Hi All
I have an 1850's cottage where the ground floor to the rear, is built into the side of a hill. The property had major modernisation work in the 1970's including damproofing. I noticed that in one corner of a rear room, extensive damp to the floor and skirting. Can I apply anything to the floor and wall to stop the damp penetrating?
You could - but it will fail again. Also sealing the wall will cause deterioration as moisture will be held in it rather than being allowed to evaporate as the original builder intended.
You either need to get at the outside of the wall and seal it there or tank the inside so that any damp penetrating the wall is quicky removed.
Mmm. What is probably needed is to at least inject that part of te wall
- is it solid brick? - again to render it impervious, and possibly chip up the floor section and lay DPM.
Some potential use of damp proof render up teh inside of the wall to above ground height - so that water rsing upwards evaporates finally outwards rather than inwards - is indicated maybe as well.
Damp control is not an aboslute issue: Its more about getting it down to a level where condensation and efflorescence actually stop, especially when there is rottable wood in the vicinity, otherwise a modicum of damp is no big deal.
I have actually managed for a while to stop a carepte rotting on a damp concrete floor by slipping plastic supermarket bags under it. The damp then moved to the wall instead. :-)
Its hard to say whats going on here - detals of the wall and floor construction, and sooild heights and pictrures may be useful.
It may be no more complicated than moving a corner cupboard away to get more air circulation there.
The RICS recommends properties this old are not injected. As do SPAB and all the other conservation groups.
Agreed. Too many people try to get it to zero, usually on the recommendation of a building society 'surveyor', when just controlling it is the right thing to do.
Hi,
Have a search though the forums at:
First thing to check is that there are no problems outside, eg leaky gutters or blocked soakaways.
cheers, Pete.
Yes, well conservation grups like to preserve the nasty dampness. Part of the character.
There is certainly an issue in not suddenly changing things that have stood the test of time, without considering the implications, but frankly, been there, done that, on my old house - and injection, where it had been done, was very successful.
It couldn't cope with a 4 ft square brick chimney staning in an uunderfloor puddle though. Damp went behind it and came out higher up.
On brick walls tho, it did the job.
In this case withperesumable damp soil on te wall exterir above floor level, I'd say it was feasible. Or remiove the earth and run DPM up teh wall to above soil level.
Likewise ripping up a bit of floor and relaying over a membrane is no big deal.
Yes. Ventilation and huge central heating bills will preserve a damp prone structure allright. Got the bills to prove it.
It's nice however to get it below the level at which you need to blast it with hot dry air all teh winter.
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