Water under floor

[dotz]

Hi all, I am new here and hoping to get some advice (sorry this is a bit long winded!!)

We have water under the floor (in the crawl space) of our house. We are pretty sure it is rain water as the level tends to get higher after rainfall!

I have taken advice on this in the past and was told it shouldn't be a problem as long as we have adequate ventialtion under the floorboards.

However, it now seems to be causing rising damp. We have a damp course on the exterior walls so they are not so bad (but I think there is still some damp getting through) but there is now rising damp on internal walls too! The worse affected wall doesn't even extend right down to the ground but there is a brick pillar supporting it under the floor which I guess the water is travelling up?

I would really like to get this sorted before it starts to cause major problems but I don't know where to start!

I also worry that taking away the water will cause the clay soil to dry out and lead to subsidence.

Some other useful info:
Semi detatched
Clay soil
Soil base, no evidence of any membrane, concrete etc... under house
Road on a very slight slope
Neighbouring houses suffer same problem
Neigbours have reported past problems of gardens flooding

Many thanks in advance for your time!

 

[Dangermaus]

You need to get a specialist in. There's obviously a drainage problem in that area.

You need to solve the problem of where the water comes from foremost. Then drain and allow to dry out. Once completely dry you can then make any repairs the are necessary.

Have you spoke to your buildings insurer??

Cheers

 

[dotz]

Thanks for your reply!

No we haven't spoken to the insurer yet. What kind of specialist would be required? A drains company?

Cheers

 

[Dangermaus]

You could try a drain company. But I was thinking a structural engineer.

Cheers

 

[dotz]

Ok great, will look into this then.

I'm not sure how it would work with the insurance as we are a semi and next door don't seem too bothered about getting it sorted so not sure if they would want to get their insurance involved But I guess they will have to be some way involved as it affect both houses!