Porch damp single brick wall - finishing inside of porch

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Manchester
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Hi guys

I`ve just DIY`d my own porch with joining bay window to porch roof with a valley gutter and reclaimed parquet floor. It has taken me since Easter and I`m really pleased with it.

However, I`ve got a problem with damp on the single skin walls. I`m totally not interested in heat retention as the porch is only small and more of a barrier to the outside and stops us walking right into the front living room.

I originally had a thin MDF sheet on the wall painted and it looked perfect! I`m not very good at plastering so since the walls are so small, the MDF walls are one piece and didn`t cost me a lot and was easier than plastering. However, due to the damp issue, I`m pleased I went with MDF as it allowed me to rip them off easily!

So my question is really what are my options. The floor is a concrete slap with DPM and is bone dry. The wall do have a damp course on and the wall was the only thing that I actually got someone in to do...so this has been done properly (I hope) by a bricky.

MDF back on would mean that I can continue with the DIY aspect and do it all myself again but I`m more than willing to pay a plaster if this would be a better way of finishing it. The damp seems to be the two bricks below the DCM but there is a small patch above which gets wet due to the house next door.

of course I`ve been googling and my understanding is:

1. Stick some DPC sheeting against the wall and go the MDF route again?

2. Screw foil acked plaster board to the wall and the foil back shields the plaster from the damp.

3. Use foam backed plasterboard - this option seems a good one but would be too thick for me!


Ultimately, I need to keep it as thin as possible since it`ll look add as there isn`t much overhang from the window to fit it all under. Is there anything I could paint onto the brick work and then cover over with either my MDF method or plasterboard?

Any help appreciated.

Chris
 
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Being a single skim wall (like a garage is) then the treating of the outside wall with a w/proof render (preferable scratch and float coat) and then painting with 2 or 3 coats of good masonary paint is the key for keeping the water out. But it is also advisable (in your case) to have the inside scratch coated and rendered and painted with masonary paint.You would normally float and set the inside of the porch if there was no damp coming thru the wall or rising up.I would go down the route of trying to get it rendered and painted.There was an old trick we used to use years ago when there was problems with damp rising or penertrating thru the walls. First of all find the problem where the water is coming in from and fix it. Then we used to coat the problem wall with two coats of syntapruf (a bitumin based paint,google it) the first coat was put on with brush strokes going vertical and when that had dried the next coat brush strokes going horizontal. And after we had just put the second coat on we blinded it with sharp sand (plastering sand) then when it had dried we lightly brushed off the excess sand and put our scratch coat on and rendered it or floated and skimmed it.I know this sounds long winded but it is really important to find why and where your water is coming in and cure the problem. I also would not reccomend putting mdf on it or screwing foil back to the wall. When you have sorted the damp problem you might get away with putting one coat of render on floating it up and painting it. Might be an idea to put some pics up. Hope this helps .Good luck
;)
 
sorry to not have replied sooner.

I very much appreciate your advice but I really really would not like to change the finish of the brick front! The house is accrington red brick and the bricks on the porch match in colour. In my opinion, it would look a real mess if the outside face of the bricks were painted. Whatever I do, I need to do from the inside!

Any more thoughts or opinions.

Chris
 

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