4 replies to this topic

[daveholman]

Right I realise this is a mini forum but many people on here will live in a house so I'm assuming that some people may be able to help me out.

I'm currently in the process of buying a house. It's a 19th century end terrace farm cottage with solid stone walls and hard floors (stone is my guess but may be concrete). It needs complete renovation, most of which I am fine with, however, when I went to view I noted that there was some damp in the lounge. This appears on three walls; on the end exterior wall and the interior walls between the lounge and kitchen and the interior wall between the house next door. I believe this to be rising damp because it was visible on both the interior and exterior of the external wall and doesn't appear to be penetrating damp.

At a rough guess, it'll need at least the lounge doing, there doesn't appear to be any damp in the bathroom; which is also downstairs on the end wall, or kitchen but whilst I'm doing the lounge I may as well have these done to prevent problems later on. Obviously, this will all cost a couple of grand so will take a fair chunk of money which realistically could be used elsewhere in the property. For this reason I've done some research and have found some DIY kits which cost around £150 to £400 depending on type. These are a damp proof cream based system; you drill holes in the wall at regular intervals, inject the cream which then spreads through the mortar and prevents the damp travelling up the wall. Obviously on the websites the manufacturers claim that they are very effective at treating rising damp.

I was just wondering if anyone has come across these or know anyone who's used them and if so are there any recommendations or reviews that people can give me. Alternatively if anyone has any other suggestions on how to combat rising damp then any suggestions would be welcome.

Obviously, I'm just in the initial stage of making offers and the like but if I can get an idea about this damp proofing sooner then I'd be happier because it's the one thing that I'm slightly unsure about.

Thanks

Dave

[1995 MK2 IOM]

I've never seen such kits, but coming from a building background (I am only 25) we have used a similar kind of thing to stop damp from protruding into the buildings in old stone buildings... from my experience, it works very well. I cannot vouch for the DIY kits...

BUT... at £150-£400 it's not expensive if it doesn't work... as getting the professionals in would cost thousands...

Sorry I cannot give more advise on those kits.

Jason

[daveholman]

Thanks.

I would imagine the actual product is the same as is used by professional companies but they just package it and market it in smaller quantities and combine it with the injection equipment so that people can do it themselves.

[Dan]

If you are talking about products from Restoration UK I can tell you they do make good stuff. I haven't used the creams but did use a tanking system of theirs to convert a single skin shed into a dry lined space and it worked well. Although it will come to more than you expect by the time you buy all the stuff that needs to be used with the kit if it's anything like the system I used.

Before you do anything though, look for the source of the damp. It may be banked up ground levels outside, blocked or overflowing gutters, blocked ventilation, broken roof or anything like that. Damp always comes from somewhere and solid masonry walls are meant to be wet walls, the damp is supposed to evaporate off higher up on the outside. The shed I converted is damp due to something I have no control over (built partly into the ground on the neighbour's side) so I tanked it becuase it's essentially like a basement on one side. But tanking doesn't try to prevent the wall absorbing water or breathing, it just protects the inside surfaces and promotes air flow by creating an air space for ventilation and a barrier. If the walls are that old, and meant to be wet and have been wet for so many years, drying them could lead to severe movement and cracking.

Another idea that works to allow the walls to remain wet, and also insulate, is to line the inside with Calsitherm Cimate Boards. These are a German product (Calsitherm Klimaplatte) used to renovate historic brick structures to modern levels of insulation and damp prevention quite commonly in Germany. It's a 1", 1 1/4" or 2" panel that you bond all over the inside using special adhesive in place of the conventional plaster and then coat with their render/plaster. They also do thinner boards for lining window reveals and stuff. It is a ceramic panel with an open structure that allows moiture to move through it and progress up the wall to evaporate outside much the same as a tanking system does. It provides similar insulation levels to an insulated cavity wall too. Expensive though, but you can do one room at a time as you go. I was considering this for a solid masonry English bond house I was looking at buying last year. It's like tanking / dylining / insulating solid walls in one but only reduces the rooms sizes by a couple of inches. You may have to use a non-latex paint or breathable paper on the inside when it's finished though as it's similar to a lime plaster. Info at Klimaplatte.de (there is an English version).

[Bungle]

try your local hire shop they should be able to hire you the machine to inject the walls with damp proofing solution and supply the solution

no point buying it to use once