Can anyone help, damp probllem.

[mishno5]

Hi I was wondering if anyone can give me some advise? In june I had a flood. The brook at the back of my house burst its banks and came in threw my back door. All downstairs was flooded half way up the skirting boards. It was left for 3 days before my insurance company got someone to rip up my carpets.
They did everything they should, knocking the plaster off halfway up the walls. They put 2 dehumidifiers in the kitchen for the whole downstairs. They left these in for 2 weeks then they said the walls were dry. They plasterd and decorated and we were back in our house end of august.
But now we have damp coming threw the walls at the bottom near the skirting boards.
I have had the company up that delt with it but they are coming up with excuses like what do I mop my floors with, and do I know that my house has shifted when I'm in the middle of a block of 6. I think they are evan goingt to say to my insurance company that its because of my hanging baskets outside because I saw them taking photos of them.
I just was to know does anyone think that they have plasterd over damp brick? And does anyone know how I can deal with this problem?
Thanks

 

[tommyl18]

if the wall was still wet when they plastered the plaster wouldnt have dried and you would have seen the dark patchs at the bottom of the walls and you would also have noticed if they had painted the wet plaster that the paint would have bubbled and peeled off if you noticed this and then the mould come then id say yes they did if it has been fine and then all of a sudden come now the bad weather is here id say you have water ingress somewhere

 

[mishno5]

It was all tested before they plasterd and it did say it was dry, so they plasterd and put wallpaper on. The mould is coming threw the wall paper near skirts. Its not on every wall one livingroom wall thats an outside wall and one inside wall that separates the kitchen from the hallway. And a tiny bit behind the back door about 10 inches.

 

[stuart45]

Did they use sand/cement render with added waterproofer?

 

[tommyl18]

sounds like your floors are damp lift the carpets and check the screeded floors underneath as it seems to rising up the walls could be a problem with your damp course

 

[mointainwalker]

I have no experience of this myself, but have read articles which say that flooded houses need 3-6 months to dry out.

I would normally say that the insurance company would know, but they also have a vested interest in getting you back into your house asap to minimise dislocation costs.

 

[mishno5]

I haven't got a clue what type of plaster they used. It was bare brick I know they used browning and then plaster, if that helps? The floors where tested yesterday, no damp.
Yes ur right the insurance company did get us back at home quick cuz we were living in our caravan in the garden and they had to pay all the family daily.

 

[ginger100]

hi are you shaw the used browning? if so that will not help matters, my advice is to get a damp proof expert in because I have dealt with this sort of thing before and it took me to go around after the initial work had been done and resolve the problem, I found that the floor/ wall joint was weeping, so to cap you do need to talk with the company that did the work initially and find out if the would agree to have some remedial work investigated at their own expense, please take my advice as a non professional assessment as proper investigation is the way forwards and not just what you heard here, cheers.

 

[Joe Malone]

Hi Mishno 5, they've almost certainly plastered over damp bricks. As often happens with flood remediation work insurance companies can be all too quick to reinstate properties. If you consider that brickwork can be fully saturated and that its conventionally accepted wisdom that it dries out at a rate of 25mm per month then you start to see why 2 weeks probably isn't long enough. Lets further hypothesize that you have cavity walls filled with insulation. The insulation has acted like a sponge and even now its holding all that flood water because it had no way of escaping. In situations like this when I've dealt with flood remediation work I've actually had to remove bricks or blocks from the walls and set up snail fans to blow through the cavities.
Personally I wouldn't accept having the wall plastered with a waterproof render which only dams in the damp because at some point in the future it will find its way out. You should have had the masonry tested for moisture at depth using deep wall probes or ideally a calcium carbide meter. If there is a cavity then it should have been at least checked with a hygrometer or opened up to check if the insulation is wet.

 

[dave1953]

Hi,The partition wall you mention between your kitchen and hallway and that your in the middle of a block of 6 gives some clues here.
The company that installed the de-humidifiers would have had to give the insurance companies loss adjuster a detailed report of the Relative Humidity [moisture within the air] within your property and when satisfied the Relative Humidity was within the bounds of acceptability the go ahead for plastering would be given i.e the property had dried.
If your party walls are single skinned block or brickwork and if your internal partition wall is the same [ if it was studwork it would have been removed and replaced] then to me the clue is this:
The cavity exterior wall to your living room, does this abut to the internal wall you mention?
Interstitial condensation from moisture retained within the cavity would be a problem, using a Gypsum based Browning undercoat plaster would act as a sponge to the cavity moisture [even worse to paper over the final skim] All redecoration should be treated as temporary for 12 months following damp treatments and as posted 2 coat waterproofed sand/cement render then skimmed is the norm. Moisture retained within the cavity will pass through air bricks.
This is a huge subject to try and redeem here, questions such as, what were the internal and external vapour pressures bearing in mind your stream in the garden? Was an endoscope survey carried out within the cavity walls etc etc. If your not happy then get your insurance company to redress the contractors work with the proviso of an independant survey upon works completed. A competent CRST qualified Damp expert will do the survey . Hope this helps.