EXPERT ADVICE
Speak to builders or surveyors on site and the chances are the acronym ‘DPC’ will crop up before too long. There seems to be an unwritten assumption that everyone and their dog are blessed with an intuitive understanding of damp-proof courses. Yet this is a subject with the potential to generate enormous controversy, not least because in recent years vast sums of money have been wasted retrofitting poor-quality injected DPCs in the UK’s older housing stock.
WHAT IS A DAMP-PROOF COURSE?
In essence a damp-proof course (DPC) is simply an impermeable barrier to moisture incorporated in the lower main walls. In new construction, DPCs normally comprise long strips of black plastic laid within a mortar
