i own a victorian house which has a few damp problems, we noticed damp in our downstairs bay, we took up the floorboards to find that the joists were wet, we have since then cut back the joists, removed the mountain of wet rubble from underneath, lowered the front garden as it was above the dpc, resealed the windows, we then let the walls dry out for several weeks and had a vandex slurry applied to the walls below the floor level and replaced the joists, since then we have notice that there are pools of water where the plate for the joists go and the walls above floor level are wetter than they ever have been, can anybody suggest a solution to this problem as we dont know what to do next
help damp in bay window
- Thread starter brent19
- Start date
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Have you checked the cavities? Old victorian houses can have problems with cavities filled up causing a bridge. I cleared out the cavities around the parimeter of my house. You couldn't imagine how much came out but I'm pleased I did it.
brent - masonry below DPC - expect it to get 'wet' but with appropriate ventilation via airbricks can be managed ... consider adding airbricks and knock additional holes through any joist supporting dwalf walls in the void below the floor (take out the odd brick). The aim is to get a through draft from front to back, and side to side of the house in the void. Victorian house DPC (slate?) maybe it's failed in places ... cracks?
Shame you applied that Vandex - I would have left the walls to breath. Ensure that any structural timber is sitting on plastic DPM (get a 100mm wide roll for a builders merchant or B&Q) and slip under timbers, also don't forget to wrap the ends of the timbers so they don't touch masonry. Tip: use a car jack to ease-up joists 5mm so you can slip this stuff in.
Check the window cills outside for the correct fall away from the house so that any rainwater drops clear ... important to check that the drip groove along the underside of the sill is clear. If this groove is bridged with paint/mortar/render/etc. the rainwater will not drop clear of the building but it WILL flow across the horizontal underside of the cill and onto the wall.
Those walls may appear wetter than in the past but remember that all that old rubble would have acted like a sponge.
Do you have double-glazing & plakka windows?
Shame you applied that Vandex - I would have left the walls to breath. Ensure that any structural timber is sitting on plastic DPM (get a 100mm wide roll for a builders merchant or B&Q) and slip under timbers, also don't forget to wrap the ends of the timbers so they don't touch masonry. Tip: use a car jack to ease-up joists 5mm so you can slip this stuff in.
Check the window cills outside for the correct fall away from the house so that any rainwater drops clear ... important to check that the drip groove along the underside of the sill is clear. If this groove is bridged with paint/mortar/render/etc. the rainwater will not drop clear of the building but it WILL flow across the horizontal underside of the cill and onto the wall.
Those walls may appear wetter than in the past but remember that all that old rubble would have acted like a sponge.
Do you have double-glazing & plakka windows?
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