advice sought - builder's idea for damp proofing a basement

I've just asked a builder for a quote on damp proofing a basement. The basement is in a house on a hill. One wall has earth behind it, two side walls are shared with next door, and one wall is at garden level with a window and door out.

We want to make the basement habitable and into a kitchen. The builder has suggested aquaseal and dry walling all round on the walls and asphalt on the floor.

How does this sound?

I wanted to get some opinions if anyone is happy to offer them. I wonder about dry walling and aquaseal as he is proposing nailing the membrane on and this will make holes. I wonder about the asphalt floor and why he hasn't suggested a plastic membrane and concrete. I am also concerned that the methods proposed does not seem to be a 'system' ie, a partial 'tanking' of the basement.

The basement does not appear to have a damp problem other than the usual damp air feel of an unused basement but I am concerned over the limits of his proposals.

How long/against what can i expect it to be effective?

tia

Antony

Reply to
Antony
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Why not ask your local friendly BCO? They are normally very helpful (not like planners who often hail from other planets) Bob

Reply to
Bob Minchin

Sir

There are special membranes for this sort of application, they fix between the wall and the wallboard, and allow the water to run down the gap, and be removed from the bottom.

The aquaseal may well work, it depends on how good a job you want .....

Rick

Reply to
Rick Dipper

Not a hope. You need a proper system that will isolate the room from the wall touching the wall, draining all water down and out. Not cheap but anything else will decay quite quickly. In this case the Aquaseal will most likely cause the wall to get damper and damper until the dampness either breaks through or begins to destroy the wall itself.

Reply to
G&M

Reply to
Harry Ziman

Asphalt floor waterproof ok. Other treatments depends on how bad the damp e.g. worst case possibility of water accumulating behind wall so that it runs in through cracks, best case - the ground may already be well drained and only need a light treatment inside to keep dry. In the worst case it needs the ultimate solution; tanking - asphalt on wall also, held in place by solid brick/block/concrete inner wall. A middle road is to apply dense cement render+waterproofer roughly cast onto cleaned up walls amd then rendered over as normal. It all depends

cheers

Jacob

Reply to
jacob

I'm thinking a dehumidifier would be the cheapest option, if thats what youre looking for.

Question for those that may know: must tanking be on the outside of the wall, or is it quite qworkable to waterproof the inside? I'm thinking of wall deterioration and possible freezing while wet.

Regards, NT

Reply to
N. Thornton

My reseach suggests that on the outside the water pushes the tanking onto the wall, and on the inside it pushes it off.

Rick

Reply to
Rick Dipper

Yup. Thinking about my prime question, I guess the answer is that if you can tank on the outside you do, but once its built one can only tank the interior, so you do. AFAIK tar is the longest lasting tanking.

Regards, NT

Reply to
N. Thornton

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