David Hockey, BSc. (Hons), MRICS, CSRT, CSSW of Trace after recieving the CSSW award, with Brian Davison of Delta Membranes

David Hockey of Trace receives the PCA 2010 award for highest CSSW examination marks in the year, this after winning the 2009 award for CSRT, which brother James had also won in 2008.

Just had an email, as below, advising that David Hockey gained the highest EVER marks of any candidate in winning both the 2010-2011 examination award for CSSW for waterproofing design, already having won the award for CSRT, the examination for damp and rot in 2009-2010, this following James Hockey winning the same in 2008-2009.

27th February 2011

Dear George
David is to be congratulated to win both CSRT and CSSW awards. Our top candidate ever!
Very pleased that James and David will be attending the AGM and awards ceremony. We should try to be better behaved than we were last year and ensure that we go home with the right jackets!

Kind regards
Stephen Hodgson
General Manager
Property Care Association

By George Hockey

So much for rising damp!

Upon completing a remedial basement waterproofing contract in Highgate where liquid applied bitumen tanking had seriously failed (case study will be forthcoming on our web site), a neighbour requested a survey for basement conversion in her 1930’s property.

In discussing the project after inspection, the lady householder asked whether we undertook damp proofing and woodworm treatment, this because I mentioned that some evidence of woodworm was seen in a lintel within the basement, but that it showed no sign of recent activity.
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As a son joining the family business, it’s not easy finding ways to stand apart from your MD/Father, when he’s been such an exponent of the industry since starting the firm in 1974.

One such way is to do well in your exams, and as such I managed to win the CSRT (certificated surveyor in remedial treatments (damp, timber, wood boring insects) back in 2007, which is awarded to the highest schieving candidate in a given year.
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Yes we are Trace Basement Systems, but you can also call us Trace Remedial Building Services, under which moniker we have remedied general problems of dampness in buildings since 1974, this including wall-ties. 
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River Rooms, Mill & Old Swan, Minster Lovell

New case study up on the site illustrating works undertaken to address issues of dampness and water penetration at the River Rooms, the Mill & Old Swan, Minster Lovell.  Trace acted as main contractior on the scheme, managing the strip out, waterproofing and reinstatement works in-house, from design through to completion.  Full case study at http://www.tracebasementsystems.co.uk/mill-and-old-swan.php

Bolton Wanderers Training Ground Facility

New case studies going up on our site at the moment including a nice remedial waterproofing project at Bolton Wanderers training ground : http://www.tracebasementsystems.co.uk/bolton-wanderers-training-ground.php

It goes without saying, we are all huge Wanderers fans at Trace !

Our David Hockey, who in addition to holding the industry CSSW and CSRT qualifications, is an MRICS Chartered Building Surveyor, is doing a survey on a church in Birmingham today for Dave Tomlinson of Checkley & Co. http://www.checkleys.co.uk/, a practice of surveyors who took him on for a week when on school work experience, with Dave putting him up at his own house at that time, which must have been about sixteen years ago. My thanks Dave, George.

What can happen when you don't get it right - tanking failure.

When dealing with waterproofing and basement design, there are typically options in respect of the methods or ‘types’ of system that could be selected, with the objective of creating a dry basement which stays dry in the long term.

Different systems provide different levels of protection/risk and so what we are always interested in, is the lowest risk system.  This is because we provide guarantees on the systems that we install, and so would not survive in business for very long if we employed risky systems which required us to go back, and back and back, and believe me this happens to others, which perhaps explain why there are so many basement conversion/basement design companies which start up and then seemingly dissappear year after year (another blog post in itself)! 

So, we have to justify and explain our basement design choices to the clients and professionals involved in a given scheme, which we do time and time again, however it’s fantastic when a client just gets it, as experienced on an inspection yesterday.  

This chap had little in the way of construction knowledge, but securely grasped the principles explained to him in respect of why we do what we do.  He will get a dry basement. 

Although this should always be the case where a detailed explanation is given, we in some cases have to deal with preconceived notions of what ‘waterproofing’ is right for a given basement scheme, and it can be that the more an individual knows about construction, the more they believe they know about basement waterproofing, and the less willing they are to accept alternative ideas, even when this means a much more detailed and rationalised basement design process, versus simply choosing a product and shoehorning it into a given site and structure. 

The assumption that basement waterproofing design is a simple matter results in what must be millions of pounds of headache and remedial work each year, which the new BS8102 design guide (the UK waterproofing bible) deals with by repeatedly advising that waterproofing specialists (like Trace) should be involved in a project at the earliest stages.  

Looking back to my younger years, whenever I believed I knew it all, it wasn’t typically long until I was shown that I did not.  The lesson is, that an open mind is a vehicle for learning, and that where basement waterproofing is concerned, you do not want to learn this the hard way. 

…and furthermore, listen to the advice provided by those that will have to honour the guarantee, rather than those who simply profit whether it works or not (another blog post to write!).  Also see: http://blog.tracebasementsystems.co.uk/guarantees-not-worth-the-paper-they-are-printed-on 

Thanks for reading.