Advice needed - Dry lining a part basement kitchen wall

[piggoy]

Our Victorian mid terrace house is built into a hill such that the back wall of our kitchen is below ground level, sort of a "part basement" This back wall and perpendicular party walls have been previously dry lined using a "dot and dab" method of adhering plasterboard directly to the brick wall. Over the years the damp has penetrated from the brick walls to the plasterboard thru the dabs leaving horrible dark stains and causing the paint to peel. The back wall has been tanked using what appears to be a black bituminous substance. However the two perpendicular party walls are not tanked and much of the damp penetration appears to be on these walls, even though they are not themselves underground.

First question - How to people recommend we solve this damp problem? Will a batten method of dry lining prevent the damp from reaching the plasterboards?

Second question - Does the tanking on the back wall simply cause the moisture to wick around to the untanked party walls? If I tank the party walls will the moisture continue to wick around to a further location?

Thanks in advance

 

[ree]

To simplify:
The water table from the hillside above is pushing against the back wall. If its denied access there it will move around to the sides - and possibly, it will also go up as rising dampness.

What about the floor? What kind of floor covering do you have. Is damp coming thro?

Your best bet is to strip all walls back to bare brick. And lift the floor covering if its affected.

You can now consider a comprehensive tanking system - it might involve three walls and the floor. It might also involve a pump and channel drainage? google pics of tanking systems.

Sometimes, a deep French drain is installed but that, and probably much else, is a site call.

Post pics of inside & outside the room from three sides.

 

[piggoy]

Thanks. The floor is damp proofed concrete using a membrane, so no damp issues with the floor. Some of these tanking system seem very over engineered and more of benefit to people who have basements that flood. Behind the back wall the soil has been dug out and replaced with blast and gravel, but I'm not sure to what depth. I'm really hoping that a battened dry line system, just battens, air gap and plasterboard will suffice as a simple cheap solution.

To simplify:
The water table from the hillside above is pushing against the back wall. If its denied access there it will move around to the sides - and possibly, it will also go up as rising dampness.

What about the floor? What kind of floor covering do you have. Is damp coming thro?

Your best bet is to strip all walls back to bare brick. And lift the floor covering if its affected.

You can now consider a comprehensive tanking system - it might involve three walls and the floor. It might also involve a pump and channel drainage? google pics of tanking systems.

Sometimes, a deep French drain is installed but that, and probably much else, is a site call.

Post pics of inside & outside the room from three sides.

 

[ree]

A French drain implies a drainage pipe was installed to discharge away from the property. Do you have a French drain?

From the above info i'd say that what you propose will not work. But its difficult to comment without seeing pics.

 

[piggoy]

A French drain implies a drainage pipe was installed to discharge away from the property. Do you have a French drain?

From the above info i'd say that what you propose will not work. But its difficult to comment without seeing pics.

No there is definitely not a French drain as you describe, only the presence of ballast and gravel against the back wall instead of soil. I'll try and post some photos later.

To categorise the dampness problem we have - This problem is nothing like cellars that have serious damp problems and actually flood when the water table gets too high - these are the types of cellars I thought you needed one of these high tech tanking systems for. Our back wall is not noticeably damp to touch, only cold, but there clearly is damp present since the dot and dab plasterboard is most definitely ruined - mouldy on the back, stained on the front and very crumbly.