Hi,
I am doing a cellar conversion. One wall is up against soil, and gets a bit damp in one corner. I don't know how it's drained - it certainly is somehow because when it rains hard you can see (through vents) water pouring down the inside of the outer skin, and it's certainly not filling up or pouring out into the room - but nonetheless a bit of moisture gets into the inner skin and into the room.
Plan A (suggested by three builders) is to Synthaproof that wall and the neighbouring walls. Just keep the damp in the cavity to drain by whatever means it does now (and has done for 80 years). Sounds OK.
However can this be improved on, fairly easily? While the room is a building site anyway I thought I could add a drain to the cavity. My idea was to drill a 100mm hole at the base, resin in some 100mm drain pipe, sink it under the floor, sloping downards, out to behind the house. House is on a steep hill so even with a 1-in-10 fall it would still be above ground by the time it gets out the back.
90% of it can be straight, but the last 30cm will have bends and will (because of the construction of the room) have to be set into reinforced concrete (to be added next month, so now's the time).
One concern is that it might fill with debris over time, and block. Putting a U-bend in, in a cavity under the floor, accessed by a panel, would not be impossible.
Any thoughts on this please? Good / bad? Forget it? Better suggestions?
Thanks,
Mark
I am doing a cellar conversion. One wall is up against soil, and gets a bit damp in one corner. I don't know how it's drained - it certainly is somehow because when it rains hard you can see (through vents) water pouring down the inside of the outer skin, and it's certainly not filling up or pouring out into the room - but nonetheless a bit of moisture gets into the inner skin and into the room.
Plan A (suggested by three builders) is to Synthaproof that wall and the neighbouring walls. Just keep the damp in the cavity to drain by whatever means it does now (and has done for 80 years). Sounds OK.
However can this be improved on, fairly easily? While the room is a building site anyway I thought I could add a drain to the cavity. My idea was to drill a 100mm hole at the base, resin in some 100mm drain pipe, sink it under the floor, sloping downards, out to behind the house. House is on a steep hill so even with a 1-in-10 fall it would still be above ground by the time it gets out the back.
90% of it can be straight, but the last 30cm will have bends and will (because of the construction of the room) have to be set into reinforced concrete (to be added next month, so now's the time).
One concern is that it might fill with debris over time, and block. Putting a U-bend in, in a cavity under the floor, accessed by a panel, would not be impossible.
Any thoughts on this please? Good / bad? Forget it? Better suggestions?
Thanks,
Mark