Internal damp stone walls

[pyewacket]

I have very old property. No damp course. 'solid' stone walls up to 3 feet thick in places. Not externally rendered. Problem - had a sparks do some wiring approx 5 years ago. I asked for surface mounted because of difficulty hacking out stone, it was only moving a socket. He insisted it be buried cabling and proceeded to hack a huge channel in the wall. He hacked so deep it breached the infill. (the stone wall construction is large stones inner and outer walls with smaller stone infill). He then filled over the plastick trunking with a sort of readymix multi mortar. This was then plastered over. Since then, every time it rains water literally pours in, running down the inside of the wall. sometimes it runs out of the electrical socket he istalled, which means the trunking must have filled with water. Yes, the trip switch goes. A couple of months after he did the work all the plaster fell off the wall and I had to have it replastered. A year later, had it replastered again. Have looked all over the outside of the property but cannot see any crack, hole etc where the water could be getting in and we did not have a problem prior to the wiring work. I am assuming that prior to the work the water was dispersing down the infill to the ground but since the internal stone layer was breached it is now finding an easier route along the trunking. Originally the sparks denied any fault, then his phone numbers changed now he has disappeared all together. So how can I fix this? He also did other work for me in an extension (breezeblock construction) and I have damp coming in where he hacked down the side of a window frame. Basically, how can I fix the first problem i.e. the damp in the front room?

 

[JohnD]

Just brainstorming here...

The wall should not be full of water anyway.

Is there a faulty gutter or downpipe or hopper, or leaking roof, or windowsill, where the water could be getting into the wall? Presumably high up? Surely there must be? Is there any possibility that rainwater pipes have been run inside the wall? If you experiment with a hosepipe, can you replicate the fault?

Is there a possibility that water is rising in the ground, e.g. if you are in a dip?

If you drill some holes in the outside wall, near ground level, will it drain the wall?

As a not-very-satisfactory expedient, if you move the socket so that it is higher than the chase and the leak, I suppose water would tend not to flow uphill into it.

 

[pyewacket]

Hi,
We live 600 ft above sea level up a hill.
The chasing for the cable goes up to the ceiling, so cant move the socket higher.
We thought of the window sills, gutter and roof and all have been checked ok.
There are no pipes in the wall.
We have been told the water could be coming from anywhere on the front of the house and trickling down and along. We have looked and looked for any point of ingress but it cannot be determined. We have been trying to solve this problem for 5 years now!

I cannot duplicate with hosepipe. I tried this in the area of the leak but to no avail. How would I do it with the whole house front?

I have checked right up at the top of the wall under the roof but it is all bone dry.

Aarrghh.

 

[Nige F]

What a bugger .....now I`m usually a fan of old fashioned lime and stuff BUT I think that a modern repair using resin.....or maybe rubber sealer?.....like they use on expansion joints in stell+glass high rises....I would try a google on Dow Corning .they may have a help line /site.......that would be for the flex.rubber type repair.............The other idea of resin would make a rigid repair over the chase and.......in both cases you would have to enginer some kind of tie in to the stones.........then you could cover with expanded stainless steel lath and go for a lime plaster finish.........not being funny but could you cover repair with a false beam or summat ..........No point in my opinion of trying to find the point of ingress.......needle/haystack would be easier

 

[pyewacket]

I can't really cover it as it is on a 25 foot long wall with 3 windows spaced at intervals and radiators too. So it will be a lot of bu**ering about and expensive to do. Ha Ha, Dow Corning. I work for them, making all that silicone. there is no product I haven't tried. Trying to fix the problem has actually cost more than the original wiring work! I reckon there must be a big leak somewhere because the water stars pi**ing in within an hour of the rain starting. Can I find it?! Seeing as it rains a lot here in Wales this is a real bummer and the wife is none to happy about having her 'decor' ruined every winter. It's not just a small patch, it's eight feet high and 18 inches wide. We have to keep the door to the office open all the time to hide the damp patch and the fact the plaster's missing. I am not going to replaster this again til I find were it's coming in. I dunno what to do now. I've tried everything other than completely repointing the front of the house with lime mortar, which is an a*se of a job.
Thanks for the advice anyway.