Water ingress

[Simon Anderson]

Hi I was hoping someone could help. After an absolutely massive deluge of rain this evening (local area very flooded) I noticed that water had got into the kitchen of our recently renovated house. Along one of the external walls there was a small amount of water coming through under the skirting boards and actually sitting on top of the skirting board where it joined the wall (there was no water coming down the wall so this water must have come up from behind the skirting).

In the last 12 months we had the solid floor dug out and a new damp proof membrane put down and the floor was then concreted. The finished floor level is approx 4ft above the path at the side of the house but it is a solid floor below the kitchen floor that had previously suffered rising damp so we had 50cm dug out and then all necessary damp membranes and concrete applied to resolve this issue.

Obviously a lot of work went in to getting this house sorted and we have a brand new spanking kitchen. I am worried that there has been a breakdown in the damp proof membrane in this area and that this has caused this problem.

When looking at the external wall there did not appear to be anywhere that there is likely to have created this water ingress.

There was only a v small amount of water and it was truly biblical for 2 hours - this problem has never arisen in the last 6 months so I guess this is not likely to happen regularly, however, I am worried about it.

Does anyone have any views on the cause of this or is this something that can occur in a situation like this when the rain ground water levels rise dramatically in a very short period of time?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[big-all]

maybe running down the cavity entering above any window or from the roof
above the skirting means water at or above that level from any source
it can come from hundreds off paths so more detective work is required

 

[Simon Anderson]

Thanks for the response Big.

Old house so no cavity. The small bit of water was very localised to one 6 inch location and not really near to a window. Whilst I agree the top of the skirting being damp was a total mystery to me the walls above were definately not wet nor was the ceiling damp.

The majority of the water was coming from the very small joint between skirting and wooden floor. Like I say it was horrific outside last night and caused major floods locally and only a very small amount of water was visible. However, the height that the floor is from the side of the house makes me believe that the water ingress has not come from penetrating through the wall and I can only assumne it must be rising through the solid sub base.

The builder who installed this only finished on site around 6 months ago - is it time for a chat with him in regards to this?

Cheers.

 

[big-all]

hows the pointing outside
is the damp proof membrane intact and 6" above the ground level outside

 

[Simon Anderson]

All re-pointed in the last 12 months and the DPC in the external walls is well above 6".

 

[big-all]

do you have high ground nearby
the water is either being forced up and escaping under your floorboard or entering the wall above and zig zagging throught the infill
check your guttering and downpipe
check for damp patches in the attic??