Hi guys
I'm about halfway through renovating the first of three ground floor rooms in my home, which was built around 1900 and have a couple of queries about the damp I have. We live in an area with a high water table (we're about 25 metres from the River Severn) and the house hasn't had anything done to it for donkey's years.
I've stripped back all the old plaster (about three layers worth) to brick and found the remains of what looks like an old attempt at damp proofing behind one layer (basically a thin black layer or paint which could be about 20 or 30 years old, we just don't know). The bottom metre of the walls were all concreted instead of plastered and there does seem to be a very old (it crumbles in my hand a bit like soot) DPM in the walls right at the floor level (within 1cm max from the floor). The concrete floor was soaked when I lifted the old carpet but seems to have dried out in the past few months since it was taken up. I have found a plastic DPM coming up from under the concrete in places but it doesn't seem to go all round - or may have corroded.
As for damp, since I took all the plasterwork off the walls have steadily dried out, however there's a half-inch line of damp around the entire base of the walls. Also, the fireplace / chimney breast seems to be the worst for damp, which seems to spread out. I know they laid the plastic underneath the concrete floor right up to the back of the fire itself but they've bricked above the hearth so i either take all those bricks out or try and inject / drill a new dpm into the chimney. The back of the fireplace has a fair amount of salt built up as well.
I was wondering what I should do to sort the damp out? Any advice is welcome.
My idea at the moment is to do the following: Use either an injected DPM cream or these Safeguard Dryzone dryrods to drill into the walls and create a new DPM 1 brick higher than the old one, and then applying a liquid DPM to the concrete floor and the base of the walls (up to the new DPM) creating a waterproof join at the brick?
Does this sound about right or is the road to a DIY disaster?
I'm about halfway through renovating the first of three ground floor rooms in my home, which was built around 1900 and have a couple of queries about the damp I have. We live in an area with a high water table (we're about 25 metres from the River Severn) and the house hasn't had anything done to it for donkey's years.
I've stripped back all the old plaster (about three layers worth) to brick and found the remains of what looks like an old attempt at damp proofing behind one layer (basically a thin black layer or paint which could be about 20 or 30 years old, we just don't know). The bottom metre of the walls were all concreted instead of plastered and there does seem to be a very old (it crumbles in my hand a bit like soot) DPM in the walls right at the floor level (within 1cm max from the floor). The concrete floor was soaked when I lifted the old carpet but seems to have dried out in the past few months since it was taken up. I have found a plastic DPM coming up from under the concrete in places but it doesn't seem to go all round - or may have corroded.
As for damp, since I took all the plasterwork off the walls have steadily dried out, however there's a half-inch line of damp around the entire base of the walls. Also, the fireplace / chimney breast seems to be the worst for damp, which seems to spread out. I know they laid the plastic underneath the concrete floor right up to the back of the fire itself but they've bricked above the hearth so i either take all those bricks out or try and inject / drill a new dpm into the chimney. The back of the fireplace has a fair amount of salt built up as well.
I was wondering what I should do to sort the damp out? Any advice is welcome.
My idea at the moment is to do the following: Use either an injected DPM cream or these Safeguard Dryzone dryrods to drill into the walls and create a new DPM 1 brick higher than the old one, and then applying a liquid DPM to the concrete floor and the base of the walls (up to the new DPM) creating a waterproof join at the brick?
Does this sound about right or is the road to a DIY disaster?
