Below the surface

What lies below the surface ?

The company has for many years been a trusted partner for several of the largest insurance companies regarding assessing damages and settlements, repairs and problems accruing in change of ownership.

Subsidence damages at ground level and below;

  • Design and preparation of moulding tasks, calculations, casting plans, sketches, etc.
  • Water and moisture intrusion above and below ground.
  • Drainage solutions like surface water collection, blocking of “dead” connections (rat nests), No-Dig solutions, CCTV, total drainage solutions or in short terms:
    Everything you can think of regarding what is going on under the surface.

We have achieved a significant specialist experience within:

Rules and regulations, all kind of tests such as pressure testing of drains, water mains, heating systems and much more, preparing and making of descriptions and reports, drafting of tenders and various descriptions, identification of suitable contractors, any kind of supervision, management, comprehensive advice, control, etc.


If the house is placed lower than the surrounding terrain - for example, patio, lawn or driveway - surface water will find its way towards the house. Surface water that is not directed away from the housing, may cause the foundation and facades to become soaked, or even worse it will find a way directly into the house.
Older houses from before the concrete time are particularly vulnerable. Their foundation and basement walls are typically made of hard-burnt bricks, where the risk of moisture penetration is greater than the foundations in concrete.

It will go completely wrong with huge damage to the house and possible health issues if the house has ventilation grilles at the height of terrain. This allows rainwater to run directly into the underfloor space.
Moisture and water on foundation, facades and basements can cause mould on the walls, fungus in wall coverings and in the floors, that again with a high risk of health issues.
You will often discover that you have the problems described above if the plaster or painting starts to peal of. If it does action needs to be taken immediately. 
If your socket or foundation already attacked by water, damp or moist there is a high risk for cracks when the frost kicks in and that again will lead to serious damages to not only your house but again can lead to serious health risks.

Do you have a high groundwater level?

If moisture and damp problems are caused by a high ground water level on your premises it won’t help you just to lead the surface water away from your walls surrounding your house. Here we need other and considerably more expensive measures to solve the problems. This could be to establish perimeter drains around the house or drain under the house.
If you suspect that your ground water level is high on your premises contact us for further investigation.

Which houses require special attention?

No matter what house you live in, it is important to make sure that the fall of the ground level leading away from the house is correct. However! Even if the fall is correct away from the house some houses requires special attention.

This applies to:

Houses with basement when the basement outer walls are very exposed to moisture from the ground. Older houses are often very sensitive to moisture. Especially if the basement walls are brick, moisture will be less able to get away as brick absorbs humidity.

Houses with thatched roofs are vulnerable. They have no gutter so that water from the roof flows directly into the ground next to the facade. If you have pavement or slaps around the house with thatched roof the dropping water from the roof will bounce back and up moisten both the ring and the outer wall.

Older houses with foundation of brick are very sensitive to moisture, and it also applies to the first houses that were built with concrete foundation. Not until the middle of 1900 the concrete were improved.

In addition, older farmhouses usually an old and fragile foundation. This means that these houses are extra moisture sensitive. A good solution for old country houses is often to put a wide range of special gravel or stones along the foundation and underneath dig down a special surface drainpipe that will lead the water away from the foundation and the house.

If moisture problems are extensive, and it is hard to find the cause of it, it's a good idea to get help from a structural advisor to help to solve problems and make suggestions for solutions.

Subsidence damages

Subsidence damage occurs because the soil under the house is unstable so that it exceeds or falls together, that causes the foundation to moves and the base subsequently cracks.

Pay particularly notice to conservatories and extensions. When buildings are not built at the same time, they most likely are built on different foundations, and buildings can “settle” differently. Therefore you will often see cracks in the socket where the two buildings are built together.

The same types of injuries are also seen in light boxes and outdoor staircases etc. Often you will notice cracks between the stairs and the base.

Water can very easily enter through these cracks. The water that enters through these cracks then spread out through the foundation and will end up as water damage or moist again leading to damp and fungus damages. It is therefore extremely important that if you see cracks in your stairway leading to a basement or cracks in you foundation that you take action before the damage runs out of control.

All subsidence work requires special knowledge and should ONLY be carried out by special trained staff. Calculations have to made, sketches for the casting, etc.

Subsidence work is NOT a do-it-yourself project and very often the insurance will cover a lot of the work and therefore it even more important that you contact Scanbau Ltd for guidance, we have several years of experience dealing with insurance companies and can make sure that you get the right service that will help you with whatever problems you are facing.

Moisture and Dampness

If you have problems with moisture and dampness in your home, it can be caused by many things. For example, roof leaks, leaky gutters or wells in need of maintenance or replacement. Or maybe the moisture is caused because of cracks in the basement walls, which again will allow the moist to rise up through the basement walls, floors and foundations and spread out to the rest of the house.

If the problem is caused from an inside damage it is usually caused by leaking pipes, drains or construction parts which are not installed or functioning correct.