Signs of Rising Damp in Your Home?
Find the source, block rising damp permanently, and leave your home feeling damp-free — guaranteed for 20 years.
- Free quote · 1–2 day repair · 20-year warranty
- Structural Engineers · Licensed Builders · Skilled Technicians
Is Your Home Showing Signs of Rising Damp?
Find the source, block rising damp permanently, and leave your home feeling damp-free — guaranteed for 20 years.
- Free damp assessment with a fixed-price quote
- Most treatments completed in just 1–2 days
- Backed by a 20-year warranty
Qualified Engineers · Licensed Builders
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TrustpilotGoogleHow to Spot Rising Damp in Your Home
Your walls are made of porous materials — brick, mortar, concrete — and they’re full of tiny channels called capillaries. When those walls sit in contact with damp ground, moisture gets drawn upward through those capillaries naturally, climbing anywhere from half a metre to a metre above ground level. That’s rising damp — and here’s what it looks like.
Peeling or Bubbling Paint
Paint that blisters, flakes, or turns powdery near the base of your walls is one of the earliest visible signs of rising damp. If repainting only holds for a few months before the same thing happens again, the moisture is coming from inside the wall — not the surface. The damage typically starts at the base and works its way upward as the damp rises higher through the masonry.
White Salt Deposits
Those white, chalky streaks on your brickwork are salt deposits — called efflorescence. As moisture rises through the wall, it carries dissolved salts from the ground. When the water evaporates, the salts crystallise on the surface. Over time, they eat into mortar joints and weaken the masonry from the inside — even when the surface looks dry.
Tide Marks and Staining
A brown or pink stain creeping up the base of your walls is a telltale sign of rising damp. The stain follows the height the moisture has reached — usually between 300mm and a metre above ground level. It won’t wash off or paint over permanently, because the moisture keeps feeding it from below. The line may shift with the seasons as ground moisture levels change.
Mould Around Skirting Boards
Mould forming along skirting boards, in corners at floor level, or behind furniture against the wall is a common sign of rising damp. The moisture wicking up through the wall transfers into everything it touches — timber, carpet, underlay. Mould higher up on walls or around ceilings is usually a ventilation or condensation issue, not rising damp. Rising damp stays low.
Crumbling Bricks
When rising damp carries ground salts into your brickwork, the real damage happens inside the masonry. As moisture evaporates, those salts crystallise and expand — and the brick is no match for that pressure. Over time, the face of the brick starts to crack, flake, and crumble away. Once the surface breaks down, more moisture gets in and the cycle accelerates. If your bricks are spalling or turning to powder at the base, salt attack from rising damp is almost always the cause.
Engineered to stop rising damp at its source.
Non-Invasive. Permanent. Guaranteed.
Advanced Damp Proofing Technology. Developed for Australian Homes.
Damp proofing technology has come a long way. Physical DPC barriers came first — effective, but expensive and risky. Chemical injection was the next step — faster and less invasive, but petrochemical-based, flammable during application, and known for fumes that linger for weeks. Silicone cream followed as the safer, hand-applied option — non-toxic and odourless — but developed for European conditions where walls stay damp year-round, it only works on fully saturated masonry — making it unreliable in Australia's drier climate. It simply can't spread through the wall.
DampBlock™ is the next generation. It's an advanced aqueous emulsion that brings the penetrating effectiveness of chemical injection and the safety of silicone cream together — without the drawbacks of either. Non-toxic, completely odourless, and safe for your family and pets.
Our technicians drill small holes at close intervals along the base of each affected wall and inject DampBlock™ resin into the mortar course or the centre of the bricks. The resin spreads through the masonry by mechanical pressure, targeting the capillaries and setting to form a permanent damp-proof barrier — a brand-new DPC, without removing a single brick. The injection process typically takes a day or two.
Once the new DPC is in place, any damaged plaster, mortar, or masonry is repaired as a separate stage — so the injection and the repair work each get the attention they need.
Want to know exactly what your home needs? Get in touch for a free, no-obligation damp assessment.
What to expect
Here’s how we treat your home’s rising damp, from first visit to warranty.
Step 1Free Damp Assessment
Our engineers visit your property with professional moisture meters and thermal imaging to map where the damp is, how high it’s risen, and what’s causing it. You’ll get a clear explanation on the spot and a treatment plan tailored to your home — so you know exactly what’s involved before anything starts.
Step 2Get Quote and Book
You receive a complete quote package including a damp treatment plan, method statement, and a fixed-price quote — so you’ll know exactly what it’s going to cost. When you’re ready, book through our online portal (takes about 5 minutes) and we’ll organise suitable dates for the work.
Step 3DampBlock™ Injection
On the scheduled day, our technicians drill small holes at close intervals along the base of each affected wall and inject DampBlock™ resin into the mortar course or the centre of the bricks. The resin spreads through the masonry by mechanical pressure, targeting the capillaries and setting to form a permanent damp-proof barrier — a brand-new DPC, without removing a single brick.
Step 4Receive Your Warranty
After the work’s done and signed off, you’ll receive your Completion Package a few days later — a report covering the work carried out, materials used, and images from the process. It also includes your invoice with links to pay through our portal, and your warranty documentation.
Dry walls.
Guaranteed to last.
The benefits of a DampBlock™ damp treatment.
Every other fix you’ve tried — repainting, replastering, surface sealants — treats what you can see. DampBlock™ creates a new damp-proof course inside the wall itself, stopping the moisture from rising any further.
Why choose Buildfix?
Buildfix brings qualified engineers, licensed builders, skilled trades, and the manufacturer together under one roof. One team accountable for every step — from assessment to final sign-off. For nearly 15 years, we've been delivering non-invasive structural repairs — saving homeowners the hassle and costs of traditional methods. What used to take weeks now takes just 1 to 2 days.
Here’s why homeowners choose us
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Questions?
We are here to answer any questions you may have Monday – Friday 8am to 4pm AEST. Give us a call on 1300 854 115.
