Most trades will not publish a price. Here are the ranges, and what moves you within them.
Talk it throughRising Damp Newcastle arranges damp assessments across Newcastle and the Hunter.
Nobody can price damp work properly over the phone, because the cost is set by what the wall is and what is already in it. A single-skin terrace wall, a rendered inter-war cavity wall and a heritage-listed sandstone facade are three different jobs. What we can give you is the range these land in around Newcastle before anyone visits.
The figures below are Newcastle figures, not a national average. A shared terrace wall costs more than a detached one — access is tighter, the wall dries from one side, and the work usually needs coordinating with next door. Any wall carrying years of salt also needs the render taken back and replaced with something breathable, and that replastering is often the larger half of the bill.
Two things move a Newcastle quote more than anything else: whether the wall is shared, and whether someone has already sealed it with a cement render or a plastic paint. Undoing a well-meant repair is common in the inner suburbs and it is not free, so the honest range is wider than most sites will admit to.
Prices assume ground-floor work on an accessible wall. Heritage listing, a party wall, or a floor that has to come up will all move the number, and each is common in exactly the suburbs where the damp is worst. You get a fixed figure after someone has looked.
These are the ranges we see quoted around Newcastle. They are wide on purpose. A single-skin cottage wall in Lambton and a double-brick party wall in Cooks Hill are the same line on this table and nowhere near the same job.
| Work | Indicative range | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Assessment and moisture survey | $250 - $450 | Readings taken at intervals up each affected wall, an external check of levels, lanes and downpipes, and a written finding. Where there is cracking it also says whether you should be calling Subsidence Advisory NSW instead. |
| Chemical damp-proof course, per metre | $170 - $330 | Injected into the mortar course. A shared terrace wall sits at the upper end because of access and because it can only be worked from one side. |
| Salt-retarding replaster, per square metre | $120 - $260 | Contaminated render off, breathable system on. Near the water this is rarely optional — the southerly loads the wall with salt from outside while the damp loads it from within. |
| Drainage and ground-level correction | $900 - $6,000 | Dropping a path, cutting a bed back, taking a downpipe away from the wall. On the terraces this often means the rear lane, where decades of resurfacing have raised the ground against the back wall. |
| Subfloor ventilation improvement | $1,200 - $4,500 | For the timber-floored cottages, where a closed subfloor holds moisture under the house. |
Prices are indicative ranges only. A terrace with a shared wall, a heritage-listed facade and an ordinary inter-war cottage all cost differently to treat, and every fixed price follows an on-site assessment.
The single biggest swing on a Newcastle quote. A party wall can normally only be drilled from one side, which means closer hole spacing, more material and more hours for the same run of wall. Budget for the top of the per-metre range on any terrace, and for a slower start while the neighbour is brought into it.
A double-brick wall costs roughly twice a single skin to treat, because the injection has to reach right through. Much of the pre-war housing here is solid double brick, so measure before you assume.
Replastering is frequently the larger half of the bill, and near the water it is almost always needed. Salt blown in off the southerly loads the render from the outside while the damp loads it from within. A Stockton or Carrington wall is rarely a course-only job.
Cement render or plastic paint has to come off. Renovated terraces are full of well-meant sealing work from the 1980s that now has to be removed before anything can be fixed.
A narrow rear lane in Cooks Hill or Wickham decides whether materials come in by trolley or by hand, and a heritage-listed facade in Newcastle East limits what can be cut at the front at all.
You can buy the kit. It usually fails because the diagnosis was wrong, or the salt already in the wall was never removed, so the tide-mark comes back through the new plaster. The chemical is the cheap part.
We arrange assessments across Newcastle and the lower Hunter, including:
Rising Damp Newcastle