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- 30 Oct 2021
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Hi everyone. I'm new to these forums and decided to sign up because my wife and I recently moved in to a 1950s property and it has a good deal more problems than we expected, causing us many headaches and a few sleepless nights.
I won't bore you with the whole list of problems but there are two things I was hoping for some advice on.
Problem 1: We found signs of damp throughout the ground floor and I've had a couple of specialists round to investigate it. One was extremely thorough and spent several hours trying to work out what was causing the timbers in the above photo (which are in the living and dining room) to read very high moisture content. (In the photo you can see where an old fireplace was. There's also damp issues with the chimneys and walls, but let's put those to one side for now - the problem I'm referring to here is that the timber floor, in all locations, registers moisture, which is coming from below.)
So, upon lifting a piece of the timber floor, he found it was laid over the concrete slab on what looks like a painted bitumen layer - the old DPM. I understand this is fairly common in properties of this age? (I should say at this point that there is parquet flooring in the hallway, same thing - also over a layer of bitumen on concrete. And yes, this timber too is moist.) Anyway, the issue is that now, 70-odd years later, the DPM has apparently begun to fail. In the living / dining rooms there are also wooden battons perpendicular to the flooring timbers at 500mm intervals, laid into the concrete. These were possibly dipped in bitumen before setting but are also, now, moist.
It seems as though the bitumen did its job for many years as the timbers haven't (quite) begun to rot yet, but they are very definitely damp throughout.
The damp guy's assessment is basically that all of this timber will have to come up and the floor cleaned, levelled, and then a new DPM applied (he suggested epoxy).
Firstly - would love any thoughts folks here have on this situation and the recommendation in general. (Should we lay a screed on top of the new DPM? Should we dig the concrete slab out slightly so as not to raise the new floor level too much?)
Secondly - one major issue this causes for us is that we were originally planning to track CH pipes through the concrete (they are currently exposed and hung on the walls, looking terrible.) But I'm guessing this is basically impossible now as you wouldn't want to bury pipes in moist concrete and then bring them up through holes in the DPM, right?. Tell me if there is a way to do this! OR, is there a means of hiding the pipes that doesn't require lots of boxing in / joinery?
Problem 2: (Apologies if I should have posted this in another sub-forum, just let me know...) My damp inspector also took the time to drill into our wall cavities in a few locations because damp is also associated with the walls. Now, part of this problem is that in the past someone has plastered right down to floor level, so the plaster is touching and clearly transferring moisture from the wet, poorly damp-proofed slab (see above). However, there also appears to be some rubble sporadically located at the bottom of the cavity, just above the DPC, which is likely bridging the cavity and bringing moisture across from outside. He didn't find huge amounts of rubble, and it's not consistently present along the walls, but there's enough there to warrant removal, he said.
By the way, we have polystyrene bead cavity wall insulation.
My question here - is it ever possible to get that rubble out without the insulation beads whooshing out everywhere or are we almost certainly looking at insulation extraction / re-insulation as part of this job??
Thanks in advance. We have been having such a stressful time with this lately and would really appreciate any help and advice.
I won't bore you with the whole list of problems but there are two things I was hoping for some advice on.
Problem 1: We found signs of damp throughout the ground floor and I've had a couple of specialists round to investigate it. One was extremely thorough and spent several hours trying to work out what was causing the timbers in the above photo (which are in the living and dining room) to read very high moisture content. (In the photo you can see where an old fireplace was. There's also damp issues with the chimneys and walls, but let's put those to one side for now - the problem I'm referring to here is that the timber floor, in all locations, registers moisture, which is coming from below.)
So, upon lifting a piece of the timber floor, he found it was laid over the concrete slab on what looks like a painted bitumen layer - the old DPM. I understand this is fairly common in properties of this age? (I should say at this point that there is parquet flooring in the hallway, same thing - also over a layer of bitumen on concrete. And yes, this timber too is moist.) Anyway, the issue is that now, 70-odd years later, the DPM has apparently begun to fail. In the living / dining rooms there are also wooden battons perpendicular to the flooring timbers at 500mm intervals, laid into the concrete. These were possibly dipped in bitumen before setting but are also, now, moist.
It seems as though the bitumen did its job for many years as the timbers haven't (quite) begun to rot yet, but they are very definitely damp throughout.
The damp guy's assessment is basically that all of this timber will have to come up and the floor cleaned, levelled, and then a new DPM applied (he suggested epoxy).
Firstly - would love any thoughts folks here have on this situation and the recommendation in general. (Should we lay a screed on top of the new DPM? Should we dig the concrete slab out slightly so as not to raise the new floor level too much?)
Secondly - one major issue this causes for us is that we were originally planning to track CH pipes through the concrete (they are currently exposed and hung on the walls, looking terrible.) But I'm guessing this is basically impossible now as you wouldn't want to bury pipes in moist concrete and then bring them up through holes in the DPM, right?. Tell me if there is a way to do this! OR, is there a means of hiding the pipes that doesn't require lots of boxing in / joinery?
Problem 2: (Apologies if I should have posted this in another sub-forum, just let me know...) My damp inspector also took the time to drill into our wall cavities in a few locations because damp is also associated with the walls. Now, part of this problem is that in the past someone has plastered right down to floor level, so the plaster is touching and clearly transferring moisture from the wet, poorly damp-proofed slab (see above). However, there also appears to be some rubble sporadically located at the bottom of the cavity, just above the DPC, which is likely bridging the cavity and bringing moisture across from outside. He didn't find huge amounts of rubble, and it's not consistently present along the walls, but there's enough there to warrant removal, he said.
By the way, we have polystyrene bead cavity wall insulation.
My question here - is it ever possible to get that rubble out without the insulation beads whooshing out everywhere or are we almost certainly looking at insulation extraction / re-insulation as part of this job??
Thanks in advance. We have been having such a stressful time with this lately and would really appreciate any help and advice.
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