Tridentdamp Reviews 3

Trident Damp were great. I contacted several damp companies to sort out a problem in my flat, and Trident was the fastest to respond and the most reasonably priced. Joseph O'Regan came round next day when other companies were asking me to wait for a month! He didn't exaggerate the problem, showed huge knowledge and solved the problem quickly and efficiently. Bill was way lower than I expected and he was friendly too. Couldn't recommend him more.

We had Trident Damp come to complete a damp survey on our 1906 Edwardian Home prior to purchase in early '21 as a requirement by our mortgage provider. They were quick to respond and able to view the property the next day - which was great.

However, we were surprised to learn the results of our damp survey with substantial claims of rising damp throughout the entire ground floor of the house and even damp upstairs. Due to their report and their recommendations we had a retention of over £7000 on our mortgage.

The report is typical of a damp company, slurry the walls with waterproof slurry and a chemical damp course injection throughout etc... Not much investigation or consideration of the root cause.

We revisited the house a week prior to moving in and found a leaky radiator thermostat causing dampness behind the skirting on a wall (reported with rising damp). Also, the doors on the kitchen sink cupboard had collapsed inwards prompting us to investigate potential water damage, the neck of the tap was consistently leaking (for at least a year while the house was vacant and covered in limescale...) right against the main wall of the claimed damp and something that my inexperienced girlfriend spotted in about 2 seconds. The entire cabinet was rotten.

Fast forward to now, we've been in for 4 months, we fixed the tap and radiator valve within the first week and exposed areas of masonry to breathe which is absolutely bone dry.

Get Trident in again to try and review if our fixes have solved the issue so we can release the mortgage retention money and he brings out his damp meter showing readings of 99.9 - when asked what the reading means he says it's the highest reading. I ask him what the reading means, is it a percentage? parts per million? what is it? He couldn't answer... All I know is that we have walls with salt deposits in places from past issues that have never been decorated, and a guy walking around with a damp meter that he doesn't understand the readings of...

...Claiming that we have rising damp and that we need DPC injections and entire walls rendered with a waterproof slurry on a house that's built with lime and designed to be breathable.

If he came back and said he's not sure of the root cause, but would like to recommend charging us £x to perform some investigative works I'd have agreed. I'd like to know if past issues are resolved. But by recommending a solution when you don't know the problem, I've lost all respect for this company. And I'm not convinced the solution is even appropriate for the construction of our building.

Steer well clear - I'll consult an actual expert.

The main positive is that as far as I can tell for areas treated by Joseph and the team from Trident Damp, no damp returns. The company is also very responsive on emails.

The service has been disappointing, in our case they quoted for a larger area than they actually treated (presumably a mistake). Then when we had damp reappearing in an area that should have been treated they don't want to know, despite clear plans showing that the area was in the area I had paid for. At one point it was disputed whether I had a guarantee.

The plastering done by their team became lumpy within a couple of weeks (possibly our fault for painting over it too quickly), and there is a clear hairline crack running round the circumference of the treated area.

I've asked to have a conversation by phone but have been called a liar in an email and Joseph would not return my call. My communications have been polite and professional at all times. Joseph then U-turned, and within 5 days of raising a formal complaint our issue has been resolved to my complete satisfaction.

If you want to get a quote I'd recommend you get them to assess the area (don't fall into the trap of defining the area yourself, this is where we went wrong), check their treatment has covered the area quoted for, and treat the guarantee with a pinch of salt, we didn't find it easy claiming under guarantee.