Please Help Novice - Damp Proofing an old croft house

[idiotdiyer75]

Hi

Im thinking about buying an one of two old croft houses in the North of Scotland they dont have any form of damp proofing, so in both home reports there coming in as a 3 for damp and rot. One house has concrete floors, though I would guess there proberly not that thick and the other have timber floor and a void.

I asked a damp specialised how much it would cost to do the damp proofing for the house with the concrete floors and he said well over £10000 as they would dig up the floor and put a new one in with a DPM plastic sheet.

My question is in the house with the concrete floor what would be the best diy option?, i see down south a lot of people use liquid dpms, is this effective as it would be a lot cheaper and I could do it.

My other question is what would you do to damp proof the house with the timber floors?

Please being in mine I am a diyer and mainy do carpentary so please could any words within any answers simple (think idoit guide)

Many thanks any help would be great

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

For the concrete floor, dig it up, dig out another 6" of earth, put down 4" concrete, visquerene, 2" foam, 3" screed.
For the wooden floor, the boards will be nailed to joists which should be supported on "sleeper" walls running at right angles to them, every 4' or so. The ends of the joists are often let into the wall. So everywhere, where the joists touch masonry a DPC course should be inserted. It is a relatively easy job to do as you can put a car jack under the relative joist jack it up slightly and slip under it a bit of water proof plastic, such as vinyl flooring.
In both case this will not cure rising damp. I would put a french drain around the property to try and reduce the moisture content of the soil.
Frank