Cellar floor...any advice?

mignon_2

We have a cellar in our house, it's not damp, but obviously with all cellars there is a risk.

We didn't get it professionally tanked as we couldn't afford it (£12,000 upwards!!) and it'll be used as a laundry room, not a bedroom.

We used tanking slurry on the walls and battened the wall. It's not perfect, should last ten years or so.

We have not door the floor yet, we want to leave space for any water that may accumulate on the walls to flow down and into the drain.

Any advice on this?

dampdaveski

Hi Mignon,
when you battended the wall, did you drill through the tanking slurry?
It's difficult to give advice / opinions on a subject like this when you havent seen the property however I can initially think of a couple of options

If it's the original floor and it is relatively good condition you could fit a sump and pump system (google delta mambranes, safegaurd europe, triton, wykamol, newton membranes etc)

If the floor is in poor condition then you ought to consider replacing the floor in concrete and incorporating a sump & pump system

I would say that carrying out any form of partial waterproofing in a basement can be very risky, this is because at the moment you could have a small amount of water vapour entering the basement that is spread over a large area, if you replace the floor including a membrane you still have that same amount of water vapour trying to enter the basement BUT over a smaller area, this could result in actual water entering your cellar.

Again it is very difficult to give advice wothout seeing it, as your external ground conditions (i.e. clay, sandy soil etc) could make all i've put above irrelevent

My suggestion is to get some advice from a member of the property care association

Good luck
DD