Chemical damp proof

rabtess · 16 Apr 2008

I have a Victorian house (1887) which had an Injected DPC when we bought it 28 years ago. One corner of the kitchen (basement) is damp over a metre from the floor. Next door's yard is about 25 cm higher than ours which possibly why the damp is so high. I need to inject an impermeable barier - vertical and horizontal. Two products seem suitable, Dryzone and Dampstop, the latter does not need a special gun so I favour it. They are both expensive. Does anyone have any comments on these products. There is at least one other, Focus Cream but this does not seem to have BBA approval. These are not stocked locally so it looks as if I will have to buy at least 3 tubes via the Net. Does anyone have know of a local stockist in the North East? Or a discount supplier on the Net.
All (constructive) comments welcome.

Softus · 16 Apr 2008

rabtess said:
Does anyone have any comments on these products.

My comment is that they are almost certainly sh*te.

For example:

1. Was the house injected when it was first built?

2. Why do you think the previous treatment was 'effective' for 28 years?

Shytalkz · 17 Apr 2008

Why don't you look and see if there's some reason for the damp first? Like a leaking drain, incoming water supply pipe, blocked gully etc.

rabtess · 17 Apr 2008

My comment is that they are almost certainly sh*te.

I would take more notice of this if you suggested an alternative. The certification tests run by statutary bodies such as the BBA are transparent and very clearly state what a product can and cannot do.

1. Was the house injected when it was first built?

As I said, it was built in 1887 so the answer is obviously no.

2. Why do you think the previous treatment was 'effective' for 28 years

I didn't say that so don't quote it. However, the rest of the room is OK, as are the other rooms on the same floor, in spite of being half below ground level with a fairly high water table.

Shytalkz · 17 Apr 2008

And have you looked to see if there is anything leaking that's causing the problem in/near that area?

Shytalkz · 17 Apr 2008

rabtess said:
My comment is that they are almost certainly sh*te.

Click to expand...

I would take more notice of this if you suggested an alternative. The certification tests run by statutary bodies such as the BBA are transparent and very clearly state what a product can and cannot do.

Ah, such unfettered belief in certification is touching...

1. Was the house injected when it was first built?

Click to expand...

As I said, it was built in 1887 so the answer is obviously no.

And in turn you are missing the irony of his comment ie it wasn't injected when it was first built and worked ok, so look for a cause rather than a palliative "solution": injection is often the worst thing you can do with an older building such as this, as it stops it breathing; and the injection system invariably fails. If there's an extraneous cause, removing it is the right way of doing things.

rabtess · 17 Apr 2008

Why don't you look and see if there's some reason for the damp first? Like a leaking drain, incoming water supply pipe, blocked gully etc

None of these, I've checked. What is clear is that there is moisture at the base of the wall in question. It is obviously ground water, possibly aggravated by the fact that the kitchen floor is quarry tiled over a membrane so it is possible that water is migrating to the edges. I am more concerned as to how to stop it migrating up the wall. The wall is 18in thick next to an equally thick wall next door. There appears to be no alternative to chemical injection and I will be satisfied even if it only does a partial job. I have concluded that the low pressure aquous silicone system has most advantages - all I need to do is to find a supplier of Dampstop which won't bankrupt me.

anobium · 17 Apr 2008

Shytalkz wrote

And in turn you are missing the irony of his comment ie it wasn't injected when it was first built and worked ok, so look for a cause rather than a palliative "solution": injection is often the worst thing you can do with an older building such as this, as it stops it breathing; and the injection system invariably fails. If there's an extraneous cause, removing it is the right way of doing things

Once again we have the flat earth society making wild statements such as "injection stops a building breathing".
Where on earth did you get that one from, I would be interested to hear.
From the brief description of the problem I would be inclined to suggest that the problems is one of simple lateral penetration, and may possibly be rectified by removing the affected plaster and replacing with a dense sand and cement render with a waterproof additive .
Silicone injection can in my experience be effective in preventing true rising damp, but unfortunately not many people are able to identify "rising damp" correctly.
If you check previous posts on this subject in this forum, you will find that some have a very closed mind on the matter.

jbonding · 17 Apr 2008

The wall is 18in thick next to an equally thick wall next door. There appears to be no alternative to chemical injection and I will be satisfied even if it only does a partial job. I have concluded that the low pressure aquous silicone system has most advantages - all I need to do is to find a supplier of Dampstop which won't bankrupt me.[/quote

What is beyond this wall?

quote anobium "Silicone injection can in my experience be effective in preventing true rising damp, but unfortunately not many people are able to identify "rising damp" correctly.

Does it prevent or cure TRUE rising damp.

Shytalkz · 17 Apr 2008

anobium said:
Once again we have the flat earth society making wild statements such as "injection stops a building breathing".
Where on earth did you get that one from, I would be interested to hear.

Try plugging your oral cavities with silicone and I think you'll get a pretty good indication of just what it stops a older building doing.

Edited to add:

And the point I was trying to make was that, in the original post, he/she said nothing about having looked for extraneous causes, just a seeming willingness or even a deep need to reach for the supposed panacea of silicone injection. The apparent confirmation of having ruled out some identifiable problem only came in a later post from the OP.

gregers · 17 Apr 2008

you can hire the pump and injector leads from leading hire shops and they can supply the chemical,but take head accordingly to some people on here it seems it might cause serious problems to your house if you install it

Shytalkz · 17 Apr 2008

gregers said:
you can hire the pump and injector leads from leading hire shops and they can supply the chemical,but take head accordingly to some people on here it seems it might cause serious problems to your house if you install it

Presumably you love the stuff, or am I misreading the note of sarcasm? The key word being "might": no one here said "will".

jbonding · 17 Apr 2008

gregers said:
you can hire the pump and injector leads from leading hire shops and they can supply the chemical,but take head accordingly to some people on here it seems it might cause serious problems to your house if you install it

Complete waste of time, money and energy.

Drill some holes, inject fluid hey presto damp gone, yep sounds too good to be true

Shytalkz · 17 Apr 2008

jbonding said:
Drill some holes, inject fluid hey presto damp gone, yep sounds too good to be true

Oh, that's a bit harsh, it's got a BBA certificate, after all...

Cli66 · 17 Apr 2008

I have been looking into the same thing for a small section of damp that I have in a bay window. It seems that there is quite a lot of difference between the creams. The cheap creams only contain 15% active ingredient while the expensive ones like Dryzone contain over 60%, so it seems you get what you pay for. I will probably either go for Dryzone or try and save some money and gravity inject some normal damp-proofing fluid using some funnels as I don't think there is much point in using one of the low active creams and having to do the job again (I don't have much faith in BBA having seen the dire performance of several BBA approved roofing membranes!)

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Chemical damp proof

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