The new oak sole plate is going in beautifully. I'm not DIYing that bit, but once Rick and co have left I shall wattle and daub it and build a plinth for the sole plate to sit on
Should I add a damp proof layer I wonder? There is no building reason to do so, they were not used in ye original timber frame construction and it is a technique which stood the test of time for 470 years on my house
In 1960 the house had a major refit which included replastering the walls in cement mortar. By 2004 the sole plate was rotten. The moral of the story is ...
Back to the damp course. Rick says I shouldn't put one next to the sole plate cos it will trap moisture and rot it, but there is no harm in putting one between two layers of bricks
So which will win out
The aesthetics of a purist say no damp course and if I add one then I will have to look at it for as long as I own the house
It might make the house more saleable. Not that I'm planning to sell it.
Anna
PS Pictures of the front of the house are being taken and with any luck will reach a website near you by sometime next week
-- ~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Plaster conservation, freehand modelling in lime / ^^ \ // Overmantels, pargeting etc |____|
When we did our hoiuse Anna, which was a new build, but done like wot an old buold would be dne like if they did it today,. we DPC'ed not only between the ground footings and the base of the plinth, but also between the plinth and sole plate.
You should NOT be getting water INTO the wll in teh first place, to rot teh sole plate. AND if its exposed internally, that's how it dries out.
A lot depneds on how the external wall is clad as well. We had to 'go modern' and have an external ply sheath, air gap, permeable paper and then expanded metal lath and cement render. The cement render is fully waterproof - or fairly fully - but a little more prone to cracking than teh lime, but the air gap allows any water to drain away down the outside of the ply, and breathe.
So as long as teh rate water is coming into te structure fro the odd leak and driven rain is exceeded by the rate at which it dries, thas no problem.
The next issue is whehther your plinths are damp proofed. The house I demilished o mnake this one had reasonable well injected plinths, omn teh outside wall, and this proved to have been fairly effective at stoppong rising damp from rotting the sole plates. Ther was consideravle old rot, but no signs of newer.
However in the internal spine walls that had not been injected we found sever rot - wet dry and death watch. One of the reasons we pulled it ALL down.
So my personal recommendation is that if you stop the leaks into the walls with a good render coat over whatever you need to do structurally
- lime if you want, but cement is fine IF THE WALL CAN BREATHE BY OTHER MEANS and if its not subject to large movements - then rising damp is the sole plates worst enemy. IF you have damp proofed the plinths, then yoo don't need a DPC under the beams. I have one, but its not really necessary. BUT if the plinths have no DPC you really should protect the wood from rising damp. You will end up with musty plinths, and any wood like floors in contact with them will rot, but not the sole plates.
If at all possible, inject the plinths. Everywhere. My old cotage was done, and it worked, where thy did it. Ultimately there were places that failed, and the whole chimney area was a huge sponge soaking up water from under the house - there was a lake under teh floor when we lifted it - and could niot be injected.
Your final tool in teh rising damp armoury is to buld a moat around the property and backfill it with a perforated pipe and gravel to make a french drain. And carry the outflow to a soakaway or ditch at a lower level. This effectively lowers the water table around the house and reduces the rsing damp enormously.
If it has survived this long then do it like they did it - it's obviously the right way. Re your mullioned window - did you say it was cut from one board i.e. pierced, in which case it might not have been a glazed window at all but more of a screen or grille, glazed later. This was common I understand.
Painted a damp concrete floor with no dpc with a clear waterproofing compound, and it did the job nicely. I mention that because this would give you a non-visible mans to protect the wood. Both advantages..
The old technique was to place the building a yard above the water table. I can't remember seeing one that wasn't built on a block of red sandstone that must at one time have been 3 feet clear of the surroundings.
The thing with the ancient method is that they were dismantleable so that if well looked after and not to badly improved, when in the centuries to come the foundation fails or needs bolstering, you could empty it, take it apart and shore up the substrate the rebuild it.
I've changed my mind now I've looked at it more. The mullion was cut from several pieces like normal its just that the join is not where I was expecting. It turns out to be a NORMOUS mullion - five feet wide and probably reaches right up to the eaves. I shall reinstate it one day but that will have to wait until it rises up the priority list which is at the moment looking like
Structural repairs
Insulation
Plumbing
The rest ...
I like the idea of a painted on dpc so I will investigate that one further. Ta
Wattle and daubing this weekend. On Monday I shall be back to twork for a rest.
Anna
-- ~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Plaster conservation, freehand modelling in lime / ^^ \ // Overmantels, pargeting etc |____|
There are a number of horizontal timber beams in the walls of my house, at the foot of each wall, and sometimes higher up as well. The structural engineer thinks they are tension members. The ones at the feet of the walls are bedded on some sort of mastic, long since dried up, probably ship's tar or some kind of bituminous product.
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