We've got a brick garage (single brick walls). There are two damp problems
- Retaining wall for next door's garden. The close is built on a hill and next door's garden is about 500mm higher than the floor of the garage. When it rains very hard there's a gentle seep through the wall that pools on the floor - maximum 50mm of water, so not a lot.
I really don't want to mess around waterproofing the outside wall as it's not a big deal. Normally it wouldn't matter as we don't use the garage for much. However I was hoping to fit our old kitchen units into the garage today when I found out about this and there is enough water to blow them.
The good news is that this is on the wall that is to form the side of the run and is well below the height of the worktop, so it's only going to affect that one side.
I'm currently thinking of a bodge using a piece of perspex to protect the side of the unit, perhaps combined with some plastic sheeting under it. Or could an internal sealer paint be expected to hold up to this low-volume seeping? Even if it could, is it a good idea to effectively seal that damp into the brick?
- Driving rain seeps through wall. A bigger, but less urgent, issue is that when it rains hard the prevailing wind drives it through the other side wall. There are numerous seeps through, although this tends to just lead to really wet walls rather than pudddles on the floor.
What's best practice here? I'm happy to paint the inside and to treat the outside (presumably after everything has had a chance to dry), although I'd like the outside coat to keep the general look of unpainted brick. For example I've just used garage floor sealer and I'd be happy with that level of shade change to the brick but I wouldn't like to paint the exterior walls a colour.
Thanks.