Hi all,
When we first moved into the current house, and before I'd read on here about the nature of the damp-proofing industry, I got some damp men in to do the usual - injection, hacking back to the brickwork inside, then re-rendering and replastering. It's all been fine except where I rather stupidly cut back through the render to put in a couple of patresses for sockets. Around the sockets the emulsion is flaking away where dampness is coming through. This suggests to me that the injection is a load of baloney, and that what keeps the damp out is the render they use.
The question is how best to fix it. I could get them back in under the guarantee, but they'll just say it's my fault for putting the sockets in. I guess that what I really need to do is to hack back and redo the render around the areas in question, then replaster there. I guess I would need to surface-mount the sockets so that the render remains fully intact. Does this sound right? And can anyone tell me what ratio of sand to cement they use and what the magic damp-proofing ingredient is? Is this the right sort of stuff?