View attachment 265700 Hi,
I've posted here before with my damp problem - a few things have happened since I was last here but its still unresolved.
I've had a slight damp problem in one particular room ever since I've lived here. The house is 1920s, cinderblock construction on the external walls and stone chip rendered.
The room used to be a kitchen and it used to have a small area of solid floor. The solid floor was always damp and any floor coverings would go mouldy and damp.
Last year I had a leak last year from a drain outside which caused a lot of damp on the internal walls. 5 months ago, I had the external drain replaced, and the solid section of floor dug out and a suspended floor installed. The damp in the walls has since dried out.
However, the ground beneath the floor is still damp and so is the mortar between the lower brick courses, up to the level of the floor boards themselves. This continues to cause the edge of the carpets to go damp where they are near the affected wall.
I appreciate that some of the moisture may still be drying out from the leak, however I think the damp problem has been around for many years and I'm not confident it will simply dry out in time.
When I removed the solid section of floor and dug down to ground level, I hit clay earth which is directly against the foundations. Clearly this is retaining a lot of moisture and is unlikely to ever dry out.
I 'think' there is a bitumen DPC on the internal brick walls but it's hard to tell - part of of it used to be below the solid section of floor, so would have been bridged anyway.
Shortly after the recent leak, I had damp survey conducted during which they drilled samples from the bricks roughly 2 courses above the floor boards, and they said the internal brick work was dry, so advised to simply to let it dry out.
5 months later and the ground remains damp. I had a second person round this week who has advised that I need chemical DPC injecting into the two inner brick walls, on the basis that the ground will never dry out, however they suggest that the DPC will stop the moisture being sucked up the walls and to the level of the joists.
Having read LOTS of conflicting views about the effectiveness of DPC, I'm really unsure whether to try this next.
Any views on if DPC may help in this situation?
My other option is to leave it for a few more months to dry but I really don't think it will given that there is clay earth that's only 18 inches below the floorboards. However I could stick a hygrometer probe down there and perhaps monitor the humidity for a few months to see if it drops.
Any thoughts on whether the DPC will help, hinder or do nothing at all - would be appreciated!
I've posted here before with my damp problem - a few things have happened since I was last here but its still unresolved.
I've had a slight damp problem in one particular room ever since I've lived here. The house is 1920s, cinderblock construction on the external walls and stone chip rendered.
The room used to be a kitchen and it used to have a small area of solid floor. The solid floor was always damp and any floor coverings would go mouldy and damp.
Last year I had a leak last year from a drain outside which caused a lot of damp on the internal walls. 5 months ago, I had the external drain replaced, and the solid section of floor dug out and a suspended floor installed. The damp in the walls has since dried out.
However, the ground beneath the floor is still damp and so is the mortar between the lower brick courses, up to the level of the floor boards themselves. This continues to cause the edge of the carpets to go damp where they are near the affected wall.
I appreciate that some of the moisture may still be drying out from the leak, however I think the damp problem has been around for many years and I'm not confident it will simply dry out in time.
When I removed the solid section of floor and dug down to ground level, I hit clay earth which is directly against the foundations. Clearly this is retaining a lot of moisture and is unlikely to ever dry out.
I 'think' there is a bitumen DPC on the internal brick walls but it's hard to tell - part of of it used to be below the solid section of floor, so would have been bridged anyway.
Shortly after the recent leak, I had damp survey conducted during which they drilled samples from the bricks roughly 2 courses above the floor boards, and they said the internal brick work was dry, so advised to simply to let it dry out.
5 months later and the ground remains damp. I had a second person round this week who has advised that I need chemical DPC injecting into the two inner brick walls, on the basis that the ground will never dry out, however they suggest that the DPC will stop the moisture being sucked up the walls and to the level of the joists.
Having read LOTS of conflicting views about the effectiveness of DPC, I'm really unsure whether to try this next.
Any views on if DPC may help in this situation?
My other option is to leave it for a few more months to dry but I really don't think it will given that there is clay earth that's only 18 inches below the floorboards. However I could stick a hygrometer probe down there and perhaps monitor the humidity for a few months to see if it drops.
Any thoughts on whether the DPC will help, hinder or do nothing at all - would be appreciated!
