Plant Roots Interior Wall

[siwhitt]

Could anyone advise how I best patch up this mess please?

We live on the 2nd (top) floor of an old terrace house built circa 1890. A number of months ago I noticed a small damp patch in one corner of our bedroom just above the skirting board. The lining paper had also begun to come away from the plaster. Anyway, we're now about to decorate that bedroom, so I had a poke around earlier today. Sections of the lining paper lifted off very easily owing to the damp and you can see a few small patches of black mould remain. I also found the root of a plant coming in through the exterior brick work, around which all of the plaster flaked off.

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• siwhitt
• 5 Dec 2014
• 1

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• siwhitt
• 5 Dec 2014
• 1

I sprayed the plant with weed killer from the exterior a number of months back, so it's been dead for a while. You can see what's left of it from the exterior.

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• siwhitt
• 5 Dec 2014
• 1

There's some obvious pointing work required to the exterior, but can anyone advise what I should do with the plant and also to the interior wall to get it in a state whereby we can paint?

Any guidance much appreciated.

 

[Newboy]

Get the exterior sorted out - no point in treating the symptoms (interior) and ignoring the cause (exterior)

 

[siwhitt]

Absolutely right, and we've had a couple of quotes through for the exterior work already (there are a coupe of areas need sorting out over and above this one).

Could do with some advice as to how we sort the interior once the exterior is sorted.

 

[foxhole]

Fill and make good, add a cup of salt to the mix, will rot any roots. Scorch what you can see with a blow lamp and remove.

 

[ree]

A pic of the interior showing the inside corner in relation to the window would help.

What you have, i think, is wet rot "Coniophora Puteana" but i cant tell for sure. Dont get alarmed, its easy to deal with but will require a bit of remedial work.

The external pointing needs to be hacked out to 20 - 25mm depth (a must) and a throating slot needs cutting below the old sill - water is creeping into the brickwork below the corner of the old sill. Soak the raking out with insecticide.

Have the guttering and eaves area checked for soundness. Re-point any other areas.

Inside, remove both skirtings (cut the paint before lightly prising the skirtings away from the wall) and examine the skirting back face for rot.
Knock off all plaster up to 300mm beyond any strands.
Rake out the brick joints and soak the whole area in fungicide.

That inside corner is a damp cold bridge, and condensation spots can be seen.
After removing plaster, leave the area to dry out for a month or two before re-plastering, and use more heat in that room