How is rising damp treated?

By installing a new damp proof course. DampBlock™ resin is injected into the mortar course at the base of the wall through small holes drilled at close intervals. The resin spreads through the masonry and cures to form a permanent barrier — replacing the DPC that failed. Most jobs are done in a single day, no digging, no bricks removed.

Will repainting or replastering fix rising damp?

No. Rising damp eats through new paint and plaster in months. The new plaster absorbs the same moisture, the same salts crystallise behind it, and within months the paint is flaking again. The moisture has to be stopped at the source — a new damp proof course — before any cosmetic work will last.

Can I just paint over rising damp?

Sealing paint and damp-blocking primers don’t stop rising damp — they trap the moisture inside the wall, which then breaks out a few months later either higher up or just past the painted edge. The salts keep crystallising behind the paint and the plaster keeps breaking down. If you’re going to leave it for now, mark the top of the damp line in pencil and date it — that way you can see how fast it’s climbing.

How long will it take for my walls to dry after treatment?

The DPC takes effect immediately, but the moisture already in the wall takes 6–12 months to dry out naturally. During that period some surface salt crystallisation is normal — it’s the residual moisture working its way out. A salt-retardant base coat is applied during treatment to manage it.

Why is rising damp more common in older homes?

Most Australian homes built before the 1980s either had no damp proof course at all, or had one made of bituminous felt or lead that has since broken down. Federation-era and pre-war cottages are the most exposed — the original DPC, if there ever was one, has had 80+ years to fail. Newer homes can still get rising damp if the DPC has been bridged by a raised garden bed, render over the course, or a concrete path poured against the wall.

Salt attack is the damage rising damp leaves behind. Ground salts are carried up into the wall by moisture, and as the wall dries they crystallise inside the brick and mortar — expanding, and turning solid masonry to powder. White streaks, crumbling bricks and render blowing off are the signs. Blocking the damp stops it; the salt-damaged plaster and mortar are then stripped, sealed and repointed on the same job.

Does home insurance cover rising damp?

Almost never. Australian home insurance treats rising damp as a maintenance issue rather than an insurable event — it’s gradual, the cause is the building’s own DPC failing, and there’s no sudden trigger to claim against. Some policies will cover damp damage from a defined event (a burst pipe washing under a wall, for example), but rising damp from a failed DPC is excluded by virtually every standard policy. Worth reading your policy wording rather than assuming.

Is DampBlock™ safe to use while I’m living in the house?

DampBlock™ is non-hazardous and completely odourless. No petrochemicals, no flammable materials, no harmful fumes — it releases only water vapour as it cures. Stay home the entire time; the technicians work around your schedule, and it’s safe for your family and pets.

Will the rising damp come back after treatment?

The DPC is permanent. DampBlock™ cures inside the masonry and does not break down over time. Once the barrier is in place, moisture from the ground can no longer travel upward through the wall. Every treatment is backed by a 20-year product and workmanship warranty. If rising damp returns, so do we.

Can rising damp treatment improve my property value?

Yes. Rising damp is a red flag in any building inspection. A treatment certificate with a 20-year warranty gives buyers confidence the issue has been permanently resolved — and the warranty transfers automatically if you sell.

DampBlock resin injection equipment treating rising damp at base of brick wall

Solutions

Rising damp treatment

A new damp proof course injected into the wall — no bricks out, done in a day. The wall dries, the salt stops, the smell goes.

Free assessment · 1–2 day repair · 20-year warranty
Structural Engineers · Licensed Builders · Skilled Technicians

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Rising damp treatment

A new damp proof course injected into the wall — no bricks out, done in a day. The wall dries, the salt stops, the smell goes.

Free quote · 1–2 day repair · 20-year warranty
Structural Engineers · Licensed Builders · Skilled Technicians

Solutions

Rising damp treatment

A new damp proof course injected into the wall — no bricks out, done in a day. The wall dries, the salt stops, the smell goes.

Free damp assessment with a fixed-price quote
Non-invasive — most treatments done in a single day
20-year product and workmanship warranty

Structural Engineers · Licensed Builders · Skilled Technicians

15,000+Homes Repaired

20-YearStructural Warranty

1–2 DaysMost Repairs

Trustpilot

Google

What is rising damp treatment?

Rising damp treatment puts a new damp proof course into a wall whose original one has failed — or never existed. The DPC is the barrier built into the brickwork just above ground level that stops moisture climbing through the masonry. When it goes, ground water rises through the tiny channels in the bricks and mortar, carrying salts with it. Treatment replaces the barrier so the wall can dry.

Here's what most homeowners don't realise: the damage you can see on the surface is only the beginning. Those salts crystallise inside the brickwork — right where the wall meets the foundation — and over time they turn solid mortar and brick to dust from the inside out.

Modern treatment is an injection, not a rebuild. DampBlock™ AQ50 goes into the mortar course through small holes drilled along the base of the wall and cures into a permanent DPC — without removing a single brick, in a single day. Once it's in, the wall above it starts drying, the salt stops, and the musty smell goes with it.

When is rising damp treatment needed?

Not every damp wall is rising damp. Condensation shows up high — around windows, on cold ceilings, worse in winter. A leaking pipe or a blocked gutter makes a patch that follows the water. Rising damp stays low, usually under a metre, with a tide mark that won't paint over.

The signs below are the ones that confirm it: paint blistering at the base of the wall, white salt streaks on the bricks, mould along the skirting, mortar that crumbles when you press it with a key. If you've repainted or replastered and it came back, that's rising damp announcing itself. Not sure what you're looking at? How to spot rising damp shows each sign up close — the flaking paint, the tide mark, the mould along the base of the wall — before anything gets painted over.

Treatment is needed when the barrier is the problem — a DPC that has worn out, been bridged by a raised garden bed or a path poured against the wall, or was never there (most homes built before the 1950s). Not sure which yours is? That's what the free assessment answers — moisture meters and thermal imaging map it on the spot.

What are the signs of rising damp?

Rising damp stays low — usually below one metre. These are the signs that confirm it.

Interior wall above skirting board with severe paint bubbling, blistering, and peeling with exposed substrate showing through

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.

External dark brickwork with white salt streaks running down through the mortar joints and across the face of the bricks

White Salt Deposits

Those white, chalky streaks on your brickwork are salt deposits left by rising damp — 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.

Interior wall beside a timber cabinet with brown and pink tide-mark stain creeping up from the base, plaster discolouring and peeling

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.

Interior corner at floor level with heavy black mould growth on walls above timber skirting boards and visible damage to skirting

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.

Brick pier at ground level with lower courses visibly darker and damp with mortar deterioration at the base

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.

What causes rising damp?

Rising damp always has a cause. Knowing yours changes everything about the fix.

Corroded bitumen damp proof course membrane in a brick wall allowing moisture through

Failed Damp Proof Course

When your home was built, a damp proof course — a layer of bitumen, plastic, slate, or tin — was installed in the walls to block moisture from the ground. But few DPCs last forever. Over decades, the membrane corrodes, cracks, or loses its seal. Water and salts get back into the masonry above. The DPC didn’t break overnight. It wore out doing its job until it couldn’t anymore. And rising damp begins.

Damp proof course installed at incorrect height failing to stop rising damp in a brick wall

Wrong Barrier Height

Rising damp rarely exceeds one metre in height — gravity wins. For a DPC to work, it needs to sit just above ground level, blocking moisture before it climbs. In many older homes, the barrier was installed higher than necessary or at the wrong point in the wall. The moisture bypasses it entirely. The DPC is there — it’s just in the wrong spot.

Bridging

Bridging happens when something allows moisture to bypass the DPC. A new garden bed raised above the barrier line. A patio poured against the wall. Render applied over the DPC. Landscape changes are the most common cause — the ground level goes up, and suddenly the barrier that worked for 30 years is below the soil line. Rising damp follows.

Older brick home with no damp proof course showing rising damp damage at the base of walls

No DPC at All

Homes built before the 1950s often have no damp proof course at all. The brick sits directly on the footing with nothing between the masonry and the ground. In inner-city Sydney, Melbourne, and older suburbs across the ACT, this is the most common cause of rising damp. There’s no barrier to fail — because there never was one.

The most common damp proof injection methods

Each method works in the right situation. But each comes with trade-offs worth understanding before you commit.

Chemical Injection DPC

A petrochemical-based solution is mechanically injected into the mortar course to form a moisture barrier. It works — but the chemicals are flammable, release harmful fumes during curing, and can leave lingering odours in your home for weeks. If you’re living in the house during treatment, expect dizziness and discomfort.

Silicone Cream DPC

A silicone-based cream is manually applied using hand tools. It’s odour-free and easy to install — popular with DIY enthusiasts. The limitation: low permeability means it only works on fully saturated walls. In Australia’s drier climates, the treatment struggles to reach deep enough into the masonry. A seasonal solution at best.

Physical DPC Replacement

Sections of the wall are cut through and a new physical membrane (usually polyethylene or lead) is inserted into the mortar bed. It’s thorough — but it’s slow, expensive, and disruptive. The wall is effectively sliced in half, one section at a time, then pinned and repointed. Weeks of work for a full house.

Electro-Osmotic Systems

Wires are embedded in the mortar and connected to a low-voltage power supply that reverses the capillary action drawing moisture upward. The science is sound in laboratory conditions. In practice, results are inconsistent — and the system needs power indefinitely. If it fails, the damp returns.

How much does rising damp treatment cost?

Most rising damp treatments with Buildfix land between $2,000 and $6,000. The length of wall affected sets most of it — one damp wall in a hallway is a different job to the whole ground floor of a terrace — and wall thickness and how far the moisture has climbed do the rest.

Every metre is measured at the free assessment and the quote is fixed. The price you see is the price you pay. The full breakdown is in the rising damp treatment cost guide.

The fixes that waste money

Replastering. The damp wall is replastered, painted, and looks fine for six months. Then the salt and moisture push back through the new plaster. The replaster fails the same way the old plaster did. Money down the drain.

Repointing. The mortar joints get tuckpointed and the work is good. But if salt and moisture are still moving up through the bricks, the new mortar gets eaten the same way the old mortar did. The bricklayer didn't do anything wrong — the cause was never touched.

Paint sealers, dehumidifiers and vents. Damp-blocking paint traps the moisture inside the wall, so the bricks crumble behind a surface that looks dry. A dehumidifier dries the air in the room, not the wall. The wall is being fed from below, and none of these touch the feed.

Rising damp is the one structural problem that does its real damage out of sight. Salt from the ground is carried up through the bricks, and as the moisture dries it crystallises inside the masonry — expanding, cracking, turning solid brick and mortar to dust where the wall meets the foundation. Homeowners often don't see how far it has gone until a brick crumbles in their hand.

Rising damp treatment with DampBlock™

Non-Invasive. Permanent. Guaranteed.

No Harmful Fumes. No Digging. Done in a Day.

Your walls are full of tiny channels called capillaries. When the original damp-proof course fails, ground moisture gets drawn upward through those capillaries naturally — carrying salts that crystallise inside the brickwork and destroy it from within. Damp proofing stops that cycle at its source.

DampBlock™ combines the highly permeable properties of chemical injections with the safety of non-hazardous silicone cream — a next-generation formula that targets affected areas precisely. The resin is injected into the centre of each brick through small holes drilled at close intervals along the base of each affected wall. It spreads through the masonry under low pressure, targeting the capillaries — the same channels the moisture uses to rise — and cures to form a permanent damp-proof course inside the wall itself. A brand-new DPC, without removing a single brick.

Once the moisture source is cut off, the wall dries naturally. Salt damage stops progressing. Damaged plaster is stripped back, a salt-retardant base coat applied, and the walls finished smooth, clean, and ready to paint. DampBlock™ permanently blocks rising damp without leaving behind any lingering odours or fumes.

Not sure if it's rising damp? That's what the free assessment is for.

How long does rising damp treatment take, and will it come back?

Most DampBlock™ treatments are done in a single day. Larger homes, or walls with heavy salt damage, take 2. The resin cures inside the masonry and the new DPC is working from that moment; the moisture already in the wall takes 6–12 months to dry out on its own.

The DPC is permanent. DampBlock™ doesn't break down, leach out or need power to keep working, and every treatment is backed by a written 20-year product and workmanship warranty. If rising damp returns, so do we.

Salt attack — what rising damp leaves behind

White, chalky streaks on the brickwork. Render blowing off in sheets. Mortar joints you can rake out with a finger. Bricks spalling at the base of the wall. That's salt attack — the ground salts rising damp carried into the wall, crystallising as the wall dries and breaking the masonry from the inside.

Blocking the damp stops the salt arriving. What's already in the wall is dealt with on the same job: salt-damaged plaster is stripped back, a salt-retardant base coat goes on, and weak, salt-eaten mortar is removed and deep repointed. The wall comes back to full strength and dries to a finish that's ready to paint.

What to expect

How rising damp treatment works — from assessment to completion.

Buildfix engineer assessing rising damp with electronic moisture meter

Step 1

Free Damp Assessment

A Buildfix engineer inspects your home with moisture meters and thermal imaging to map where the damp is, how high it’s risen, and what’s causing it. Is it rising damp, condensation, or a leak? That question gets answered here — with a clear explanation and a treatment plan on the spot.

Buildfix quote package showing damp proofing treatment plan, method statement, and fixed-price quote

Step 2

Get Your Fixed-Price Quote and Book

A complete quote package arrives — treatment plan, method statement, and a fixed-price quote. The price you see is the price you pay. When you’re ready, book through the online portal and suitable dates are organised for the work.

Buildfix technician injecting DampBlock resin into mortar course at base of brick wall

Step 3

DampBlock™ Damp Proofing Injection

Small holes are drilled at close intervals along the base of each affected wall. DampBlock™ resin is injected into the mortar course. The resin spreads through the masonry and cures to form a continuous, permanent damp proof course — a brand-new DPC, without removing a single brick. Non-toxic, odourless, and your family can stay home during the work.

Step 4

Receive Your 20-Year Warranty

Your 20-year product and workmanship warranty arrives via email with the Completion Package — a job report covering the work, materials, and images.

Rising damp blocked.
Guaranteed to last.

The benefits of DampBlock™ rising damp treatment.

Damp proofing isn’t the hassle it used to be. DampBlock™ is injected through small holes in the mortar — no digging, no wall cutting, no harmful chemicals. The resin spreads through the masonry’s capillaries and cures into a permanent DPC. Stay home the entire time.

DampBlock injected through small holes in mortar to create new damp proof course

Ready to stop the damp at the source? Book your free assessment to get started.

The lower floor of this Turramurra semi was overwhelmed with mould. Behind the 1970s skirting boards sat 1920s brick that had never had a damp course, drawing water from the ground for almost 100 years.

Read case study

“All of the Buildfix team have been easy to communicate with. Everyone was punctual and communicated arrival times well ahead of arrival.”

Scott HolmesMelbourne, VIC

“All of the Buildfix team have been easy to communicate with. Everyone was punctual and communicated arrival times well ahead of arrival.”

Scott HolmesMelbourne, VIC

“All of the Buildfix team have been easy to communicate with. Everyone was punctual and communicated arrival times well ahead of arrival.”

Scott HolmesMelbourne, VIC

“All of the Buildfix team have been easy to communicate with. Everyone was punctual and communicated arrival times well ahead of arrival.”

Scott HolmesMelbourne, VIC

Questions?

Our team is here to answer any questions you may have Monday – Friday 8am to 5pm AEST. Give us a call on 1300 854 115.

Rising damp shows up at the base of the wall — usually below one metre — and leaves salt stains, flaking paint, and crumbling mortar. Condensation shows up higher, often around windows and ceilings, and is worse in winter. If the damage is concentrated at the bottom of the wall and the mortar is breaking down, it’s almost certainly rising damp. A moisture meter test during the free assessment confirms it.

Rising damp treatment

What is rising damp treatment?

When is rising damp treatment needed?

What are the signs of rising damp?

Peeling or Bubbling Paint

White Salt Deposits

Tide Marks and Staining

Mould Around Skirting Boards

Crumbling Bricks

What causes rising damp?

Failed Damp Proof Course

Wrong Barrier Height

Bridging

No DPC at All

The most common damp proof injection methods

Chemical Injection DPC

Silicone Cream DPC

Physical DPC Replacement

Electro-Osmotic Systems

How much does rising damp treatment cost?

The fixes that waste money

Rising damp treatment with DampBlock™

How long does rising damp treatment take, and will it come back?

Salt attack — what rising damp leaves behind

What to expect

Free Damp Assessment

Get Your Fixed-Price Quote and Book

DampBlock™ Damp Proofing Injection

Receive Your 20-Year Warranty

Rising damp blocked.Guaranteed to last.

Non-Invasive

Residual Damp Blocked

Maintain Structural Strength

20-Year Warranty

Real homes. Real results.

Damp Attacking From Both Sides

Heritage Home Repaired Twice, Same Team

Crumbling Bricks No Bricklayer Could Fix

Rising Damp in Both Balcony Pillars

Fresh Tuckpointing Fell Out in Months

Terrace Walls Dried Out Without a Trench

Excess Moisture Removed From a 1920s Semi

Questions?

Ready to stop the damp permanently?

Ready to Stop the Damp Permanently?

Rising damp blocked.
Guaranteed to last.