Rendering Behind Skirting Boards - Advice Sought

[russp26]

Hi all,

New to the forum and have recently bought a 1930's house.

The wall at the front of the house (that runs over 2 x rooms) has shown a high level of damp, and we have been advised to do 2 things:

- Remove a lower level plinth that was attached to the front of the property to expose the DPC - have now done this
- Remove the internal wall skirting boards and angle grind away the rendering that reached the floorboards to just below where the top of the skirting board would have rested, in order to let the brick work breath and dry out - have also done this. The rendering that I've removed did look as though damp was working its way up.

In terms of next steps - when the wall has dried out enough (4-6 weeks), how do I prepare the wall for a new skirting board? At the moment I just have exposed brickwork.

Relatively new to this level of DIY but quickly grasping things.

My plan was to:

1. PVA the brickwork
2. Then use some form of plaster to bridge the gap (the depth between brickwork and the plastered internal wall
3. Leaving around a 20mm/30mm gap to the floorboards - or above the DPC (think its exposed just below the floorboards anyway)
4. Sand away any rough surfaces so the new skirting will fit snuggly to the wall/new plaster
5. Attach new skirting boards

Does this sound like I'm in the vaguely the right area to make a decent job of it?

Thanks.

 

[ree]

Is the new house still unoccupied? Are you working from a mortgage survey or is someone advising you?

Pics of the exterior and interior would help.

Have you crawled below the floor and inspected the joist tails for rot where they sit in their brick pockets?

Typically, you would remove the internally affected plaster to a height of 1m.
Hammer and chisel or SDS chisel will knock it off.

A 1930's house should have a cavity - if the plinth was causing interior damp then bridging of the cavity is taking place. After knocking off the plaster you could remove a few internal bricks and examine the cavity?

At the moment, skirtings are the least of your concerns - all that will later fall into place.
Dont ever use PVA around damp - it dissolves. Simply rendering the interior is all thats required.