So you will need a damp proofing specialist?
There are several reasons why we occasionally need assistance from 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 easiest way of finding any contractor is by recommendation and when you are lucky, a friend will have first hand connection with utilizing a local damp proofing firm and that is always worth looking at.
However, assuming that's not the case, how would you look for a good firm and avoid the cowboy trader?
These days the net is the place we tend to start and of course Google and Bing will provide lots of firms, when you type in 'damp proofing'. But before believing all of the claims on company internet site like 'honest service', 'high quality workmanship' or 'fully qualified staff' it could pay to look a little deeper.
In saying this we need to recognise that most 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 (most of the time).
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, so the Property Care Association is an excellent place to start. 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 subjected to an independent quality audit.
Okay so the PCA want members and the members pay the associations running costs; should they threw all of them out they'd be out of business, so can these checks be relied on?
By themselves no, they can't; all organisation have the odd bad member and you could be unlucky and obtain the worst PCA member, as opposed to the best. Damp Proofing Dalton In Furness is though, by selecting a PCA damp proofing member, you're 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 internet site will give you a list of PCA members in your area.
That is the main shortlist of damp proofing firms complete but how can you really find the best?
What next? Visit the web site of each in turn and also have a quick scan. These days building a internet site is a snip and a flashy site template with several generic images and photos is common - this lets you know hardly any about those behind the company.
Look deeper though... You are interested in 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; in the end, if there are only ten or so, then each one represents 10% of the service package - check them out. It's hard for a shallow 'front' of a business to fake this part.
Next consider the footer of the contact and home page. In the UK it's the law that company web pages will need to have the dog owner details shown. Things like the true holding company name and it's really registered company number and registered address. These enable you to check a firm's past records such as court cases and financial records at Companies House (this is free). If these details is missing then move on - the company know the law and when they are breaking it in this way, there's a justification for it and they have something to hide - beware vendors who wear masks!
Customer testimonials are used by many firms and it's really true that what customers say about damp proofing specialists they've used, mean a lot more than what the management say. However, anyone can write a few glib sentences and call these a testimonial, just how is it possible to weed out the dodgy ones?
Once again it's a case of looking just a little deeper; are there photographs of these happy clients? Are any commercial clients named (after that you can check these exist with a straightforward search engine)? Commercial companies guard their brand and goodwill meticulously and most could have Google Alerts create so they see if anyone is utilizing their name in vain. So if all of the testimonials on a traders site are from Mrs Smith or Mr Jones, without real details - ask yourself why.
Most sites nowadays could have a news section - this is key to getting under the skin of a company. Is the news up to date? What sort of news is 'good' in the companies' eyes? Whether it's about how great they're, without real depth then shy away. Just think, what would you want to put on your news pages if you were owning a company? How about the achievements of one's staff? New certificates for training; awards for good service; any charity efforts and events? Of course you will have news about new services and jobs done well too - look for a real story which represents the efforts of several people behind the firm - this is always a good pointer to an ethical, good company. If they care about their staff, they also value their customers - the two go hand in hand.
Accreditations are the next good pointer. In the UK the minimum generic accreditation to find is TrustMark. TrustMark is really a government sponsored group of basic consumer focused standards, which should be met by a company before they are able to display the logo. It isn't 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 ought to 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. So the government has another sponsored scheme called CHAS. This means Construction Health and Safety Scheme. The CHAS logo is only displayed if the firm have met and so are seen to continue to meet up basic health and safety standards, which are audited each year. CHAS is easy to get, but once more, if it's missing be very careful - the firm either never work on real construction sites (where CHAS is mandatory), or they can not be bothered to accomplish the work to meet the CHAS standard. If you are using a company without CHAS you could be inviting danger into your home or risking injury to others on the project - I'd avoid non CHAS members.
THE HOUSE Care Association is a must as I said, but needless to say we are only looking at PCA member companies anyway.
Investors in People is also worth looking for. That is an established accreditation that 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 on the subject of people why not check out the qualifications of the people in the firm. In the united kingdom you can find national qualifications for damp proofing surveyors and technicians. Look for the letters CSRT after the surveyor's names - this stands for Certificated Surveyor in Remedial Treatment also it demonstrates the surveyor has already established 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 guys who actually perform the damp proofing on site. The Property Care Association run validated training for technicians and gleam City and Guilds NVQ level 2 for damp and timber treatment technicians - ask should they have this.