Chimneys, old houses, damp courses...

PurpleDuck

We had our coal heating replaced last year so we don't use the fire place any more. Someone has just mentioned that we need to get the chimney capped now. I have no idea what this involves Will it be expensive? The money fairies have been and spirited all our cash away (old house endless problems) so the thought of more expense is just :eek:

Also do injected damp courses need to be renewed after a certain length of time? Ours was done about 15 years ago I guess (before our time here) and it says on the paperwork that its valid for 10 years so does that mean we have to get it done again? Our house seems to be always damp but I'd put that down to being and old welsh stone built house. Its dripping with condensation the whole time which doesn't help with the I'm sure. I have dehumidifiers which take pints and pints of liquid out a day and its still wet everywhere :mad:

Thank you

twodogsbluearmy

Not sure about most of your questions but re the condensation...
it's worth trying the obvious free things...
Put lids on you pans when cooking.
open a window when cooking.
fit an extractor in bathroom/kitchen.
don't dry clothes in on the radiators.
check to see if you have any penitrating damp

Once you get into spending money...
Trickle vents and Air Bricks are the best option first. although that didn't work for us. We then had a Dehumidifier which improved the situation, but we still had some condensation and clothes that were in fitted cupboards that were next to outside walls tended to smell musty. we also found the Dehumidifier noisy. we went for the calling in of the profesionals and paid £500 for a Drimaster http://www.nuaireforhomes.co.uk/drimaster2000.shtml.
i would advise going for the cheapest options first, and see if any of them cure your problem.

Don't you just love old houses, ours is just about livable after 5 years of work...

PurpleDuck

Thank you. I've done most of the normal things to stop water vapor (windows open when cooking etc) and air bricks are a no no as we've got 3ft thick stone walls. The amount of moisure we have I doubt they'd help much anyway. Having proper heating has helped a lot but its still like living in a swamp somedays.

I've just been quoted £542 for one of those Drimaster systems (from the comapny that makes them) but that doesn't include fitting and we'd have to find a fitter ourselves. I really like the sound of them. Are you impressed with it? Does it do what it says on the tin? lol
It does sound like the answer for us but its a lot of money for us.

10 years we've been here and it was only last year we got heating :eek: Old houses - they are loosing their appeal....

Debt_Free_Chick

PurpleDuck wrote:

Also do injected damp courses need to be renewed after a certain length of time? Ours was done about 15 years ago I guess (before our time here) and it says on the paperwork that its valid for 10 years so does that mean we have to get it done again? Our house seems to be always damp but I'd put that down to being and old welsh stone built house. Its dripping with condensation the whole time which doesn't help with the I'm sure.

I hate to say this, but the cause of the condensation is probably the injected damp course :eek:

Stone "breathes" so that any condensation would have passed through the walls. Now it can't escape through the damp course and the result is condensation.

You need to increase the ventilation so that the moisture can escape.

twodogsbluearmy

We looked in the Yellow Pages for DampCo and they came around and recomended it and the £500 was for fitting as well, it also had a 30 day trail and if it didn't work we didn't have to pay :beer: (which was good as we were worried about spending that amount of money). All i can say is that it worked very very well for us and we have been more than happy with it.:j

i have found a website with info on which could help.
http://www.ovolopublishing.co.uk/housebuildersupdate/2005/09/how-good-are-positive-input.html

i guess if you can find someone to recommend it and install it with a money back garantee then you don't have much to lose. we used http://www.dampco.net/ but they are based near us.

I'd still rather have an old house with character big rooms and a big garden, than a new build. (although some days i do question that;) ).

PurpleDuck

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

I hate to say this, but the cause of the condensation is probably the injected damp course :eek:

Stone "breathes" so that any condensation would have passed through the walls. Now it can't escape through the damp course and the result is condensation.

You need to increase the ventilation so that the moisture can escape.

I hope its not. The previous people here cleared all the downstairs walls so they are all exposed stone so I guess in theory the moisture should be able to escape as the injected damp course is only at the bottom of the walls. We've tried to increase ventilation the best we can but we can't do any more except leave the windows open 24-7 which we can't do as a)we'll freeze and b) we live right next to a very busy main road (front door opens onto it).

Old houses are a pain :rolleyes:

PurpleDuck

twodogsbluearmy wrote:

We looked in the Yellow Pages for DampCo and they came around and recomended it and the £500 was for fitting as well, it also had a 30 day trail and if it didn't work we didn't have to pay :beer: (which was good as we were worried about spending that amount of money). All i can say is that it worked very very well for us and we have been more than happy with it.:j

i have found a website with info on which could help.
http://www.ovolopublishing.co.uk/housebuildersupdate/2005/09/how-good-are-positive-input.html

i guess if you can find someone to recommend it and install it with a money back garantee then you don't have much to lose. we used http://www.dampco.net/ but they are based near us.

I'd still rather have an old house with character big rooms and a big garden, than a new build. (although some days i do question that;) ).

Looks like I shall have to do some investigating. That website didn't think much to it did they? I'm going to start doing some ringing around as your £500 sounds like a bargain. I don't think my DIY stills are up to fitting it myself.

I have a big garden but small pokey cottage rooms. The only thing going for the place when we bought it was that it was very cheap and unlike everywhere else we could afford was actually livable in - just :rotfl:

benood

Hi - first post on this MSE your problem sounds similar to one on a building we renovated a few years ago - it was really difficult to decide what approach to take - fan assisted ventilation, new damp proof course, or extra wall insulation - all the options seemed like a leap in the dark and the so called specialists weren't prepared to say anything they did would definitely solve the problem!!!

However - you can test your existing damp proof course with relatively cheap self adhesive indicators plus we paid £70 for an independent condensation report - which was money well spent - it confirmed that the problem was condensation and gave us options on how to solve it - basically fans or insulation - insulation (solves the cause) is a high up front cost while a fan (treats the symptoms) is initially cheaper but in the long run needs to be maintained.

In retrospect we should have knocked the whole place down and built new! However, your Welsh cottage sounds much nicer than our jerry built wreck on a disused gasworks.

PurpleDuck

benood wrote:

Hi - first post on this MSE your problem sounds similar to one on a building we renovated a few years ago - it was really difficult to decide what approach to take - fan assisted ventilation, new damp proof course, or extra wall insulation - all the options seemed like a leap in the dark and the so called specialists weren't prepared to say anything they did would definitely solve the problem!!!

However - you can test your existing damp proof course with relatively cheap self adhesive indicators plus we paid £70 for an independent condensation report - which was money well spent - it confirmed that the problem was condensation and gave us options on how to solve it - basically fans or insulation - insulation (solves the cause) is a high up front cost while a fan (treats the symptoms) is initially cheaper but in the long run needs to be maintained.

In retrospect we should have knocked the whole place down and built new! However, your Welsh cottage sounds much nicer than our jerry built wreck on a disused gasworks.

Thank you. Extra insulation is out as it will ruin the look of our exposed stone walls About the only feature of this place worth keeping. I shall have a look for those damp indicators and we are in the process of investigating ventilation and damp specialists. I feel if we can just crack the damp that this house will actually be a home instead of somewhere we tolerate.

I dunno - the knocking it down and starting again appeals right now :rotfl:

Debt_Free_Chick

PurpleDuck wrote:

we are in the process of investigating ventilation and damp specialists.

A friendly word of caution, if I may. Do consider paying a specialist surveyor with knowledge of both damp and stone buildings to give you advice.

If you go to a company that sells so-called solutions, then their "advice" is likely to be that you need to buy one of their products/services :rolleyes:

The advanced search on the RICS website should help.

Regards

never_enough

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

A friendly word of caution, if I may. Do consider paying a specialist surveyor with knowledge of both damp and stone buildings to give you advice.

If you go to a company that sells so-called solutions, then their "advice" is likely to be that you need to buy one of their products/services :rolleyes:

The advanced search on the RICS website should help.

Regards

Having had several properties with damp&/or condensation prob I think debtfreechick has hit the nail on the head. I had 'solutions' on offer from various damp specialist companies ranging in price from about £1K to over £12K.
I've no knowledge of stone buildings but a few things that helped me at differant times were:
Removing any concrete or earth higher than the dpc.
French drains.
Opening windows as much as possible.
A dehumidifier.
Trickle vents on windows.