Damp/insulation problems - cottage with 9" solid wall

[JackieA]

Hi all,
Just looking at options really, I've been researching a lot but have found conflicting information...
I'm looking at buying a very old cottage, the owner had made no secret that it needs stripping right back, and when I viewed it I saw why! The damp is so bad the plaster has completely bowed off the walls! It's rendered externally, so I'm thinking about stripping it back inside, injecting DPC (any recommendations on which to use? And can I do that from the inside as the outside is rendered?), painting external render with some sort of breathable water repelling paint (if one exists - recommendations?) and then I'm stuck at what to do inside... plaster straight on the walls with a breathable plaster combination of some sort? A layer of insulation between walls and plasterboard? I've seen the polystyrene style rolls you can fix to walls or the foil backed options, but I'm not sure if that's the best idea because of condensation :-/
NB adding a skin (if that's the right phrase!) is not an option - its a very small house! Likewise no chance of adding to the outside (it's end terraced). Also the windows are surprisingly new, so would rather not disturb those much - working on a very tight budget.
One final point - it currently has no central heating, so I'm hoping installing that might help to an extent...
Thank you

 

[bobasd]

to much stuff to give you a proper reply.why dont you post lots of pictures of the outside and the inside.are the floors solid or suspended

 

[JackieA]

Hi bobasd, thank you for your reply
I've not got very good pictures I'm afraid, I've tried to pick out some parts from the brochure. The most affected parts seem to be the north facing side (the picture at the front) and the west (down the side path) if that's any help. One of the worst damp parts inside is under the ground floor window (the one pictured on the front - I haven't got a good internal picture), where I think it would literally fall off with a little pressure as the plaster is totally bowed out from the wall. Guessing that's the rising damp as there seems to be no protection from it at all looking at the road. I haven't looked under the carpet, but as it feels quite uneven I think its a safe bet that it's a solid floor :-/
We've completely done up our current home and are petty competent diy'ers, but I'm worried this might take some expert input and could see our costs rocket!

 

[bobasd]

your pics are not up to much so still cant help you much.
you probably need a priced inspection or survey.ie a list of items with prices to make good. from what i can see there are a few issues.
dont go jumping about from this to that and dont go guessing it can cost you dear.
properties like that are often sent for auction...

 

[JackieA]

I thought so, it's really hard to tell from the pictures, the "type" of damp seems to vary too if you know what I mean :-/
One reassurance is the other terraces seem sound (there's another one on the market at the moment), so I'm hopeful it's treatable. Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of waiting it out - the location is pretty unbeatable and there's already another offer on the table
I think we're just going to have to go for it and keep everything crossed that we can resolve most of it ourselves... and make sure we get a very good survey done!
Thank you for looking

 

[bobasd]

why are 2 properties on sale in one terrace at the same time? is the terrace on a hillside, is there water or a stream nearby?
but dont be put off if you know roughly what your gettin into, just do the jobs one at a time and it will all work and come together in time. forums like this will help you

 

[roy c]

If you look at the first picture you will see a black line on the building. It looks like the path may have run level with the line at one time. And over the years it looks like the path has been built up! Are you getting damp low down at floor level in that area? I have an house with 20" walls and I had rising damp all around. I hacked all the walls back to the stone work on the inside and I mixed up a sloppy mortar mix with W/Proofer in it and "splatter-dashed all the walls with it. I put soon insulation board behind a 3"x2" frame work in front of it. Then plaster-boarded and skimmed all the walls.(There are pictures in my albums showing how I insulated the bed rooms..