I recently bought a big 3 story house. now having problems with damp. Was going to get front of house pointed but the quotes came back very high £2000 so ive decided im doing the work myself between workly daily 12 hour shifts

So far ive started to point the bottom section of house taking out 10mm and the filling in with mortar. Im also using a water resistance product so hopefully will stop damp in future.

Its a big project and I think i was abit impulsive because buying this house has left me skint so just doing the jobs from my monthly pay packet.

Any tips or share your stories on DIY and house renovating.

This is the product im going to be getting to waterproof my walls.

www.aquasealeurope.co.uk/doitall.asp

Congrats on your new house

Me and Mr PS bought a stone coal miners cottage a couple of years back and we have damp. Basically the cottages round here have no foundations and they are built straight onto the mud.

We had to take the render off the house because it was shot and that was letting in water and trapping it between the render and the stone. Unfortunately we are in a boggy area so the damp is difficult to get rid of. We re-dug the French drainage system with our neighbour. That's bacically a trench running along the outside walls of our houses where the water can collect. It then drains away into the ditch. The affected wall still hasn't dried out. Because we have a stone cottage we cant do much damp-wise and the best thing to do is to make sure the stones can 'breathe'.

I do know that keeping the house heated helps. We have a wood burning stove in the dampest room and we installed central heating and this has helped somewhat. I don't know whether your house is old or new or brick or stone, but I do know that damp is sometimes just one of those things you have to manage and put up with in an old house.

We did have trouble with leaks around chimneys, the extension roof etc. If you have anywhere the water is getting in you need to address all of that first.

Edit* What I'm trying to get at is do you know where all of this damp is coming from? The cause will dictate your course of action. Sorry to say this though, we have ended up paying considerably more than £2000 on sorting out damp and damp related issues in the house so far!

LesleyPumpshaft wrote:
Its brick built 1950 ive got abit of damp coming from firebreast wall so doing that next year hopefully everything will be ok. The only reason i got this house is because it was going cheap. 6 years ago it would of been going for 20 grand extra but due to housing slump houses have gone down in price.

I can see outside where the damp is coming from theres holes between bricks so hopefully once the pointing is done less damp. Also my upvc door is cracked and sealers gone so getting new door soon.

I know how you feel lesley nightmare when you first move into your new house i was looking forward to it then jobs kept popping up from no-where. Hope you get cottage sorted.

Hopefully the masonry paint and pointing will sort lot of the damp out.

nirvana wrote:
I,m assuming from your choice of product, that its a brick house.
Before you do any work you would need to identify exactly what type of situation you have here. Is it rising damp, penetrating damp, surface condensation or interstitial condensation due to insulation , blocked air bricks, sealed ventilation ducts ect.
many folks spend 1000,s on repairs, only to find out later, there was a cheaper solution.
If its down to pointing on the brickwork, its more labour than expense. raking out the old mortar, and pointing in the new, making sure to weather the joint away from the brick surface. Any broken bricks, drill out the middle of the brick, and break out the rest, replacing it with an appropriate type of brick.
Where is the damp most prevalent, and have you had it professionally assessed, and how was that done. You probably know by now there are brick chasing tools that you can hire to make the job a bit easier.

gris..

Thanks Nirvana, all the important stuff has been done. This is what we had to do so far:

Remove render and repoint stone with lime mortar
Re-build chimney
Remove two dangerous chimneys
Install wood burner
Replace joists
Install central heating
Suring up various bits and bobs that were leaking
Re-plastering b/cause of damp.
Drainage system.

Now we can actually decorate and make the place look nice. We need a new kitchen and new bathrooms - more expense!

Tbh your place doesn't sound bad at all compared with the place we bought You'll be fine and it sounds like a great place for you and your family

Where is your pvc door cracked. If its a panel, it can be replaced, as well as all the sealing gaskets. gaskets can be bought on a roll, and cut to size and pressed in the groove.

gris..

Griswald wrote:

Hi gris yes the damp is coming from mainly pointing and a broken and cracked upvc door. The two walls where the damp is set in have holes missing in the brick work on the external. The front reception room and the first floor bedroom are more or less the same
and externall the walls are the same massive gaps that need pointing.

The other bit of damp im just assuming its coming from chimney as its on firebreast and also same place on the fist floor back bedroom.

Im in no rush i live by myself so just doing little jobs myself and getting bigger jobs done every time i get my monthly pay. House is upside down but I'll get there in the end.

Rising damp myth or fact?


www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-n...hief/5204095.article


www.askjeff.co.uk/rising_damp.html

Old houses were designed to breath and sealing them can make the problems worse, my son is a stonemason and has seen this all too many times in the past where the wrong materials had been used.

If the dam cannot get it it also can't get out, capilliary action can.create a damp patch many yards away and also humans breath transpiration around 1.5 ltr of breath moisture a day at sleep this also contains minute food starches that molds love.

The old builders often used a technique called slighting where the stones were carved in such a way that they shed water on a prevailing wall, then some bright spark renders such a lovely wall with modern materials for the problem to get worse.

Best getting a quote first even if it costs.



nirvana wrote:

nirvana wrote:
Correct, mostly myth, hence my first post about folks spending 1000,s on incorrect solutions. Thats why its essential to get it correctly assessed i the first instance. There are situations where a breakdown in the dampproof course will allow water to rise through the brickwork due to capilliary action. There are also cases of no damproof at all in some early stone buildings. I have seen cases of water treatment as opposed to chemical damp proog course, injected into the base of walls in stone buildings. Of cource the liquid disappears below the building offering no solution, and a large bill.
Your chimmney firebreast leak is probably due to flashing joints, along with mortar joints, or possibly cracked flued liners, along water to seep through to the wall surface. But this would probably be highlited by staining from soot ect.
Chimmney repairs other than pointing , may involve opening sections in the chimmney breast, if you need to replace flue liners, in stages. Or a specialist contractor to pour in a new concrete lining within the existing chimney.
At 3 storeys high, how do you propose to tackle your chimney.

griswald

Griswald wrote:

At the moment i havent got a clue how im going to tackle chimney may get someone in when i can afford it.

Theres no staining from soot.

nirvana wrote:
I suppose externally on the chimnney, access wise you would have 2 choices, cherry picker or scaffold. But either of these would require a certain level of skill to accomodate. Plus the fact, if you are attached to another building, that also brings its own head aches ect, insurance blah, blah,
How are you going to point up higher than 6 feet from the ground,

gris..

Griswald wrote:

Im going to use my step ladders for next part scrape out 12mm then refill. Next proboly ladders . I got a pair of extended ladders out the other week and my mate got his to change front of house guttering. Very scary being up that high just on a ladder. Ive got a sky lihght so may just climb out to fix chimney not ideal i know

nirvana wrote:
Forget the ladders for anything over 16' for that type of repair. Apart from the safety aspect, its not safe for the type of job you are doing. Hire, or buy 2nd hand, a demountable tower. And sell it on after the job is done, you wont lose money. Your type of work requires 2 hands, how do you propose to hold on to the ladder. Its a non runner, unless you have a death wish. Access to the chimnney from the skylight is a slim option for the initiated working at heights, not for you I would suggest. be under no illusion working at 25+ feet for thosed not used to working at height, is like scaling the north face of the eiger. I,ve worked on demolition and roofing at height, along the border many years ago, with fek all scaffold, and trust me its not for the faint hearted.
Of course unless you are like me and can walk along a 2" ridge board at 50' high, I,d suggest either a cherry picker, or tower.

gris

It's a shame Dibhah wasn't still around he would have scaled those wall and built it in a day, he used to scare the living daylights out of me without rope or anything.

We have an amount of quickstage scaffold whenever we need to get up there, made it myself from reclaimed tube and homemade loops and wedges.
Griswald wrote:

Griswald wrote:

All the seals are comming away and the split in the door runs through two panels and the framed as lots of cracks in it .Wished i seen it befor hand i would of asked to have some money knocked of for door.

Griswald wrote:


The tower sounds a good idea gris. May have to look into this.Your proboly right im not really good with heights plus being about 19 stone may cause more problems up there

nirvana wrote:
Seals are an easy fix, and very easy for a diy,er. Cracks are also repairable in order to get a serviceable door until you get it replaced. Hard to give a fix without seeing it though, any chance of a pic.

The great old Fred Dibnah, an interesting man indeed
gris..

Griswald wrote:

Had a bit of luck with door managed to find a spot called cumbria trade fraames which sell upvc doors starting at £225 and £100 installed. So very happy because the cheapest for a while was £650. The door had cracks all over the place ,the fram was also cracked and letting water in the bottom so should be getting new door fitted once my pay cheque comes.

Ive started with the pointing well one day then it started raining so need to wait till it gets warmer. Could not afford the £1500 to point house so doing it myself between working 12 hours aday shift work .

The main problem now is damp to wall inside back reception room ,The wall is below main window {all seals ok} and pebble dashed outside. there looks like theres been some kind of leak because the carpet is stained down the edges of the underlay. But cannot see where the leak could of come from because its been rain last week or so and no leak.

I know i must of been stupid buying a 3 story house to renovate while working 70 to 80 hours a week. But just thought property would be better than a pension.

Had a bit of luck with door managed to find a spot called cumbria trade fraames which sell upvc doors starting at £225 and £100 installed. So very happy because the cheapest for a while was £650. The door had cracks all over the place ,the fram was also cracked and letting water in the bottom so should be getting new door fitted once my pay cheque comes.

Ive started with the pointing well one day then it started raining so need to wait till it gets warmer. Could not afford the £1500 to point house so doing it myself between working 12 hours aday shift work .

The main problem now is damp to wall inside back reception room ,The wall is below main window {all seals ok} and pebble dashed outside. there looks like theres been some kind of leak because the carpet is stained down the edges of the underlay. But cannot see where the leak could of come from because its been rain last week or so and no leak.

I know i must of been stupid buying a 3 story house to renovate while working 70 to 80 hours a week. But just thought property would be better than a pension. [/quote]

Thats not bad with the door then.
On the leak at the back window. Water may have needed time to penetrate, and work its way along to where it is now showing. that would indicate a small leak, thats managed to cross the inner cavity of the wall, if there is one, and then through the wall to where it is showing now. Around the window on the outside face of the window, where the concrete reveals hit the window face, is a possible place where it could leak. Normally on new window refits into a house, they leave on the existing reveals, and fit the window, and then seal here with a small bead of silicon sealent. Over time this breaks down, and it may allow water penetration around the window.
Have a look at it, and if you are i doubt, remove it, and buy a tube of silicon sealent, and a mastic gun, and reseal in dry weather.

griswald