Hi,looking for a 2nd opinion....recently bought a 4 in a block type flat with my partner, on survey it was found that it had high damp readings mostly to one side of the property (were the upstairs stair way is) also some flooring and timber was rotting. A surveyor quoted to repair works which involved replacing rotting timber joists and putting up a damp proof membrane also replacing the plaster board a metre high. Well my partner is a joiner and has a lot of experience with building houses/extensions, so we did the work ourselves.
So far each bedroom we have lifted all the floor boards replaced rotting joists. We found the solum tar was broken up so cleaned this all up and put membrane down and concreted this, then painted the brick work with bitumen paint and replaced flooring. The back wall of the room we strapped it out to create a ventilated area and put membrane on the back of the new plaster board before we put this up.
Well after all this work we then went to decorate. In the main bedroom we have built a wardrobe the full width of the room, although this has not got any doors on it yet it has all clothes etc in it. Went to move drawers that were in it to decorate to find a bit of mould of the back were a chest of drawers was sitting :-/ well we know that this can happen because of poor ventilation but it hasnt had any doors on the wardrobes so I was a bit concerned.
We bought a moisture metre but not sure this was helpful as it doesnt tell you what the readings actually mean and the readings seemed to jump about a lot! was coming up the same for most of the room although at certain bits slightly higher readings, more lower down on the back wall. We cut a hole in the plaster board in the wardrobe and had a feel and the brick with the bitumen paint was quite wet although this is on the inside could this be condensation from the inside? When we replaced the joist we left a slight gap so there is no wood bridging for any damp to get through from outside.
We cant think of anything else that could or can be done if there is still a problem as we strapped out the wall and made sure the ventilation brick vents were cleared.
So far each bedroom we have lifted all the floor boards replaced rotting joists. We found the solum tar was broken up so cleaned this all up and put membrane down and concreted this, then painted the brick work with bitumen paint and replaced flooring. The back wall of the room we strapped it out to create a ventilated area and put membrane on the back of the new plaster board before we put this up.
Well after all this work we then went to decorate. In the main bedroom we have built a wardrobe the full width of the room, although this has not got any doors on it yet it has all clothes etc in it. Went to move drawers that were in it to decorate to find a bit of mould of the back were a chest of drawers was sitting :-/ well we know that this can happen because of poor ventilation but it hasnt had any doors on the wardrobes so I was a bit concerned.
We bought a moisture metre but not sure this was helpful as it doesnt tell you what the readings actually mean and the readings seemed to jump about a lot! was coming up the same for most of the room although at certain bits slightly higher readings, more lower down on the back wall. We cut a hole in the plaster board in the wardrobe and had a feel and the brick with the bitumen paint was quite wet although this is on the inside could this be condensation from the inside? When we replaced the joist we left a slight gap so there is no wood bridging for any damp to get through from outside.
We cant think of anything else that could or can be done if there is still a problem as we strapped out the wall and made sure the ventilation brick vents were cleared.
