Are all cellars damp?

mufi

A friend has a cellar in a 100 year old house, and it's damp - doesn't give him any problems, but is this normal or is there something unusual about it?

Incyder

It's common as you get down to the water table. You can get them tanked, a sort of membrane painted over the inside can help loads. I expect thats why they are only useful for storing wine and keeping the occasional hostage in.

BitterAndTwisted

Depends on the geology and the altitude amongst other things. Deep cellars built on clay when there's plenty of constant rainfall will get damp as will those in Norfolk or the Netherlands. Deep cellars on a mountain-top in Saudi probably not.

Alybea

Depends.
Cellar in current house - Damp.
Houses half a mile away - Dry.

Depends on soil, water table, depth etc etc

joerugby

Beware of apparent quick fixes. There may be various problems e.g.

1. Rising damp - to fix this you will need to dig the floor up, fit a plastic membrane, then re-floor on top (e.g. with concrete)

2. Penetrating damp - tanking the walls could help together with dry lining but might not be 100% effective.

Damp is best treated by a specialist as if it gets into your timbers it can lead to dry rot, which can prove very expensive to eradicate.

Doozergirl

joerugby wrote: »

Beware of apparent quick fixes. There may be various problems e.g.

1. Rising damp - to fix this you will need to dig the floor up, fit a plastic membrane, then re-floor on top (e.g. with concrete)

2. Penetrating damp - tanking the walls could help together with dry lining but might not be 100% effective.

Damp is best treated by a specialist as if it gets into your timbers it can lead to dry rot, which can prove very expensive to eradicate.

In a cellar?

Cellars are supposed to be damp. Damp proof courses are above ground to prevent damp getting into the main building.

I'd expect every cellar in the UK, unless it had been specifically treated and converted, to be damp to some degree. Not rotting type of damp, but the ground is always going to be slightly moist and cellars are not treated against them. It's always good to keep them well ventilated - ours you can clearly see daylight through large vents.

Some cellars are 'wet' and that is quite normal too. It happens. We had a cellar once with a well in it. The people that bought it from us installed a pump and use the water to do the garden.

G_M

Only the damp ones are damp, the others are dry.

This is perfectly normal.

Make-it-3

So succinctly put G_M :rotfl:

G_M

Make-it-3 wrote: »

So succinctly put G_M :rotfl:

Yeah some of my posts just seem to go onandonand....

Others as you say, are....succinct.