Raking out cavities

[timgstevens]

Hi all, In a couple of weeks I'm going to start on the second half of a project to eliminate damp from a relatives house. We elimianted the root cause already and got the front room done and dusted with no problem. Now were doing the back room.

The most hellish job though was raking out the cavities. I spent two days pulling all manner of stuff out with a combination of bits of bent metal, vac cleaners, and stuffing my arm as far as it would go. When people talk about raking cavities Its always come across as though there is a set tool for the job that you stick in there pull back and forth - job done. Is this true - anyone know of a specific tool? anyone got any good experience with a certain technique?

Thanks in advance ... Tim

[Phil L]

Having done this for quite a few months some years back, we had nothing more than steel rods which had a three inch by one inch 10mm steel plate welded on the end, and also some lengths of roofing (slating) batten.

The easiest way of course is to take out 7 or 8 bricks from the corners of the house....this way, an entire gable can be cleaned by removing minimal brickwork, - the roof battens can be belted in and will loosen most mortar and debris and push it to the ends, the rakes are used to pull it the rest of the way without inserting arms and subsequent removal of skin...obviously parts that have no corners to access are a PITA, but if you know someone who has welding kit, get them to make you a couple, one as long as you can get it, the other only 18 inches or so.

HTH

[Grumpy owd man]

May not be of any help, but...when I had to do this I removed the window [replaced on completion with a new one]. This hole gave good access but still required various hooks and sticks to reach the crud. HTH

[Mark]

Not easy is it, and I have done a few I use an old drain rod Gully grab fixed to a 6` length of flexible plastic conduit and a nice powerful vac cleaner. I don't think anyone could come up with an easy way of doing that job.

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[Ian_m]

Used a hired "oil drum" sized vacuum and various lengths of 32mm platic piping inserted into cavity. Had to use a 32mm -> 50mm adapter to connect to vacuum pipe but works well so damp problem disappear and air-bricks had air in them rather than piles of dust.