If the crack through your brickwork steps down the mortar joints, you may be looking at ground movement rather than moisture — and that changes who you should be ringing.
Talk it throughRising Damp Newcastle arranges damp assessments across Newcastle and the Hunter.
Because getting it wrong is expensive in one direction and free in the other. Rising damp is your problem to pay for. Mine subsidence damage may be compensable. We would rather tell you to make a different phone call than sell you a damp course you do not need.
Subsidence Advisory NSW declares Mine Subsidence Districts — areas where there is a potential subsidence risk to buildings from planned, active or historic underground coal mining. In Newcastle those districts cover a great deal of the city, including parts of the CBD, Newcastle West, Wallsend and Lambton. Development inside a district is regulated for exactly this reason.
| Mine subsidence | Rising damp | |
|---|---|---|
| Pattern | Stepped cracking following the mortar joints, often diagonal | An even horizontal tide-mark, no cracking |
| Height | Anywhere, including above windows and at corners | Low — roughly 0.6m to 1.2m from the floor |
| Doors and windows | Sticking, out of square | Unaffected |
| Salt | None from the movement itself | White bloom, always |
| Who to call | Subsidence Advisory NSW | A damp specialist |
A crack lets water into a wall that was keeping it out. So a subsiding wall very often has a damp problem sitting on top of a structural one — and treating the damp while the ground keeps moving is money poured into a wall that will crack again. The structural question gets answered first.
If you have stepped cracking, check whether your property is in a declared district and talk to Subsidence Advisory NSW before you engage anyone for repairs. All buildings in NSW are eligible for compensation for mine subsidence damage, inside a district or not, provided the correct development approvals were obtained.
If what you have is a level tide-mark and salt rather than a stepped crack, it is damp, and that is what we can help with.
We arrange assessments across Newcastle and the lower Hunter, including:
Rising Damp Newcastle