Hi , We purchase a house build in 1860, its need a lot of work on it. It's in a livable state but there are various damp patches around, rotten windows etc.
..In a room downstairs, we had a damp patch on the plaster, where the paint was peeling off of the plaster. In this particular room it seems to always be freezing! even though the 3 windows are all upvc.
No mold present, put the paint was flaking off and you could see the plaster was wet underneath - seemed to be in the centre of the wall under the window, dry around the patch.
- The window looks ok, not wet - no obvious gaps etc, its a upvc window.
- The outside of the external wall is rendered , again no obvious cracks or missing render, doesn't seem to be blown either...
-The base of the wall has a concrete walkway so its not immediately into the soil (there is a path outside the window joined to the house) it seems very dry no cracks etc.
- Additionally the wall is shielded from rain /weather as outside single story peg tile roof overhangs the walkway supported by wooden struts - (Like a car port with a peg tile roof and its sloped away from the house)
Ok well I stripped off the plaster on this wall to 1.5 meters.
...that's when the madness started!
-The plaster appears to be lime with horse hair in it, however recently its been part skimmed with normal gypsum pink plaster? (it seems to be the gypsum that's wet)
-NO bricks behind. The wall seems to be made from round pebbles held together with some sort of cement? I removed some, it seems the whole house is made from round pebbles - no bricks. With that in mind I doubt there is a cavity maybe that's why its freezing?
...I noticed the skirting board was extra thick, turns out they had glued wooden mdf skirt over the top of a concrete skirting board.
I can clearly see holes drilled into the concrete skirt - for a injected damp proof course done previously!...
When stripping the plaster I hit cement down to the floor from around 1 meter - again this looks part of the past damp proof course fix. I removed the cement.
The damp area was under the cement. After removal, I noticed the wall looks like its been painted with some sort of plasticized liquid? it seems very hard and dense where it is wet - like its been treated with something....
- OK so I don't think injecting a dpc will fix this....
- I suspect I do not need to use cement, that was stopping the water from escaping?
- I suspect I just need to use lime plaster which is breathable?
Do I need to seal the wall or treat it with anything? I can see where the damp is coming from it seems to be penetrating as its not rising from the bottom?
I chipped some render off outside to take a look - its sooo hard and not cracked, it looks like there are pebbles underneath again...
What sort of construction/voodoo is this?
..In a room downstairs, we had a damp patch on the plaster, where the paint was peeling off of the plaster. In this particular room it seems to always be freezing! even though the 3 windows are all upvc.
No mold present, put the paint was flaking off and you could see the plaster was wet underneath - seemed to be in the centre of the wall under the window, dry around the patch.
- The window looks ok, not wet - no obvious gaps etc, its a upvc window.
- The outside of the external wall is rendered , again no obvious cracks or missing render, doesn't seem to be blown either...
-The base of the wall has a concrete walkway so its not immediately into the soil (there is a path outside the window joined to the house) it seems very dry no cracks etc.
- Additionally the wall is shielded from rain /weather as outside single story peg tile roof overhangs the walkway supported by wooden struts - (Like a car port with a peg tile roof and its sloped away from the house)
Ok well I stripped off the plaster on this wall to 1.5 meters.
...that's when the madness started!
-The plaster appears to be lime with horse hair in it, however recently its been part skimmed with normal gypsum pink plaster? (it seems to be the gypsum that's wet)
-NO bricks behind. The wall seems to be made from round pebbles held together with some sort of cement? I removed some, it seems the whole house is made from round pebbles - no bricks. With that in mind I doubt there is a cavity maybe that's why its freezing?
...I noticed the skirting board was extra thick, turns out they had glued wooden mdf skirt over the top of a concrete skirting board.
I can clearly see holes drilled into the concrete skirt - for a injected damp proof course done previously!...
When stripping the plaster I hit cement down to the floor from around 1 meter - again this looks part of the past damp proof course fix. I removed the cement.
The damp area was under the cement. After removal, I noticed the wall looks like its been painted with some sort of plasticized liquid? it seems very hard and dense where it is wet - like its been treated with something....
- OK so I don't think injecting a dpc will fix this....
- I suspect I do not need to use cement, that was stopping the water from escaping?
- I suspect I just need to use lime plaster which is breathable?
Do I need to seal the wall or treat it with anything? I can see where the damp is coming from it seems to be penetrating as its not rising from the bottom?
I chipped some render off outside to take a look - its sooo hard and not cracked, it looks like there are pebbles underneath again...
What sort of construction/voodoo is this?