False Wall to cover damp up?

[likelex]

We are looking at putting in an offer on a 2 Bed Victorian Semi and had now paid our 2nd visit to the property and have fallen in love with it. Before we put an offer in I thought I'd come on here and ask a few questions that are bugging us. I've had to split them into sections for different sections of the forum so pls feel free to go and look at my other questions!

Brief background to help-
Classic 2 up, 2 Down, no bay at front, front door on the side - steep stairs straight up, small kitchen off the dining room. Upstairs, bedrooms above living room and dining room and bathroom off bedroom 2 above kitchen. Fireplaces in all rooms incl kitch/bath.

In the front bedroom there is a hold in the side wall (the wall that is exposed to the weather) after sticking my finger in and ripping off some plaster I realised this was intact a thin stud wall covered in plasterboard mainly. behind some thing insulating material was the original wall, still plastered as far as I can see but covered in a thin layer of what appears to be fibre-impregnated tar sandwiched between brown grease paper?

The place has no DPC and upstairs has particularly suffered from damp on that side of the house. It all seems very dry and looks like the damp occurred a long time ago, paper is peeling away and loose plaster in the other bedroom is bone dry and breaks away easily. I think the problem must have been lack of ventilation as there is no CH, just gas fires downstairs..

My question then is, what is this wall covering and is it common practice on badly affected damp walls? Whats the deal with then putting a false wall in front of the damp wall - is this heard of? I just want to rip it all off and let it breath, just wanted to check that it wasn't asbestos-type material (obviously I would get this checked out properly) but wondered if this was a common installation in houses of this era...

Any comments greatly appreciated!
Please look at my other questions about this house in other sections of the forum about DPC, Concrete ground floors, bulging/sagging lath ceiling, removing bathroom fireplace, loft conversion. Cheers!!

 

[lawlor]

is it not just a cold damp external wall that has been dry-lined?

 

[likelex]

hi there,
yes I did initially think this but the gap is massive and there is no real insulation going on in between, it need ripping off but I feel like this tar paper stuff is gonna be a nightmare and wanted to really know what it was!?

What is the most cost effective method of dry-lining solid brick walls, we might need to insulate the place a bit better..?

Cheers, Jon

 

[lawlor]

The Tar paper sounds like some kind of damp proofing! like the bitumen paint you get. if its on a plastered wall it will come off when you take the plaster off. A decent SDS should do that in a few mins. As for dry-lining i used 50mm celotex foil taped, then 25x50mm battens on top with plasterboard above. was the most cost effective way i found.
i used the guides on http://www.celotex.co.uk/applications/refurbishment/internal-solid-walls
as a help tho that shows the dot dab method. We also used the brand Quin from our local builders merchant as it was alto cheaper and apparently the same thing.

 

[maltaron]

The stuff on the wall is what was called "building paper" and was often used under carpets & lino on damp solid floors.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Bear in mind these were built with solid 9" walls, (no cavity), any wall subjected to driving rain (or leaking gutter/overflow/etc) is likely to allow damp to penetrate the wall. If the pointing is in poor condition I doubt this will help matters either.

 

[lawlor]

Thats true but old buildings need to breath. The pointing probs does need to be replaced but The main thing is whatever u put on the walls that at least one side, inside or outside and breath to let any trapped moister out which will obv be the case as the house has no DPC. Im soon to start ripping blown Gypsum plaster off all interior walls to see if this cures my damp problem. which im told it might.
anyway i have rabbited on again...