Investigate · Treat · Repair · Finish
Damp Proofing Altea
Damp proofing for Altea old town houses, hillside villas, underbuilds and apartments — starting with where the water is coming from.
Altea has two quite separate building stocks within a few minutes of each other, and they hold damp in opposite ways.
The old town is terraced houses on steep narrow streets, built long before anyone thought about a damp proof course, with party walls on both sides and ground floors cut into the slope. Above the town, Altea Hills is modern villas on very steep plots with underbuilds and retaining walls doing serious work. Inland, Altea la Vella is an older village again, with traditional houses alongside newer building.
So a survey here starts by establishing which kind of building we are standing in, because very little transfers between them.
The old town
Town Houses on the Hill
A house in the Casco Antiguo typically has one or two external walls and party walls either side, a small footprint, and a ground floor sitting against rising ground at the back.
That combination produces damp at floor level, blown plaster, salt deposits coming through paint, and a musty smell that redecoration never shifts. It also produces a lot of condensation, because there is very little through ventilation in a house with walls on two sides and windows on one.
Telling those two apart is the first job. Ground moisture and condensation can produce damage that looks similar at a glance, and the treatments have nothing in common.
These are old walls, too, so we are careful about what gets applied to them. Sealing one face of a wall built to let moisture evaporate tends to move the problem along it rather than remove it.
Altea Hills
Villas on Very Steep Plots
The villas above the town sit on some of the steepest plots on this coast. Nearly all of them have a lower level built into the hillside, with retaining walls holding back rock and soil.
Where the buried face of a retaining wall was not properly protected when it was built — or where the protection has simply aged out — water pushes through laterally into the garage, the underbuild or the lowest floor of the house.
We look at the drainage as well as the wall, because on a plot like that a lot can be achieved by taking water away from the structure before it ever gets the chance to push against it.
Making good
Damp Treatment and the Repair Afterwards
Treating the damp is rarely the end of it. There is plaster to take off and replace, render to repair, decorating to redo and sometimes flooring to lift and reinstate.
Because Dragon Reforms carries out complete renovations, that work is part of the same job rather than a second trade brought in afterwards. On an old Altea town house in particular, the making good needs to suit the wall it is going onto — which is a decision, not a default.
How it works
How a Damp Survey in Altea Works
In the old town the useful question is usually how the damp behaves through the year: a wall that is worst in winter and improves in summer is pointing at condensation, while one that barely changes is pointing at the ground.
From there we say what we think is causing it and recommend something proportionate — occasionally a smaller job than expected. Diagnosis → Treatment → Repair → Finishing, with the replastering and decorating afterwards part of the same job. The survey and the quotation cost you nothing, and the work is guaranteed.
Questions
Damp Proofing Altea — Common Questions
Can you treat damp in an Altea old town house?
Yes. Houses in the Casco Antiguo are assessed on their own construction - old walls, party walls on both sides and very limited ventilation - rather than treated as if they were modern cavity-built houses.
There is black mould in the corners of our Altea apartment. Is that rising damp?
Usually not. Mould in ceiling corners, around windows and behind furniture on an outside wall generally points at condensation and ventilation. It is worth establishing that before paying for a damp proof course the property may not need.
Do you work on the villas in Altea Hills?
Yes. The underbuilds and retaining walls on those steep plots are a regular part of the lateral damp and tanking work we do.
Across the area
Damp Proofing in the Surrounding Towns
Altea is one of nine towns with its own damp proofing page. The main Damp Proofing Costa Blanca page covers every treatment in full.
Damp Proofing Calpe
Damp surveys, waterproofing and remedial building work in Calpe and the surrounding area.
View Calpe →Damp Proofing Benidorm
Damp surveys, waterproofing and remedial building work in Benidorm and the surrounding area.
View Benidorm →Damp Proofing La Nucía
Damp surveys, waterproofing and remedial building work in La Nucía and the surrounding area.
View La Nucía →Damp Proofing Finestrat
Damp surveys, waterproofing and remedial building work in Finestrat and the surrounding area.
View Finestrat →Damp Proofing Villajoyosa
Damp surveys, waterproofing and remedial building work in Villajoyosa and the surrounding area.
View Villajoyosa →Damp Proofing Alfaz del Pi & Albir
Damp surveys, waterproofing and remedial building work in Alfaz del Pi & Albir and the surrounding area.
View Alfaz del Pi & Albir →Damp Proofing Polop
Damp surveys, waterproofing and remedial building work in Polop and the surrounding area.
View Polop →Damp Proofing Callosa d'en Sarrià
Damp surveys, waterproofing and remedial building work in Callosa d'en Sarrià and the surrounding area.
View Callosa d'en Sarrià →Get in touch
Damp, Mould or Water Coming In — in Altea?
If you have damp, black mould, peeling paint, blown plaster or a musty smell that keeps coming back in a Altea property, we will come and look at it and tell you what we think is causing it.
Villa, finca, town house, apartment or underbuild.
More from Dragon Reforms
Other Services in Altea
Everything Dragon Reforms does in Altea, each with its own page.
- Property Renovations Altea
- Kitchen Renovations Altea
- Bathroom Renovations Altea
- Villa Renovations Altea
- Apartment Reforms Altea
- Finca Renovations Altea
- Builders Altea
- Terrace Renovations Altea
- Plumbing Services Altea
- Electrical Services Altea
- Carpentry Services Altea
- Painting & Plastering Altea
- Windows & Doors Altea
- Air Conditioning Altea
- Disability Living Altea
Get a quote
Get Your Free Damp Survey and Quotation
Tell us where the damp is and what the property is. We cover Altea and the surrounding north Costa Blanca, and the survey and quotation cost you nothing.
- Phone
- 0034 639917798
0034 669261858 - +34 639 91 77 98
- dragonreforms@gmail.com
- Address
- Calle San Isidre No 8, Pl 1 Dr
03510 Callosa de Ensarrià, Alicante - Hours
- Monday to Saturday, 9am–8pm