Old houses and damp

[500e]

I think one of the few things leading to me being divorced would coming home & saying Dear we are moving to a 200year old house, when I met her she lived in a 250 year old farm house, the day we got married she mentioned old houses I took the hint.

 

[wookie]

There's nowt wrong with old houses, it's just you need people who understand how they work rather than trying to "fix" them with modern ideas and materials that aren't suitable.

Our house is a welsh cottage around 200 years old, so stone walls, no damp proof course, rubble/soil filled walls etc. When we moved in the damp was horrendous because the previous owners were idiots that had tried to hide the damp behind plasterboard etc rather than letting the place breathe.

The biggest improvement we did was a field drain along the back of the house, we're on a hill so the water runs down, then hits the back of the property and just soaks in. As others have said we ripped everything back to the stone walls opened up vents etc and have no problems now with damp, we do get a little mold in the odd corner where there isn't much ventilation but that's it.

I'll never go back to a modern house again, this place is warm in winter and cool in summer, our modern house was okay in winter and too hot in summer, especially the south facing rooms.

 

[gaz1]

There's nowt wrong with old houses, it's just you need people who understand how they work rather than trying to "fix" them with modern ideas and materials that aren't suitable.

Our house is a welsh cottage around 200 years old, so stone walls, no damp proof course, rubble/soil filled walls etc. When we moved in the damp was horrendous because the previous owners were idiots that had tried to hide the damp behind plasterboard etc rather than letting the place breathe.

The biggest improvement we did was a field drain along the back of the house, we're on a hill so the water runs down, then hits the back of the property and just soaks in. As others have said we ripped everything back to the stone walls opened up vents etc and have no problems now with damp, we do get a little mold in the odd corner where there isn't much ventilation but that's it.

I'll never go back to a modern house again, this place is warm in winter and cool in summer, our modern house was okay in winter and too hot in summer, especially the south facing rooms.

mums house is old its been registered with first survey done of propertys in the area it was like an old one room building

leeds college came out asking questions and took pics of the old oak beams in house we know its 250+ years old

no damp coarse somewhere around 20" thick walls cavity filled rubble and soil as goes for foundations very little below ground

as quoted hotish in winter loverly and cool in summer

it has damp but you tend to live with it sometimes

 

[knighty]

watch that guys videos - he's bloody good with damp

shows examples, explains things etc.

 

[frank horton]

just to add to addjunkie's words,
if u need to keep the outside ground hight the same......there's a plastic sheet made to be placed next to the wall....it provided's a slight gap for the water to draind down and into a ground drain....u do need to dig the ground out but once the sheet is installed next to the wall u can put it back.....BUT I'd back fill with gravel.......also where poss have the ground level tipping away from the house......
frank

 

[DennisCA]

Not saying sealing it in is ideal but sometimes when it's basically a cellar not much else you can do.

I think sealing the outside is more viable when we're dealing with underground portions, though the soil around the walls should be replaced with capilary action breaking gravel and french drains to lead the water away from the house. Platon membrane for instance.

 

[8ob]

In the process of renovating an old flint cottage dating back to circa 1700s. There’s evidence of damp in a few places (mostly where the outside ground level is higher than the inside floor level). Got a ‘damp specialist’ to survey the place and he’s basically recommending to inject all the walls with damp proofing silicone stuff and then tank the walls that are below ground level. To the tune of £4.6k

I was under the impression that any injection stuff was useless for flint walls and for older places you should focus on breathability rather than making things water tight?

Anyone got any experience with this?

My first house ( very old with solid walls) had rising damp and the mortgage company insisted I had the walls squirted or they would hold a retainer, had it done to get the guarantee and retainer released but it never worked. Long story short I got a bricky to install a proper DPC, he knocked a hole in the wall , put a full roll of dpc in the hole , bricked up behind the roll and knocked out more bricks in front of it. He did about a meter a day on each flank and I ended up with a continuous dpc . Cant find any reference to this method These days damp can be a deal breaker when trying to sell so worth getting it done in a fashion a surveyor would see fit.

Bob

 

[Burdekin]

Our floor at our cottage has been replaced but isn’t connected with the wall and is actually floating on the foundations. We have air vents under the floor level and roof vents which I suppose then keep the floor, wall and roof ventilated. We have however got new walls as well inside and have a couple of areas of damp from where muck has been trapped between the insulation and plasterboard and assume the new insulation has blocked the airflow in these areas. As per the pic that Gaz posted, for an old solid external wall house you need ventilation under the floor behind the wall and the roof space.

 

[addjunkie]

Before we bought this place there had been two previous anti damp attempts, so cable about a foot up the walls and silicone injected. Neither had worked.

All around the outside was a 3 foot wide concrete path. Pointing up the gable dropping out, rotton window frames, gutters full of grass. All windows siliconed up to stop draughts.

Before renovation, i pointed the gable, cleaned the gutters and opened up some vents, what a difference. When I dug the paths up there was like wet mud underneath against the lower stones. Now no paths and a drain. Covered in membrane and gravel to allow it all to breath.

 

[normspanners]

Many years ago I had the coating that was advised and advertised at the time to stop damp and allow the walls to breathe, after that I have had terrible damp problems on walls and I think it is a three fold issue, the wall was re rendered with cement based render, the coating then seals that anyway, and the wife drying cloths in the house (since stopped) after massive rows that everyone dries clothes in the house.

 

[Nomad]

I've been looking into damp in solid-walled buildings as I'm trying to buy an 1880s cottage.

Most buildings since 1930s have a damp proof course, surveyors don't see many pre-1900 houses so when they do see damp they're modern conditioning makes them jump to "it's damp - it needs a new damp proof course"
Modern "damp meters" measure using electrical current - materials used in older houses often conduct electric so the meter says damp even if it's dry.
The original design "breathes", using modern materials (plasterboard, gypsum plaster, PVA, chemical "damp proof" treatments) stops it breathing and you get damp.
An ex had similar damp problems in her stone cottage, the cause was a flower-bed built up at the front of the house, fixed by clearing the soil away and put a lower footpath in it's place.

some background info
https://www.historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/eehb-insulating-solid-walls/
http://greenbuilding.co.uk/insulating-masonry-walls-of-old-stone-cottages-and-listed-buildings/
http://www.oldbuilders.com/insulation centre/insulationcentre.htm?
http://www.superhomes.org.uk/resources/insulating-a-solid-wall/

 

[jenki]

I think silicone injection may work in a brick built house but with stone and rubble fill houses it is a waste of time and money IMHO. I feel addjunkie is correct dig out and put in french drains and a gravel backfill no soil near the house.
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings had some very useful and informative papers when I lived in an old cottage in mid wales 1980's ish and needed something to wave at surveyors used to newer buildings, not sure if they still exist.
Good like with the project.

 

[wookie]

he knocked a hole in the wall , put a full roll of dpc in the hole , bricked up behind the roll and knocked out more bricks in front of it. He did about a meter a day on each flank and I ended up with a continuous dpc

I thought you were going to say he put the whole roll in the wall rolled up and then bricked up the hole, so you could tell the insurance "there is now a DPC in the wall...."

I did a field drain around my garage when I built it as we cut into the hillside to make level ground to build on, everytime it rains hard the drain runs for at least a month afterwards as the water filters through the hill and down into my field drain. I once measured the flow a few hours after it stopped raining and calculated it was removing 100,000 litres every 24 hours for the first few days..

Yes I did do the sums correctly

 

[puffernutter]

We have an 1890's Victorian terrace with a Bath stone outer wall that is as damp as anything. At that age there is no damp proof course, but my suspicion is that the previous owners removed the wooden floor and replaced it with concrete, so we lost ventilation in that area. If we leave the windows cracked open it does improve, so my next job is to fit an air brick and see what that does.

Cheers

PN

 

[addjunkie]

We have an 1890's Victorian terrace with a Bath stone outer wall that is as damp as anything. At that age there is no damp proof course, but my suspicion is that the previous owners removed the wooden floor and replaced it with concrete, so we lost ventilation in that area. If we leave the windows cracked open it does improve, so my next job is to fit an air brick and see what that does.

Cheers

PN

Dig the concrete out. Often damp on solid walls is as simple as a warm damp to cold interface, just like condensation on a window. Gas fires are notorious for it, as are gas cookers, tumble dryers with out an outside vent. Removing moisture sources can be a huge help. As is ventilation. I had awful problems in the kitchen of my first place with a gas cooker. Insulated the walls and cooked with leccy. Issue fixed. Far cheaper than injected damp course etc as was suggested.

There are also systems that go in the loft and simplistically slightly pressurise the place with a small flow of dry air, these can help sort a general damp wall problem.

 

[brightspark]

my house had been injected twice and it all came back this was before tanking had been used. the 100 percent guaranteed fix was to remove 2 layers of bricks 3 foot long and knock diagonal wooden wedges in then re brick them back in using engineering bricks and cement with waterproofer in it and bang slate in to tighten them up then remove another meter till job done the backing plaster was done with hardwall plaster which is salt free then top coat with multifinish its been done now for 25 years with no problems it doesn't take long to do and u can clean the cavity out at the same time . the external walls I just drilled and re injected with injection cream, re pointed the whole house then sandblasted it and sprayed the walls with 2 coats of silicone . its bombproof