Rising Damp

Odster

I moved into a Victorian ground floor flat, 6 months ago. It has a suspended floor with ventilation grills on the external walls.

We've found that there is a minor damp problem in the front room. The wall feels slightly cold and damp to the touch but it's not particularly mouldy and the plaster is still in tact.

I'm loathed to pull up the floor for such a minor issue so I decided to take 2 courses of action:
1) pull out the ventilation grills and scrape out and debris that has collected under the floor.
2) dig a small trench (1.5ft deep) along the outside of the front wall and fill it with rubble to allow for better drainage.

I've done 1) already and there was a lot of debris in there, so that may well solve it alone. Doing 2), my neighbour has commented suggesting that it will be bad for the foundations to dig a trench for drainage.

My question is, will digging a trench advesly affect the property in any way?

cheers!

ListysDad

Only if it goes below the footings! Tis piffle if its a little un.

What's the root cause of the problem? You obviously know to have decided on the actions you have...

Odster

ListysDad wrote: »

Only if it goes below the footings! Tis piffle if its a little un.

What's the root cause of the problem? You obviously know to have decided on the actions you have...

Thanks. I actually don't know the root cause but there's a fair amount of surface water around after it rains and the building is built on clay ground. the damp proof course should be preventing the rising damp so I guess that has been compromised but I would have to pull up tiled flooring to investigate properly.

I'm hoping that removing the debris and improving drainage will mean that we're less reliant on the damp proofing. I understand that this may seem like an odd way of doing things!

ListysDad

The only reason I ask is cos I don't see any point in doing work (spending) needlessly! Without being rude, get the root cause found and sort it. Then you can get on with life; unless of course you like scrabbling about!

Canucklehead

Odster wrote: »

I moved into a Victorian ground floor flat, 6 months ago. It has a suspended floor with ventilation grills on the external walls.

We've found that there is a minor damp problem in the front room. The wall feels slightly cold and damp to the touch but it's not particularly mouldy and the plaster is still in tact.

I'm loathed to pull up the floor for such a minor issue so I decided to take 2 courses of action:
1) pull out the ventilation grills and scrape out and debris that has collected under the floor.
2) dig a small trench (1.5ft deep) along the outside of the front wall and fill it with rubble to allow for better drainage.

I've done 1) already and there was a lot of debris in there, so that may well solve it alone. Doing 2), my neighbour has commented suggesting that it will be bad for the foundations to dig a trench for drainage.

My question is, will digging a trench advesly affect the property in any way?

cheers!

We did similar with a former property i.e. put in a french drain around the entire place (sold it to a solicitor;)) Great advice at Bricks & Brass.

HTH

Canucklehead

ListysDad

Great recommend!