One of the most famous architects of the Roman era was a man named Marcus Vitruvius Pollio – commonly known as Vitruvius. As well as architecture, Vitruvius appears to have been a soldier, civil engineer and author – this is only “appears to be” as there is very little information available about him, save for that featured in the only surviving work he published – “De Architectura”. (Commonly known nowadays as “The Ten Books of Architecture”).
His book is the only known important work from the period that focuses on architecture and was influential for many hundreds of years after it was first written in approximately 40 BC.
Alongside some of the things we take for granted in the modern world when it comes to building construction, Vitruvius discussed the type of surveying instruments he used, engineering machines such as cranes and hoists, and even a method for central heating to be incorporated within a building!
But the thing that we’re interested in here is the fact that even Vitruvius was aware of the issue of rising damp and included some suggestions in his work as to how a building should be constructed in order to prevent the phenomenon.
Fast forward to the Victorian era, and the problem is so widely-known about that an Act of Parliament was passed requiring new buildings to include a damp proof course to prevent it. Public health was a major issue for political reformers in Victorian times, and the improvement of the quality and safety of buildings formed a large part of what they set out to achieve.
And of course, everyone of a certain age will remember the TV comedy show “Rising Damp” from the 1970s – a show based on the mishaps and failures of a self-deluding, miserly private landlord who rents out rooms in a shabby, rundown house that suffers from the problem of the show’s title.
Even though the issue has been known about for a couple of thousand years, of course, it is still something that people generally don’t fully understand. Those of you wishing to have a proper in-depth understanding of the issue can review the findings in a paper published by the Royal Society in 2007 – Rising damp: capillary rise dynamics in walls.
The rest of us, though, can content ourselves with the knowledge that our specialists know everything there is to know about the causes and treatment of rising damp – something we’ve been successfully dealing with for over 50 years.
