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done properly. Check for wet rot—usually apparent from the ‘sponginess’ of the wood, which may also break away very easily. This rot must be treated because it will spread or lead to dry rot—which is more serious (see Rot ).

INSIDE CHECKS
     

Structural distortion
     
    Movement of the building may produce interior cracks in the plasterwork, distortion of door and window frames, slipped cracks in the corners of rooms (most noticeable when wallpaper looks stretched or torn). If the structure is actually sound, remedial work is mostly cosmetic. In severe cases, doors and windows will stick, glass in windows will break, and floors will slope. Changes in use of a building, heavy furniture or a whole library of books in an upstairs room will take their toll. So will changes in climate, which cause the internal timbers to expand and contract.

Support walls
     
    Home ‘improvers’ sometimes knock out a wall between two small rooms, to create a larger one. Careful checks must be made to see if you are removing a support wall.
    If the joists supporting the floor above (or in the loft space) run parallel to the wall, you are probably all right. However, if they run at right angles to the wall—or travel at right angles over the wall—then you are going to have to insert a special reinforced steel joist. In some cases a support pillar may be required to give extra strength.
    When you consider that the load on this wall may include the support of a roof brace, it is easy to imagine what would happen if the wall was removed!
    Check thoroughly. A wall which is not load-bearing on the ground floor might be positioned to help carry one of the upper floors of the building.

DAMP
     
    Damp conditions can be disastrous to your health, and distressing to live with. There are three main problems:

Rising damp
     
    Rising damp is caused by water soaking up from the ground into the walls. Most houses have a dampproof course to prevent this, but this barrier may be bridged on the outside (perhaps by a pile of earth), or on the inside (the plaster on the wall may have been taken down too far). In houses with cavity walls, debris may have accumulated at the bottom of the cavity.
    This problem must be checked very early on. Look for damp plaster and peeling wallpaper at or near floor level—although in severe cases there is no limit to how high the damp will rise. Skirtings, floor joists and floorboards may be damp or even rotten.

Penetrating damp
     
    Penetrating damp is more likely in older homes—or at least, buildings with solid walls. Cavity walls don’t tend to favour damp penetration, unless the cavity has been bridged. A full check must be made outside to try to find the point of entry.

Condensation
     
    Condensation—evident as water droplets on walls and ceilings, windows heavily laden with moisture, damp furnishings—is caused by warm, moisture-laden air coming into contact with cold, uninsulated surfaces. It is aggravated by bad ventilation. In severe cases mould may form, plaster walls may disintegrate, wood and furnishings may rot.

TESTS FOR DAMPNESS
     
    A moisture meter, which you may be able to hire, will not only tell you if a surface is damp—it will also tell you where the greatest concentration of moisture is located. This could be invaluable if you are having trouble locating the source of the damp. The meter has two pins which penetrate the damp surface and produce a reading.
    If you can’t decide whether a surface is damp or not—perhaps it is a cold external wall or a concrete floor—tape a sheet of polythene on a selected area. If there is a lot of moisture present in that area, droplets will form on the underside of the polythene sheet.
     
    Raising the temperature in a room increases the capacity of the air to hold moisture without condensing. But it’s a major battle against cold walls and windows which need insulating. Cold pipes should be generously lagged. In the desire to cut off draughts,