Structural Drying in Hull

Why Hull houses dry slowly

More than half of Hull's homes are terraced, twice the national share, and a lot of them were built before 1919 with solid brick walls and no cavity. Water soaks into that brick and the lime plaster on it and moves outwards slowly. A modern cavity wall with plasterboard can be dry in days. A soaked Victorian party wall can take weeks, and it will look fine long before it is.

Floors vary too. Older terraces often have suspended timber floors with a void underneath where water sits unseen. Postwar semis and back extensions usually have solid concrete floors, which hold water in the screed and push it out under the skirting. Some interwar and postwar council houses are non-traditional builds, such as no-fines concrete or steel frame, and need checking before we cut into anything.

How we dry a building

1. Map the moisture. Meter readings across walls, floors and ceilings, marked on a plan so we know where the water went, not just where it started.
2. Open up what needs it. Lifting a floorboard or two, drilling small holes low in a stud wall, or pulling skirting so air can reach the wet material.
3. Set the equipment. Dehumidifiers to pull water out of the air, air movers across wet surfaces, and heat or floor-drying mats where a screed or void needs it.
4. Measure every visit. Readings at the same marked points each time, logged with dates, until each material is back to its normal level.
5. Sign off in writing. A drying record your insurer or loss adjuster can read, and the green light for repairs.

The drying record protects you

If damp or mould appears months after a repair, the first question will be whether the house was dry when it was plastered. Our readings answer that. Insurers increasingly expect this kind of record before they pay for reinstatement, and landlords need it if a tenant later reports damp.

Groundwater and slow water

In west Hull, where the clay over the chalk is thinner, the council notes that groundwater can rise through floors days or weeks after heavy rain. If a floor gets wet again after drying has started, tell us. It changes the plan, because the source is underneath rather than inside.

Drying is also where our flood restoration and burst pipe jobs spend most of their time. Repairs follow once it's done, see water damage repair.

For what drying and the repairs after it usually cost, and what insurance tends to pay, see our water damage cost guide.