THE ruinous effects of damp, rot and mildew could become less prevalent among Bermuda's buildings.

A local company has discovered a cost-effective solution to the common problem, traditionally tackled through expensive ? and largely ineffective ? measures.

"Electro-osmosis has proven to be very successful," said Adam Hawley, director of Bermuda Project Managers Ltd., the company which is pioneering the solution.

"It has been tried and tested on old rubble walled buildings in the United Kingdom and Europe, where severe dampness has been caused over many years. We have a similar problem with Bermuda stone which is why we looked at electro-osmosis."

Bermuda Project Managers successfully used elector-osmosis to restore Campbell Corners, a 150-year-old building in Paget. Owned by the ACE Foundation and used as accommodation for business visitors to the island, one of the property's problems had been caused by the rising damp, a cause of decay in many of the island's older buildings.

"Bermuda stone is porous and will absorb water," Mr. Hawley explained. "The walls of homes built with Bermuda stone are not solid, but contain very small holes called pores or capillaries, into which water can pass.

"Older buildings tend to have a problem with rising damp and the nature of the stone can make this difficult to solve. It can bubble up and peel the paint off walls, destroy plasterwork, rot timber doors and wooden floors, push tiles off the walls and encourage fungus to grow. Traditional systems for tackling these problems are costly and often ineffective.

"The way electro-osmosis works is that a channel is cut horizontally along the wall, with deeper holes also drilled at intervals. A metal wire is set into the channel and mortar placed over it. This is then connected to an earth rod at one end and an electrical transformer at the other.

"A small constant electrical charge is sent through the line forming an invisible field which repels rising water by charging the wall to the polar opposite of the charge in the ground. The running cost of the electricity is less than a dollar per year as the electrical charge is so small."

Mr. Hawley added that the system could be installed with minimal disruption and, as such, he felt it had considerable potential for other properties on the island.