Damp! :(

NobodyImportant

Hi all,

Moved into a house built around 1880 in January of this year. Since we moved in, there was been a bit of damp in the kitchen walls (rising by the looks of it) but its gotten worse with the sopping wet June and higher temps, causing fungus’ to start growing on the skirting board. We have been slowly sealing up the holes in windows and doors all over the house, so it’s not breathing the way it used to (lesson learned, we will breathe it ourselves).

Anyway, the main issue seems to be in this photo. The extension of the house doesn’t have a DPC (being 1880) and the ground level outside is a good 1 foot above the ground level inside. The outside is just basically stones, on top of clay (no French drain or anything). There is plastic sheeting on top, but this is a terrible idea (I think) as the water either sits on it and never evaporates or blows away and just finds a gap to go down into the soil anyway.

So the plan: Dig a trench about 1 ½ to 2 foot wide, pretty much as deep as I can go, or a good foot at least under the ground level inside the house. Hopefully let it dry out for a week or two. Lay down a tough waterproof membrane and start pouring in concrete with a waterproofer and some structural steel to stop it cracking. This should hopefully stop the damp getting into the wall and foundations of the house. In the middle of this wall is a drain and we hope to point the water towards this drain also, so that any rain running down the wall or into this concrete area will run off into a drain. The rest of the area will be left as is, but I might remove the plastic layer on top of the stone/clay.

What do you all think? I don’t have a penny to rub together, even getting money to rent a mixer and buy sand/cement etc is going to be tough, so paying a damp proofing company to come in to inject the walls isn’t an option. I hope that just eliminating having wet soil piled up outside against the wall and replacing it with waterproof concrete will do the job just as well.

Thanks.

BryanF

NobodyImportant wrote: »

Hi all,

Moved into a house built around 1880 in January of this year. Since we moved in, there was been a bit of damp in the kitchen walls (rising by the looks of it) but its gotten worse with the sopping wet June and higher temps, causing fungus’ to start growing on the skirting board. We have been slowly sealing up the holes in windows and doors all over the house, so it’s not breathing the way it used to (lesson learned, we will breathe it ourselves).

Anyway, the main issue seems to be in this photo. The extension of the house doesn’t have a DPC (being 1880) and the ground level outside is a good 1 foot above the ground level inside. The outside is just basically stones, on top of clay (no French drain or anything). There is plastic sheeting on top, but this is a terrible idea (I think) as the water either sits on it and never evaporates or blows away and just finds a gap to go down into the soil anyway.

So the plan: Dig a trench about 1 ½ to 2 foot wide, pretty much as deep as I can go, or a good foot at least under the ground level inside the house. Hopefully let it dry out for a week or two. Lay down a tough waterproof membrane and start pouring in concrete with a waterproofer and some structural steel to stop it cracking. This should hopefully stop the damp getting into the wall and foundations of the house.

DPC = damp proof course generally assoc with a wall
DPM = damp proof membrane generally associated with a floor and doubling up as a radon barrier. is this waht you're proposing

have you looked a electro osmosis?

In the middle of this wall is a drain and we hope to point the water towards this drain also, so that any rain running down the wall or into this concrete area will run off into a drain. The rest of the area will be left as is, but I might remove the plastic layer on top of the stone/clay.

whats the wall build-up inside to outside? often times problem occur when a modwern material like plaster painted cememt render was used on a an old lime based wall that orgionally would have been limewashed

What do you all think? I don’t have a penny to rub together, even getting money to rent a mixer and buy sand/cement etc is going to be tough, so paying a damp proofing company to come in to inject the walls isn’t an option. I hope that just eliminating having wet soil piled up outside against the wall and replacing it with waterproof concrete will do the job just as well.

Thanks.

difinately do the French drain (carefully though, in stages, as you dont want structural issues... but I'm not sure about your logic re concrete floor stopping the moisture rising up your walls.. i'd be look at electro osmosis, and installing a min of 100mm HD insulation in the floor - 200mm if you have the depth.

best of luck

Markcheese

The back wall of my cottage is kind of similar , internal floor a lot lower than the external yard, and very damp ... So I dug down outside , a trench about 1 foot wide and as deep as I could go with a trenching spade... I figured that as long as there wasn't wet soil against the external wall higher than the floor, it'd be a good start, and once the trench wasn't too much lower than the floor inside then I'd prob be back to original levels and wouldn't undermine the wall ( no foundation ) . It definitely helped .... Loads of other problems though...
If your drains are deep enough you could put some gutter pipe in the bottom of trench and run it away from house/ to drain depending on the slope... If not it will prob drain away and not into wall anyway ... I covered top of trench with wooden panels so I could keep an eye/ dig out ect.

TopTec

NobodyImportant wrote: »

Hi all,

so paying a damp proofing company to come in to inject the walls isn’t an option.

Thanks.

Forget this it doesn't work and in a lot of cases makes the problem worse. What you are doing is a good start, eliminating the obvious. Taking any contact moisture away from the walls is the best option and taking that moisture away from footings is the best. I am in a similar boat to you but a year down the road, except that in places I have slate affixed, on the vertical plane, low down the exterior walls.

My other main problem was gloss paint over lime mortar on some of the exterior walls, both inside and outside.

By far the biggest result for me was replacing the old metal windows with modern double glazed. I have trickle vents which wick away a lot of moisture from inside and now that the cottage is warmer inside, most of the damp/mould has gone.

It took a long time to dry out the walls though, I have mostly stone but some block walls.

Good luck

TT

Markcheese

What are trickle vents ? On the window or the wall ? Have heard the injectable dpc is crap as well , but not sure about the electro- osmosis idea , presume it won't work if there's damp soil / concrete high up above wall ...
Like the slate idea , was going to use polystyrene where foundation for new extension are going to butt up against stone wall but may think slate now ... Hhhmm

NobodyImportant

BryanF wrote: »

but I'm not sure about your logic re concrete floor stopping the moisture rising up your walls.. i'd be look at electro osmosis, and installing a min of 100mm HD insulation in the floor - 200mm if you have the depth.

best of luck

Concrete laid with a waterproofer and a layer of DPM between the soil and the wall thats damp, should stop water penetrating. I've drawn some crude MS Paint drawings of what the plan is in 2D. The 3D version shows the concrete sloping slightly along the wall and into a drain.

Would slate be used instead of concrete? Like just slate the wall and maybe not have the soil levels so high? Worried of creating a basin for water to sit in too. Or have the soil back up against the slate?

TopTec

Markcheese wrote: »

What are trickle vents ? On the window or the wall ?

Yep, trickle vents on the window frames. I also have installed a vent in the bathroom. My cottage was unoccupied for a year so was really damp. Now I have stabilised all the issues, leaking valleys, build up of soil and crud against outside walls, leaking gutters and downpipes, awful metal windows with big gaps in them and the removal of a couple of concrete slabs against a bathroom wall the cottage is almost fully dry and damp free.

TT