Rising damp

I have a mid terrace house which only gets used at weekends. I recently noticed a small area (approx 1 foot above the skirting board) of damp plaster on an archway between the kitchen and the utility room.

I intend to chop this plaster back to the stone and I believe there is a chemical additive I can add to the cement mix to stop further damp.

What is this chemical please?

Reply to
john
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Waterproofing admixture, available in 2.5L containers from your local BM. Don't get it or the muck on your skin. That quantity is magnificently sufficient for your needs, an eggcupful would be nearer the mark!

Reply to
Chris Bacon

Its a stone house, so this is not an appropriate treatment. What will happen if you do this is the patch will spread.

If you hack the plster back, replace with lime plaster. This is porous enough to allow the damp to slowly dry out. Paint with porous paint, eg trade paint or distemper, not emulsion.

Pre-dpc buildings handle damp quite diffrently to new builds.

What would help most is to find the cause of the problem and fix it.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Why?

Reply to
Chris Bacon

Check for any leaking pipes first....(under the floorboards etc). May be worth removing the skirting, floorboards, cleaning the cr*p out of the floorspace and inspecting any slate DPC that may be on the foundation wall.

Reply to
Phil

Because the water needs some means of escape. Applying a waterproof coating will mean the water needs to spread further before it can escape.

The condensation could be caused by several things. It might be because it is unoccupied and unheated for long periods. It might be a leaking pipe. It might be penetrating damp, perhaps from piled up earth/concrete on the wall or broken guttering.

It might be because inappropriate plasters or cement base coats were used.

A modern brick/block house works very differently. The layers used are designed to work with each other, with the direction of water flow and heat differentials considered and catered for. Using modern materials designed for such a system and traditional stone masonry is very hit and miss, unless some serious thought is used. Just bunging modern waterproof materials onto a stone surface with no consideration for the type of stone isn't likely to be effective.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

Christian, please sort out your attributions when replying.

or it will be kept in, or it will spread so there's less unit dampness per unit area...

Who said it is condensation?

It's used at weekends.

Not condensation

Not condensation.

He hasn't said how old the house is - just that he wants to chop the "plaster" back to the "stone", and that there's an "archway". Perhaps he'll give some more info., or even a photo! Not much more to say without a bit more info.

So there's no such thing as tanking, then....

Reply to
Chris Bacon

Yes there is, provided you do so with consideration for the type of materials involved and have thought about it sufficiently to be sure that tanking is the correct solution.

Bunging on waterproof plaster with no thought as to the type of materials and the construction of the house is likely to lead to tears. Perhaps after consideration, such a treatment might be considered appropriate. Who knows?

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

Christian, is it you or your software that's munging the attributions like this?

Reply to
Chris Bacon

It normally looks fine when I read it back off the server. I noticed in the last one, the word "to" got wrapped, but this appears to be the only issue there. A quick investigation shows that it appears to have happened client side.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

I thought it might be Thunderbird, but a glance at Google ("show original") indicates not.

A reply by you to:

a writes: > b wrote: > > c said: > > > I'm c > > I'm b > I'm a CBs reply text here

seems to result in:

Reply to
Chris Bacon

Yes, I'm not a great fan of the

a wrote:

part. Basically because by the second or third poster, it's all cocked up and someone is claiming the wrong person said something scandalous. I know the missing attributions annoy some people, but I find the inevitable misattributions far more annoying and far too common.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

So you actually leave them out *deliberately*? That's really slack. IME mis-attributions are relatively infrequent. Not attributing anything at all spoils the thread as badly as combining top/bottom/middle posting. It's like a load of people in a dark room, speaking with similar voices, discussing something. You've no idea who said what.

Reply to
Chris Bacon

I got burnt a few times.

I find that misattributions are extraordinarily common.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

Why? Because it is stated in The Lime Lovers Handbook, a religious document you may not be familiar with

Reply to
Stuart Noble

So are anograms

Reply to
Stuart Noble

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