Problems with Efflorescence

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Efflorescence is the white salt

Efflorescence is the white salt found on houses and property which we believe it is becoming more and more common, it is particularly noticeable on a red bricks but we also find it on light bricks although you have to look a bit more closely.

Example of efforescence to red brick

Why does Efflorescence occur, why is it becoming more common and how do you get rid of it?

Here we look at Efflorescence and what you can do about it, people consider it unsightly but is it really a problem?

Why does Efflorescence occur?

It is a natural phenomenon which is where the minerals in water as they dry out come to the surface of stone or brick and leave a white crystallised powder, almost flour like. On a red brick it can stand out considerably, almost appearing bright white on a lighter white or yellow brick it can almost disappear.

Why did efflorescence not occur in years gone by?

Efflorescence probably did occur in years gone by but we would say the art of bricklaying and stone laying had a lot more care and attention paid to it then. In modern times there is pressure on bricklayers to finish their work quickly with quantity being the focus rather than quality. In years gone by bricklayers or stone masons would not have worked on a bad weather day the brick or stone was covered up and work would be continued when the weather got better. Today's building contractors are often on price work or usually on price work sometimes known as piece work. This they do the work for a price regardless of how long it takes so of course they are more focused on making sure it takes the shortest time possible and any weather that gets in the way, so to speak, is worked through. In addition to this most building contracts are won by the lowest tender pressure (find me one that has not been won on lowest tender) so the bricklayer and the builder do not make money if the work is not carried out as quickly as possible. We often wonder what would happen as one of our Chartered Surveying colleagues says if building contractors such as bricklayers and stone masons were asked to give a price for doing the work and then afterwards asked for a price for doing the best possible job. Interestingly enough it is something as a trainee surveyor I wondered about but I don't think the building industry ready for this?

Storage of material has changed

Let's consider how the bricks or the stones are stored and how this means it is more likely that efflorescence is occurring. On many projects the main contractor buys the materials and the bricklayers are labour only therefore the people buying the materials, the bricks for example, are not the ones who ultimately lay them and therefore do not understand how things get effected in the same way. We have seen bricks stored terribly on building sites from directly onto the ground to an area where they are exposed to any rain, frost or snow. Bricks are stored twice generally first of all en mass when they come onto a project and later on when they are restacked next to the area where they are going to be laid. We have seen bricks left overnight unprotected during frosty weather and we would say as a Chartered Surveyor that this is getting more and more common.

Modern day building process does not allow quality to be the standard it forces quantity to be the standard

You can see that the modern day building process doesn't let us move towards a solution the quality which is turn is the cause of something like efflorescence in the building profession. There are various controls that are put in place when a property is built one of these is Building Regulations and the Codes of Practice however there is far bigger pressure on site, and we would argue the developers are pushing to complete the project to a set time scale, i.e. when they have purchasers in the housing market particularly during the recessions and also important during boom periods when they know they will have buyers but also very importantly in the commercial property market properties are sometimes built to order but often built on speculation so they are trying to time this with the arrival of a buyer so not too much cash is invested before they can then renegotiate with the banks that they have an end user. Some people say that the Local Authority, Building Control Department, Building Surveyors will help quality control check this or the NHBC. This is a very naive comment as both only appear at set times within the building process and within the Local Authority Building Controls own information that we recently received it advising you to have your own building surveyor to check the work. Regardless to this Building Regulations are a standard based around health and safety and fitness of the purpose, rather than aesthetics.

For example with Building Control we have recently called their technical advice help line a few times and were advised by the person at the end of the phone that they were only able to help with non technical matters. Which was an interesting comment considering it was the technical line, we did eventually get through to a very helpful Building Control Building Surveyor but it did take time. They are like lots of people in today's world, they are under considerable pressure and there is a lack of time and certainly efflorescence will not be top of their list of things to look for. You certainly should not rely on the Local Authority for a Quality Control check this will be carried out by the bricklayer themselves or their foreman, if they have one, or the developer subject to the time pressures we have mentioned previously. So we hope we have established the speed at which properties are being built and the focus on the developers and the lack of an independent checker is the reality of the standards that properties are being built to today.

If you see efflorescence on a property when you come to buy it, it is likely there have been relatively low standards on the site and what other problems could there be.

Is efflorescence on a building a sign of poor workmanship?

We would comment as Chartered Surveyors that when we do a building survey if there are signs of efflorescence this is a warning sign to us that we need to look very carefully to see the standards of workmanship because as we have explained it means that the bricks have not been stored correctly or the bricklayers have worked in bad weather or there are poor details to the brickwork.

Do developers/builders hide Efflorescence?

The first question you should ask yourself is, looking at the photo of what we call Efflorescence House, would efflorescence put you off buying a property? To many people it does and it is a blemish and therefore the builders/developers/architects etc wish to hide this when they come to sell it. They can use various chemicals to resolve this problem, we will term these as efflorescence brick cleaners such as Aldon Efflorescence Treatment, UGL's Drylock and ProSoCo Sure Klean but this does not necessarily stop it because of the different ways efflorescence can be caused. You will note earlier in the article it is about the minerals in the water coming to the surface, you now need to look at what is the source of the minerals coming to the surface within the water? The original cause would be, as mentioned, the materials were wet when put in place and were built when it was raining and therefore absorbed a lot of moisture and this is literally coming to the surface and therefore will come to an end. Or alternatively it could be resulting from a construction detail that allows water to come through the material, in this case even if you used a brick cleaner or a soft brush, as we would recommend, it would only be a temporary solution.

How do efflorescence brick cleaners work?

This is the parapet wall detail where

efflorescence can be seen in the top course

of semi-engineering bricks (the blue or dark bricks)

First of all efflorescence brick cleaners do work very quickly and we feel that they have been used to disguise the problems of efflorescence to help the sale of some properties. From what we understand efflorescence brick cleaners put a layer within the brickwork which causes a barrier and allows the water through but not the minerals from the water. It can only be argued that where efflorescence occurs after the efflorescence brick cleaner was used this was from salts that were in front of the brick cleaning system. So the term cleaning is probably not correct when talking about it, it is more an efflorescence barrier.

A bit more of what efflorescence is

It is best to describe it as a crystal or powder like deposit on the surface of brickwork which is white and sometimes it appears as bright white, particularly when it is on a red brick and sometimes almost a dull white when it appears on a lighter coloured brick. It does not necessarily need to be on bricks, it can be on tiles or stucco or concrete, it simply needs a source of water. We mentioned that it could be due to poor detailing and we have seen parapet walls on relatively new properties which have efflorescence. These allow water through from both sides of the wall as there is not a damp proof detailing within, it as it should have in our opinion, and this is causing efflorescence reoccurring even though it has been brushed away.

Efflorescence from a wall that is constantly getting damp. You can see from this photo that the efflorescence has appeared a ground level, this is because the paving slabs have been positioned on the original ground level and therefore reduce the damp proof cause level allowing rain to splash back up onto the walls and therefore keeping it constantly damp. This therefore results in the problems that you can see.

How do you get rid of efflorescence when you have got it?

We believe that the best results, although not the quickest, as you have to put up with the unsightliness of the efflorescence, is to use a soft brush repeatedly. This can be awkward, particularly where the efflorescence is at high level, and some would say that growing a nice plant in front of it is also a good answer! The true answer is for the quality of the original workmanship to have been better. We would comment if you can see efflorescence then it may well mean that the other standards of work in the property are not very good therefore you should proceed with caution or proceed with a Chartered Surveyor. We would be more than happy of course to help you.

Does efflorescence affect the value of my house and does it stop me from selling my house?

If you look at what we have termed Efflorescence House we would argue that in some cases the efflorescence is so bad that it is off putting and whilst you can argue that technically the building is still wind, water tight etc it is hard to love it as a home with this effect. It should be remembered that this effect may not just be for a year it could be for years and we have recently looked at a property with efflorescence problems that was ten years old. You can resolve this in some cases where there is a poor construction detail or where there is a source of water such as from a downpipe that can be redirected and construction detail can be altered, however if it is over the entire house, such as you can see on Efflorescence House, we would argue that it does de-value the property. One of the factors in the value of a property is the aesthetics of it being pleasant to the eye.

Let me introduce you now to what we call Efflorescence House

Independent Chartered Surveyors

Commercial Property

We hope you found the article of use and if you have any experiences that you feel should be added to this article that would benefit others, or you feel that some of the information that we have put is wrong then please do not hesitate to contact us (we are only human).

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