?
On their own no, they can't; all organisation have the odd bad member and you could be unlucky and get the worst PCA member, as opposed to the best. The truth is though, by selecting a PCA damp proofing member, you are already weeding out the non-members, those who have been vetted by nobody. On balance, you've already increased the chances of finding a good damp proofing firm, that are qualified, financially sound and well insured.
Right, so now we've narrowed the field down and a quick search utilizing the PCA find a contractor widget on the PCA site will give you a summary of PCA members in your area.
That is the main shortlist of damp proofing firms complete but how can you really find a very good?
What next? Visit the web site of every in turn and also have a quick scan. These days building a web site is really a snip and a flashy site template with a few generic images and photos is common - this tells you hardly any about those behind the company.
Look deeper though... You are searching for some real facts; some sign of substance behind all that damp proofing gloss.
Clues to an excellent firm include images of the staff, the boss, his managers and key employees. If the firm is small, all the employees ought to be represented; after all, if you can find only ten or so, then each one of these represents 10% of the service package - check them out. It's hard for a shallow 'front' of a small business to fake this part.
Next consider the footer of the contact and website. In the UK it's the law that all company web pages must have the owner details shown. Things like the true holding company name and it's really registered company number and registered address. These allow you to check a firm's past records such as court cases and financial records at Companies House (that is free). If this information is missing then move ahead - the business know the law and when they're breaking it in this manner, there's a justification for it and they have something to hide - beware vendors who wear masks!
Customer testimonials are employed by many firms and it's true that what customers say about damp proofing specialists they've used, mean much more than what the management say. However, anyone can write a few glib sentences and call these a testimonial, so how is it possible to weed out the dodgy ones?
Once again it's a case of looking a little deeper; are there photographs of the happy clients? Are any commercial clients named (you can then check these exist with a simple internet search engine)? Commercial companies guard their brand and goodwill very carefully and most will have Google Alerts setup so that they see if anyone is using their name in vain. So if all of the testimonials on a traders site are from Mrs Smith or Mr Jones, with no real details - consider why.
Most sites these days will have a news section - this is key to getting beneath the skin of an organization. Is the news updated? Which kind of news is 'good' in the companies' eyes? If Additional reading about how great they are, without real depth then shy away. Consider, what would you want to put on your news pages in the event that you were owning a company? Think about the achievements of your staff? New certificates for training; awards for good service; any charity efforts and events? Needless to say you will have news about new services and jobs well done too - search for a real story which represents the efforts of several people behind the firm - that is always an excellent pointer to an ethical, good company. Should they care about their employees, they also care about their customers - both go together.
Accreditations are the next good pointer. In the UK the minimum generic accreditation to look for is TrustMark. TrustMark is a government sponsored group of basic consumer focused standards, which must be met by a company before they are able to display the logo. It's not fool proof, but if it's not there - why not? Meeting these minimum standards; having insurance, a complaints procedure, customer deposit protection and similar basic good practice should be easy to meet for just about any half-descent company.
In construction related activity in the united kingdom health and safety is growing in importance. Therefore the government has another sponsored scheme called CHAS. This stands for Construction Health and Safety Scheme. The CHAS logo is only displayed if the firm have met and so are seen to continue to meet basic safe practices standards, which are audited every year. CHAS is not hard to get, but once again, if it's missing be careful - the firm either never focus on real construction sites (where CHAS is mandatory), or they can not be bothered to accomplish the work to meet up the CHAS standard. If you use a firm without CHAS you may be inviting danger into your house or risking harm to others on the project - I'd avoid non CHAS members.
THE HOUSE Care Association is a must when i said, but needless to say we are only considering PCA member companies anyway.
Investors in People is also worth looking for. This is an established accreditation which is quite hard to win and also harder to maintain. IIP is only awarded when a firm can demonstrate commitment and good practice in eight areas, which revolve around staff engagement, training and development. We've all had poor service from bored, poorly motivated and underpaid staff. IIP is a method of checking that the damp proofing company really put their employees first, so you are likely to served by enthusiastic, well paid and well motivated people - I understand who I'd rather deal with.
Whilst we're about people why not check out the qualifications of individuals in the firm. In the united kingdom there are national qualifications for damp proofing surveyors and technicians. Search for the letters CSRT after the surveyor's names - this means Certificated Surveyor in Remedial Treatment and it implies that the surveyor has had his understanding of damp, timber defects and safe practices validated by independent examination. Anyone can call themselves a damp specialist surveyor - but are they? If they have CSRT after their name they're; if not then you will want to?
It's similar with the damp proofing installer; the people who actually perform the damp proofing on site. The Property Care Association run validated training for technicians and there is also a City and Guilds NVQ level 2 for damp and timber treatment technicians - ask if they have this.