This is a special guest article written by the owner and operator of a studio in the UK. The UK has always had what’s known to the locals as the classic British weather.  This can be detrimental to buildings and property in the UK, and unfortunately this ground floor studio was suffering from damp related problems.  It’s thick concrete floor and brick walls were great for sound insolation, but when damp started to spread from the foundation of the building, it started to prove problematic, meaning that they needed a damp proof course.

The Story Of the Damp Proof Course

Our award-winning recording studio here in the outskirts of London is situated in a beautiful old building that never fails to impress our visitors.  We are on the ground floor, which is slightly recessed below street level.  The studio is almost perfect in everyway for recording.  It features a double laid concrete floor that then has another wooden floor on top, and all of the recording areas are rooms within rooms for maximum sonic shielding.  When the studio was put in, it was a requirement for the building owners that a space was left between the studio and the wall for inspection purposes.  The building was almost 200 years old, and had previous problems with damp in the past some 50 years ago.  So it was no surprise when the building surveyors told us that the damp problems had returned, and we would need to install a damp proof course.

Ignorance is Bliss

We had never really noticed an issue when we were tucked away in our beautiful wooden and carpeted studio rooms.  All we really noticed is that in the winter there was occasionally a bit of a smell, and the building owners always put it down to the age of the building.  Although we must say we are glad that they caught it when they did and decide to act on it, as it may have started to compromise the wooden interior of the studio.  They say ignorance is bliss, but in this case if we had been ignorant to the problem any longer we could have been in real trouble.

Ventilation

When the studio was first installed the decision was made to brick up a number of the windows on the ground floor.  This was not a huge problem, as a ventilation system was installed, however since this was around 10 years ago, it was apparent that it was not quite up to scratch and contributing to the damp issue.  The damp experts recommended that we upgraded the existing ventilation system to keep air moving through the building.  We made sure that an ultra-quiet fan was used so as not to bleed noise into the studio, and that it was placed far away.  The damp team made a series of air ducts to bring air into the building also.  With all of this work the studio would be able to live on.