What's the best way to deal with rising damp?

Question

We bought a 110 year old house 3 years ago and were told at the time that there was some rising damp. I've a friend who's recently had this done and its expensive! With 2 kids I'm looking at ways of doing it myself, but wondered what people's experience is...

Answer 1

Hack of all the plaster on the inside walls to expose the stone or block work up to a metre from the floor. Check and treat any wet or dry rot. Have the walls injected with silicone. (You can't do that yourself, it is a specialised job.) Re-plaster the walls. This bit has to be done in stages. Fill up all the gaps or joints in the wall. Apply a first full coat of sand and cement. Allow to dry. Apply a second coat of sand and cement. You may have to add some waterproofing agents. Apply Plaster and skim. This is no easy job and if you mess it up it will cost you a fortune to put right. The other thing going against you is that if you do it yourself you won't get any written guarantee like you would with a builder doing the work. If you ever want to sell the property then this type of guarantee is a must. No guarantees, house is worth less.

Answer 2

Have a look at the Zurich website regarding a couple of "how to do" your rising damp.

Make no bones about it it is quite an involved job - As far as some other answers go I would not say it is a specialist job - when it's your own home you are likely to do it with more care than many commercial outfits. As far as guarantees - you can always get a surveyor along to have a look and certify the job has been done to a good standard - which is what many Builders do!

DPC can be done either as continious sheet or Silocone Injection - Sheet is far superior but more invasive do do sheet you need to cut wall with large angle grinder all the way round (in sections or your house will fall down!) supporting disturbed wall above with "acrow strongboys"/similar. back fill mortar and Silicone inject to inside skin. When you silicone Inject you will need to get the holes as regular as possible (usually 100mm apart) and in three rows again 100mm apart and going 3/4 to full thickness of wall. expect to use a tube every 4 inches or so!!!

You probably have bitumen paint on your floor and no DPM under the building. You will need to give some thought to this as the moisture trapped under the building will no longer be able to escape via the walls - and if too great a build up will simply blow the bitumen and you will have a bump or two in your floor!!! Thats why you see the air bricks at low level around many buildings to allow damp to escape UNDER the Ground floor not build up within it.........

Consider also/in addition French Drain right round the outside of your property. This is a ditch filled with hardcore gravel or topped with beach pebbles for decoration - There is a specification for this you will need to look up and when you do it the levels are important as you want the water to drain away not just be trapped in a trough. So will depend on Lie of your building if you will need a submersible pump.

Well there's plenty of food for thought there for you - you can email me if you want further info. but please do your own research first............

Happy Hunting

Dave (The Builder)

Answer 3

Where is the damp?? is this just a build up of condensation on the walls, or has your dpc (damp proof course) been bridged on the outside of your house ie garden/drive way, with a build up of earth, pathway/drive way laid above this level. This would then allow moisture to rise up through the brickwork.

As this is an old property the external walls are solid brickwork and not cavity as in new build houses...

Injecting a new dpc is not that expensive and you can claim off your insurance.

However this may also be a condensation build up, which means that your room has little or no ventillation.

Answer 4

first of all you do not state where the damp is rising ,eg: Kithen external wall tou drill 2'' in a strecher and 2'' in a header so on and so on you can hire all your tools including a pump with four rods attatchrd and look up your local dampproofer for the liquid make sur the ground out side is 4'' to 6'' below your step if it's internal lift the floor boards up get a moisture reader and check the walls out you can use the reader on all the walls.

good luck

Answer 5

Ohh Miss Jones

Answer 6

I have used electro osmosis damp proof courses in 3 houses now- http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/ELECTRICAL_DAMP_PROOF_COURSE.htm

The beauty of it is that you do not need to remove the plaster and can simply hide the wire behind the skirting board.

The plaster does not need removing, unless it is perished. Knock it with your knuckles and if it sounds hollow then it has blown and will probably need to come off!