Dressing walls in damp basement

[HareKrishna]

Haribol!

Please allow me to introduce myself.

I'm the building manager (read one man band renovating a temple) for the Hare Krishna (Iskcon) Temple in Newcastle upon Tyne.

We have an ongoing issue with damp in the basement.

The building is Victorian, red brick fascia with sandstone.

There's a basement sub street level, all the walls are sandstone, the plaster has been stripped from the walls and they're generally very damp. There used to be access to the street from the basement for the delivery of stock, but this has all been blocked off now and sealed in. I reckon poor ventilation is a key issue as well as general slow ingress through the old walls.

I'm looking for some advice - the cheapest way to re-dress the walls.

There's a kitchen down here and that has been dressed in 8x4 sheet white UPVC but I think that's quite expensive to do the rest of the basement which is about 45 ft x 20 ft.

I considered rendering but dunno if this will simply crack and come away over the next few years.

I also thought of putting plastic sheet damp proof material on the walls then fitting dry lining plater board on a small frame giving an inch or so off the face of the wall.

I was also told that lime plaster would do the trick.

Anyway that's enough from me.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[ree]

There's really nothing that would solve your difficulties without expensive and complicated work.

Clean up the surface and determine that there are actually no ongoing ground leaks coming in from the ground outside.

You could render in a 6:1:1 mix of sand, lime and cement, or use expensive remedial plasters eg. limelite. But it would only last ... who knows? No matter, without specialist work, old, damp basements will always smell.

Do some research on here using the Search facility at the top of the page. Good luck.

 

[bernardgreen]

The only way to make the walls dry it to put a water proof lining between them and the earth which is not really an option unless you have a lot of money.

As mentioned lime rendering with ample ventilation is a good option.

Lime render allows the wall to breathe and the the moisture comes through the lime render and evaporates. It may require fan driven ventilation.

Mixing horse hair into the lime rendering gives it a lot more strength.

If possible leave the surface render rough as this gives more surface area for moisture to evaporate from.

If fitting an inner wall of stud work it should be at least 6 inches from the render and have free circulation of air to remove the evaporate moisture.

I got the horse hair and good advice from

http://www.thelimecentre.co.uk/