Dealing with old concrete floor

[cwilliams255]

Hi all, I've recently started some work on our kitchen and we need to replace the floor covering as part of this. The house was built 1905 and is a brick end terraced. The front of the house has a cellar with timber suspended floor to the lounge above. The kitchen however has a concrete floor and it is causing me some concern. At this point I cannot tell if it original or has been added at some point. There are no air bricks or evidence they ever existed and its the same for the neighbors houses so I'm beginning to think its always been concreted.

My question is really

- Assuming it is original or just old, how do I deal with damp? It really only looks damp near the corner by the back door. Only the back wall of the house is at ground level, to the side this floor is effectively 1.8 metres up. It doesn't look too bad but the plastic /rubber backed coir matting that was there was mouldy underneath. Given that the damp proofing in the walls is electo-osmotic type and is below floor level how do I avoid any bridging?

Hope this makes sense and someone can help

Thanks

-

 

[mac391]

Hi C,
Any form of damp is almost impossible to answer on a forum, it could be rising damp, penetrating damp or condensation amongst 1 or 2 other posibillities.
A few things you can check though,, are :-
1, As standard, any timber subfloor should have airbricks to that elavation, even in 1905, so double check the lounge elevation outside and note if the pavement/drive or whatever surrounds the outside has not been built up over the years and covered those said airbricks. councils don't inform anyone that their dampcourse or airbricks are about to be bridged.

2, You might have a damp cousre but the probability is , you havn't, as damp cousrses were experimented with in the 20's and 30's with bitumen. You can tell if you have a damp course by looking outside. might see drips on the wall or plugs if it's been installed at a later date.

3, On the inside !! A concrete subfloor should not meet the wall, there should be a gap of 20mm or so,between wall and subfloor..

4, You have both a solid and timber subfloor and details of where they start and end will help.

Unlikely you will get a true answer on here, it's too indepth, what you really need is a damp expert to give advice.

 

[pinenot]

Nooo, don't go near any so called damp expert, invariably they will tell you need a chemical damp proofing done or some other equally useless piece of modern sales gimmickry, they used to be called "snake oil salesmen" in another guise, but same old same old. Have a look at this - http://www.rics.org/uk/shop/The-Rising-Damp-Myth-17888.aspx - written by a renowned man of the construction trade, turned university professor of construction, blowing wide the rising damp myth and such like...pinenot