Old Concrete Floor

dave82_2

Hi,

I need to level my houses old concreat floor and all the way round the room there is a half inch chanel where the skirting board was fitted.

Is there a reason for this channel or can I simply fill it.

Once filled I will use a self leveling compound and an epoxy damp proof paint incase there is no existing DPM it is a 1928 house so there might not be!

Finally there are areas that I won't be able to apply the epoxy i.e. where the door frames meet the ground. Am I likely to experiance a problem in these areas?

Thanks Dave

themacster

All it means is that someone before you screeded over the original floor without removing the skirting boards for some reason. There's no purpose for the channel so you can fill it in.

Do you have any problems with damp floors at present, or have you had in the past? Are the bottoms of the door frames damp at all? Might be worth checking with a moisture meter. If not, I'm not sure adding an epoxy dpm is going to achieve much. Even if you did, it would have to be tied in to the wall damp-proof course (if there is one) in order to provide a complete seal against rising damp, or damp could still bypass the edge of the floor via the walls.

dave82_2

The floor seems fine there are two very small damp patches at floor level in two corners but I can see what is causing them externally so I will rectify the source of the damp first.

One is caused by the caused by a gap between our conservatory and the neigbours down which rain water falls. I am going to put lead between the two conservatorys to stop water going down the gap.

The other is caused by the neighbours garden being raised against the corner of the house. I will dig it down (once I speak to them about it) :-)

themacster

Yes, definitely get the level of the garden lowered to below the dpc - should be 150mm (6") below it. If the dpc is bridged, you will get damp coming through.

I remember you posting a photo a while ago on another thread about damp coming in at the base of your conservatory now and saying you were going to put some lead over the gap! You'll need to provide a plywood base on timber supports for the lead and flash it in to the surrounding brickwork - you can't just span the gap with the lead, it needs a solid base.

dave82_2

Cheers

Here is what the survey said