Damp retaining wall.

[brixtonhills]

Hello, i'm new here. Please be gentle.
Today me and a mate scraped all the tiles off the main wall in my kitchen, the one with the heavy double porcelain sink and 3m of units with a nice top on, that I don't really want to pull all out of the wall and disrupt the household of 4 members. The wall is a retaining wall for next door, my kitchen is 5ft down from ground level, ie the Victorian wall holds soil with shrubs that is 5ft higher on their side than mine. When we got the house in 1992 we tanked that wall, it was wet. We tiled it 20 yrs ago and the tiny little tiles have been falling out for a few years, then a couple of bigger ones "tented" right behind the sink so finally I ripped them all down. They lasted well. The bottom half of the wall is damp. The plaster was wet and soggy in the middle, a skim coat on the tanking render, we scraped the worst off. I know I need to pull the kitchen and sink out really, and put waterproof cement board on the wall, then put the kitchen back, but could I skim it with a cement and just tile it ? ? ? I have nice big tiles this time. I will be grateful for any advice.

 

[L95]

Adding cement to an already wet substrate isn't the best idea in the world in my opinion as it's just another layer that could fail.

 

[vinn]

As above, dont add to failure.

Is this a simple retaining wall or some kind of party wall?

You will have to now, or eventually, remove all units and hack off back to masonry - all previous remedial treatments having failed, and every chance of the units beggining to rot.

Why not post pics of the kitchen and the exterior?

 

[brixtonhills]

Thanks for that guys, I will post some pictures, we are enjoying the deconstructed old plaster look for the moment.