Major damp in corner of room
- Thread starter Stotty1
- Start date
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Thanks.
Yeah I won't be getting it done, I have read to many bad stories about the process.
It just seemed strange how he wanted to do this to the whole house after only finding damp in 3 localised areas.
Thanks for the pics & the new info.
The present concrete floor could be a replacement floor for a previous, damp-damaged suspended floor? Whatever, because there's so far no signs of a membrane (DPM) under the slab, then the slab could be a cause of rising damp?
As was obvious when I suggested removing the obviously rotten skirting & gripper, you now need to remove the obviously affected plaster (& all decayed wood plugs in the walls) - the plaster higher up the walls seems to be a bit cracked and damaged so how far you want to go removing plaster is up to you? But first strip all wallpaper from the walls, & remove all the skirting around the room.
You can make good with a 3:1 mix of sand & lime render - kept 50mm from floor contact.
What look like rotten wood plug pockets, the rotten skirting, and the decayed plaster appear to be caused by rising damp rather than just condensation - but no chemical "treatment" needed, simply apply the render & a remedial finish.
The present concrete floor could be a replacement floor for a previous, damp-damaged suspended floor? Whatever, because there's so far no signs of a membrane (DPM) under the slab, then the slab could be a cause of rising damp?
As was obvious when I suggested removing the obviously rotten skirting & gripper, you now need to remove the obviously affected plaster (& all decayed wood plugs in the walls) - the plaster higher up the walls seems to be a bit cracked and damaged so how far you want to go removing plaster is up to you? But first strip all wallpaper from the walls, & remove all the skirting around the room.
You can make good with a 3:1 mix of sand & lime render - kept 50mm from floor contact.
What look like rotten wood plug pockets, the rotten skirting, and the decayed plaster appear to be caused by rising damp rather than just condensation - but no chemical "treatment" needed, simply apply the render & a remedial finish.
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Stotty starting from one of the wood plug pockets you could remove a whole brick and then you'll see the cavity - blocked or not. If you can locate the large airbrick position from the outside maybe remove an inside brick there.
I am not maligning the fellow, but many damp meters are pretty inaccurate for anything other than testing moisture in timber. I used to have a Plasplugs meter- it was only about £20 but they all work on the same principle- namely measuring continuity/resistance. Whilst it is true that wet plaster will register less resistance, it is also the case that plaster which became significantly wet after it cured, and which is no longer wet, will still show less resistance. My, lay, understanding is that when cured plaster becomes wet, the salts in the plaster will reduce resistance even when the plaster dries out again.
A quick google came up with this
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/truth-moisture-meters-protimeter-russell-rafton-/
It might be worth reading.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/truth-moisture-meters-protimeter-russell-rafton-/
From the photos, it looks like the plaster behind the skirting is largely free of mold. If the moisture was rising up, I would expect the lower parts of the (reverse of the) shirting to have mold.
It is possible that the floor is a suspended "I beam block" floor. Sorry, I can't remember what the proper term is. BTW, If you stomp your feet on the floor does it sound solid? If not, it may be a screed over timber.
Massive apologies all, I got a bit side tracked with work the last few days.
Thank you all for the advice.
Me and the wife are both around this weekend so we will strip all the skirting and paper to get a better idea of what the whole room is like.
I have a telescopic camera I can borrow, so could I just remove a wooden wall plug and drill through to the cavity and use that, rather than remove a brick straight away?
Or do you think there is a risk of catching and damaging the DPC with the drill?
The floor does sounds solid when banging on it.
Having a look now, the wall which seems to be struggling to dry out, is the front wall which has a tiled feature wall on (something we want to eventually brick up),not sure if this is a possible culprit also?
I can get some better pictures when it's light if required.
Thank you all for the advice.
Me and the wife are both around this weekend so we will strip all the skirting and paper to get a better idea of what the whole room is like.
I have a telescopic camera I can borrow, so could I just remove a wooden wall plug and drill through to the cavity and use that, rather than remove a brick straight away?
Or do you think there is a risk of catching and damaging the DPC with the drill?
The floor does sounds solid when banging on it.
Having a look now, the wall which seems to be struggling to dry out, is the front wall which has a tiled feature wall on (something we want to eventually brick up),not sure if this is a possible culprit also?
I can get some better pictures when it's light if required.
For the Boroscope: you can drill a hole in the mortar about 3 courses above the floor. Or you can do as you say and go thro the plug pockets. Then you wont hit the DPC.
Do you know where the DPC is on the inside skin?
Your DPC in the outside skin is 2 courses above ground level.
According to the entranceway, the outside DPC is in line with the FFL - which means a DPC two courses too high for my liking.
What exactly did you previously do when you worked on the gulley - why was it an issue?
Given the patio has raised the ground level and the gulley too high - was that an issue?
The blocks look to be bumped up near the gulley?
Do you know where the DPC is on the inside skin?
Your DPC in the outside skin is 2 courses above ground level.
According to the entranceway, the outside DPC is in line with the FFL - which means a DPC two courses too high for my liking.
What exactly did you previously do when you worked on the gulley - why was it an issue?
Given the patio has raised the ground level and the gulley too high - was that an issue?
The blocks look to be bumped up near the gulley?
Interesting thanks.
The DPC is 2 bricks above outside ground level all around the house, even around the original concreted areas.
Looking at neighbours houses, they are the same, 2 bricks up.
Front
Rear
I haven't detected the DPC inside though, I always presumed it was always one brick higher inside than outside (hence the reason I was worried about damaging it by drilling through) but that would put it above the inside floor level, which doesn't sound right.
The current inside floor level is around the same height as the outside DPC level.
I will check the cavity at the weekend for debris.
Regarding the gulley, while cleaning the block paving last summer I noticed some of the blocks had raised around the gulley area, so I had a closer look and found there was a void between the gulley outlet and drain entrance, meaning water could splash around anywhere in the void (it is hard to get a picture so I drew the below sketch to try and explain better)
I don't believe the block paving has raises the ground level at all, looking at the neighbouring properties and the original path, which are all at the same height as the block paving.
As there is not a lot of room between the gulley and drain entrance (and it is only rain water going in) I 3D printed a straight pipe to connect the gulley and drain, stopping water splashing around in the void.
Picture below to show what I designed and printed, to hopefully explain better
I never filled the void though, so I am thinking about possibly getting a builder out to look at it further and do a professional job
Ref ground levels and DPC's most of what I said was for your reference.
Short story is I know that DPC's have been fitted high for a few years in quite a few areas - I still dont like it.
Your inside DPC most likely will be level with the FFL.
The idea is that roof rain water does not go into your sewer system - it should discharge into a sump.
Trapped gullies are not necessary with a sump.
One way of dealing with the RWP is: The RWP could penetrate the grating & discharge inside the ACO above the outlet to the sump?
The ACO outlet should connect or transition to a drain.
Whatever, the void you show is wrong.
Short story is I know that DPC's have been fitted high for a few years in quite a few areas - I still dont like it.
Your inside DPC most likely will be level with the FFL.
The idea is that roof rain water does not go into your sewer system - it should discharge into a sump.
Trapped gullies are not necessary with a sump.
One way of dealing with the RWP is: The RWP could penetrate the grating & discharge inside the ACO above the outlet to the sump?
The ACO outlet should connect or transition to a drain.
Whatever, the void you show is wrong.
Oh I see thank you.
Oh I thought if it was only rain water it was OK to discharge straight into the drain (where I put sewer on my sketch it should read drain).
The problem I have is there is only 190mm from the top of the block paving to the entrance of the drain (which is directly below the downpipe), so could not work out any way of fitting a sump
I'm sure how to actually go about rectifying the void between the gully and drain, I guess it was just a hole originally and has increased in size over the years due to the rain water
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