The homeowner at this Prestons property had been watching the same problem grow for two years. Both external brick pillars on the front balcony were showing rising damp — paint peeling, brickwork deteriorating, moisture visibly climbing higher with every season. One pillar showed damage up to 900mm. The other had reached a full metre.

Two pillars. Both affected. Both getting worse.

Pillars are a different proposition to a flat wall. A wall has mass — moisture rises through a large volume of masonry and the damage spreads gradually. A pillar is exposed on all four sides. Moisture enters from the base and has nowhere to go but up. Evaporation happens faster across the exposed surfaces, which means salts are deposited more aggressively. The damage concentrates and accelerates.

South-west Sydney sits on reactive clay — soil that swells when wet and contracts when dry. Prestons is typical of the area: 1990s and 2000s brick homes on clay that never stops moving. The seasonal moisture cycle in the ground is constant, and any masonry element sitting on or near that ground without a functioning DPC will wick moisture upward until something stops it.

At 900mm and a full metre of damp rise, these pillars had been absorbing ground moisture for years. The damage was well beyond cosmetic — the brickwork itself was being shattered by salt crystallisation from within.

Each pillar was treated individually. Small holes were drilled at close intervals around the base of each pillar, and DampBlock™ — a silicone-based cream — was injected into the mortar course. The cream spreads through the surrounding masonry by capillary action and cures to form a continuous waterproof barrier, cutting off the moisture path from the ground.

Because pillars are exposed on all sides, the injection needed to encircle the full perimeter of each one — ensuring the barrier was complete and no moisture could bypass the treatment through an untreated face.

Both pillars were treated in a single visit — without removing a single brick, without scaffolding, and without affecting the balcony structure above.

The damp that had been climbing for two years was cut off at its source. The conditions that were destroying the brickwork — moisture rising, salts crystallising, the brick face blowing apart — no longer exist. Every DampBlock™ treatment is backed by a 20-year warranty. Seeing similar signs of rising damp? A free assessment measures the moisture and explains what damp proofing can do.