J.A.S.'s fixing the damp & swimming pool in the house thread....

JustAnotherSaver

Well a bit of an update...

Spoke with our neighbours & learned a few things...

* They suffer quite bad from damp although it isn't right along the party wall like it is with ours. Theirs is big patches of visible blistering & water around the chimney breast from what we could see (i wonder if this relates to the flaunching needing doing on the chimney stack? Although doesn't help with our salts right across the wall).

* Apparently a beck runs right under our houses (ours, our neighbours & the 2 houses opposite us). However when we look on google maps there is no beck near us & we can't think of any beck near us, so we're not sure about this.

* Apparently the previous owner had a pump installed under the living room floorboards as when it rains a lot, the water level rises & the pump helps get rid (if this is correct then i hope this pump doesn't fail!! Or we get a power cut!!).

* Neighbour says their drain, in heavy rain, will spit the over off & they'll get waste spitting out. This happened once last year.

* A new building got built at a nearby uni, which puts extra load on the sewer system. I wonder if this is causing problems.

* Apparently our living room was recently decorated before the sale. Possibly to hide problems is my guess. If this is correct then the paper must've bubbled very quickly.

* Apparently we have no such issue with our drain/back garden as the groundwork was done proper - they went down a few feet & filled it in well & flagged the top.

* Neighbour says they get a wet carpet in their living room under heavy rain & i think they said around where the sofa was in ours can get wet too, or that might've been theirs. I've had a feel & it's dry there.


So, i don't know if this will cause any of our problems. Not sure about that beck. There is a beck but according to google maps the closest point is 1/2 mile away & it doesn't come near us (as in it doesn't come anywhere near our direction).

This pump is an interesting one. We were told under one particular bad rainfall, someone up the street had the water level almost at their floorboards.

Not sure what, if anything can be done to sort all that or if it contributes to our problem at all. As i say, i've felt our carpet & it's dry really. Neighbour did say that our house is actually ok, it's theirs that has the real wet problems.

So we're more informed than we were but no further forward. We still need an independent out, but who we believe, who's advice we act upon, i don't know.

cyclonebri1

Well It's not the best of news but you have done what needed doing by involving the nextdoors. The issue of rising damp not even existing is, as I mentioned earlier, a topic for discussion. The views are polarised.

I can relate to the pump issue. My 1st house was a typical terraced property. Built in 1876. The middle 1 of a block of 3. We all had full depth cellars that you could stand up in, but in winter they filled up with the water table, 1 would be 18" deep, ours about 12 and thew other side about 9". None of us suffered any form of rising damp, but it did stink in the cellars.

The neighbour at the deep end installed a pump at his cost, we didn't even know he'd done it, but ours being shallower drained 1st, so they do work. They are noisy though.

I can't help any further I'm afraid, but it is clear you need to find an outfit you can trust.
The stuff you find out after purchase would often have swayed you against the property.
But anyway, it shouldn't be that expensive.

Another option is to insert a physical dpc to the inner skin. It means taking out a layer of bricks in sections at at time all round the effected walls and inserting a physical DPC, lead shhet for example. It's hard work and messy but I've more faith in that than chemical proofing.

ormonde

If you are getting an Independent Damp Surveyor in then I would roll back the carpet and lift some floorboards ready for him to look under. We did this and were given good advice as to what was needed to be done.

cyclonebri1

The real issue is separating condensation from damp.;);)

JustAnotherSaver

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Well It's not the best of news but you have done what needed doing by involving the nextdoors. The issue of rising damp not even existing is, as I mentioned earlier, a topic for discussion. The views are polarised.

Agreed. The missus did a bit of reading on it & mentioned the use of canal bridges in their argument - how they don't get damp, but at the end of the day my head can't handle the debate. All i know is that as it stands, decorating is pointless, something needs to be done.

I can relate to the pump issue. My 1st house was a typical terraced property. Built in 1876. The middle 1 of a block of 3. We all had full depth cellars that you could stand up in, but in winter they filled up with the water table, 1 would be 18" deep, ours about 12 and thew other side about 9". None of us suffered any form of rising damp, but it did stink in the cellars.

Interesting.
We have no cellar, but tell me more about these pumps.
Are they prone to failure or are they generally ok?
What is the task of renewal/replacement? A nightmare, difficult job?
How good are they really?

I'm a pessimist, well, an extreme pessimist to be honest & a worrier to boot. I'm not a glass half empty man, i'm a glass has smashed & can't hold any fluid man.
On that note, i get visions of our house being swept away with the river.

However the previous owners have been in there for the past 14 years so can't be all bad. Plus i found a thread on here on my dinner from someone saying a sump pump solved their problem.

They are noisy though.

Is this a blanket statement or does it depend on type of pump or other factors? Are we talking pneumatic drill noisy?

Another option is to insert a physical dpc to the inner skin. It means taking out a layer of bricks in sections at at time all round the effected walls and inserting a physical DPC, lead shhet for example. It's hard work and messy but I've more faith in that than chemical proofing.

In a way i agree with you. The chemical stuff SHOULD do its job, but my head says that nothing will beat physical DPC if possible. Like with networking - i'm a fan of connection via cable, not wireless. Something physical.

ormonde wrote: »

If you are getting an Independent Damp Surveyor in then I would roll back the carpet and lift some floorboards ready for him to look under. We did this and were given good advice as to what was needed to be done.

To update on this i contacted 2 to enquire about their pricing last night & waited on their response today.

One was very local, the other was a bit of a drive away but still sort of in the region.

The one who is very local hasn't yet replied. The other chap replied very early, gave me his price, told me he'd meet my availability & said to give him a call.

So i'm thinking rather than wait, i'll just lump with the guy who actually replied. Approx £250.

As for the carpet & boards, that's getting done this weekend after we learned of this new info.

cyclonebri1

Ok, look in no way am I suggesting you need a sump pump installing, I am just elaborating on something you brought up with an example from my experience. Only detailed surveying of the problem will prove this.

Are they difficult to install, no, nor costly to run or maintain, but they are in a fairly inhospitable environment, ie, very damp/wet, so the electrics need to be treated as outdoors.
I used to have responsibility for several of these in industrial premises.
The principle is the same.
You need a small sump digging at the low point. The pick up of the pump is at this point. A float switch is sited slightly higher in the sump.
This cuts off the pump when the water level drops to that point, but leaves enough in the sump to enable to pump not to run dry.
The pump has to be a self priming pump for this purpose.

Regarding noise, the only residential 1 1 know of was the 1 installed by our neighbour.
The noise issue wasn't within the property, you could just here it running when it did, but bare in mind they likely won't run that often.
The issue was that like all old houses with cellars, there is an access for coal to be tipped and such like, (technically they were coal cellars). This was covered by a grating. It was actually more noisy from the outside than from the inside.
It didn't worry us, it was minimal in my view, but some obnoxious neighbour involved the environmental health dept.
I don't recall the outcome totally, but the pump stayed working.

zaax

If there is a pump you need to find where it is, if you can't hear it maybe is has packed up. They do last years but not for ever.

The water table needs to be taken below brick level.
Are you on clay?
There maybe a forgotten brook in a tunnel if this get blocked….

cyclonebri1

zaax wrote: »

If there is a pump you need to find where it is, if you can't hear it maybe is has packed up. They do last years but not for ever.

The water table needs to be taken below brick level.
Are you on clay?
There maybe a forgotten brook in a tunnel if this get blocked….

Sorry, that bit escapes me?

You cannot affect the water table in the small pocket of land you own. Whatever you do in/on your own premise, the water table level will be the same outside that, and the pressure exactly the same trying to gain access.
What you do is to try and remove it more quickly than it can gain access, a bit like a bilge pump in a boat.

zaax

We don't know what the ground is like but as the water table is so high it would indicate that impermeable clay is only a few feet down, and as water is staying around enough to cause damp is would also suggest the house is in a dip therefore pumping this 'just underground' pond out to a proper drainage system (sewer?) would alleviate this problem.

BUT there was mention of a brook / stream and this needs investigating with the local authority ie look at local maps etc., because the blocking of this would also cause problems these problems.

So yes you can lower the local ground water level if you can find out what the problem is, and sometimes your house is located at the bottom of this small marshy area.

fluffymuffy

Why are there two threads on this?

The exciting photos showing how the whole road drains down the steep drive and into the airbrick are on the other thread.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4840812