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

JustAnotherSaver

EDIT - i'm not allowed to quote the report.

fluffymuffy wrote: »

Aco channel drains - I'd have one across the bottom of the drive, and another across the front of the house (you'd need to move those steps).

The bottom of the drive is the front of the house though..?

Also what'd you do regards steps - remove, fit channels & then put the steps back?

Part of the report also mentioned channeling close to the house. Would it perhaps be better to step it a few bricks away? Then again having just said that, the shape of the step doesn't allow for an ACO channel.

fluffymuffy

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

I don't know what fuffyM is advising re infill, but I'd say infill and convert your floor from suspended to solid concrete.
You can add several impervious membranes given the depth, the tide mark on your brickwork is way below you floor level.

Were it me I'd replace the whole floor - get rid of the joists and have a totally solid floor. But this will involve moving the plumbing and be a bit of an upheaval. So a softer solution might be to raise that subfloor with fill & slab. This will involve pulling up floorboards and putting them back.

fluffymuffy

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

The bottom of the drive is the front of the house though..?

Also what'd you do regards steps - remove, fit channels & then put the steps back?

Part of the report also mentioned channeling close to the house. Would it perhaps be better to step it a few bricks away? Then again having just said that, the shape of the step doesn't allow for an ACO channel.

I thought your drive continued past the house?

And yes, put the drain hard up against the front wall of the house. Remove the steps to do this - you can put them back if you bridge over the new drain. Once you've dug out for the drain against your house it would be a good moment to apply many coats of bitumous paint below the airbrick level down to as deep as you dig, and going right along where the drain will be.

JustAnotherSaver

fluffymuffy wrote: »

Were it me I'd replace the whole floor - get rid of the joists and have a totally solid floor. But this will involve moving the plumbing and be a bit of an upheaval. So a softer solution might be to raise that subfloor with fill & slab. This will involve pulling up floorboards and putting them back.

To be perfectly honest, like you, i prefer permanent to patch.

If the above was a possibility then i'm not sure why this damp fella didn't mention it. At this moment in time i can only guess that it wouldn't be suitable for some reason, but thanks for putting it forward as i'll certainly be putting it to him when i ready my questions up for his report. The Mrs has taken the report to work today so she can do up any questions she has & then i'll have a go.

I just wonder though ... the water is coming from somewhere. Will filling in that gap cause some sort of issue later on? Especially when the level gets quite high? I wonder.

fluffymuffy wrote: »

I thought your drive continued past the house?

Sorry, it does. I must've misunderstood you.

When you said bottom of the drive, i was thinking front of the house & not down the side of the house.

And yes, put the drain hard up against the front wall of the house.

I'm about to go get some late night shopping done but if i remember i'll try & get you a quote from the damp report about putting it up right against the house

.Once you've dug out for the drain against your house it would be a good moment to apply many coats of bitumous paint below the airbrick level down to as deep as you dig, and going right along where the drain will be.

1) What would you be painting? The wall of the house? Would you lay any membrane at all - visqueen?
2) We might've jumped the gun then. Fed up of doing nothing, i thought let's at least get the driveway done & contacted a chap for a quote. He's not a builder (or is listed as a landscaper). The Mrs found him & i have to say the photos he has on his site of his work look fantastic which is why i contacted him. His work list:

• Driveways
• Picture Framing
• Block paving
• Tarmacing
• Patios
• Fencing
• Decking
• Walling
• Turfing

So while he may be brilliant at what he does, i wonder if we should've opted for Bob the Builder for this if it should involve prepping for damp control?
I don't like to waste peoples time is all.

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

But, it really does seem that you are trying to drain the whole area, not just your own home.

What are you saying here?

We have the problem of the street & we're trying to do something we'll never be able to do?
We're getting carried away & thinking this water is our water where it's not? Sorry i'm just a bit lost.

On the topic of the street though, the road goes in a sort of U shape. Not quite that extreme, but it leads off the main road on a slope & then builds up again. We're quite central. I had a look at the central point (which happens to have a drain cover in the middle of the road - bang centre) & we're 3 houses up from that as the road begins to climb again.
I'm purely guessing here, but i wonder if the upper ends of the road wont have the issue, whereas the centre will be worst hit.

JustAnotherSaver

Just wondering here...

* What are your qualifications? I don't mean that in an offensive manner, but are any of you professionally into this, or did you just have a similar job done yourself & you learned bits from it, or your brothers mates cousin does this sort of thing? I don't want that question taken the wrong way. I'm just wondering where your knowledge comes from (question directed to anyone who will answer).

* Is it not vital to find out the source of this water? If yes, how do we do that? Is that something for the water board or elsewhere?

* I like the idea of a solid floor but i'm cautious about whether it'll work for us. That water has to go somewhere. You say out of the air bricks (i imagine we'd need more?). Is this really acceptable?

I did have other questions but i forgot them. Plus the Mrs left the report at her work which hasn't helped. I was planning on reading through it tonight & emailing the questions off tomorrow. I have it in pdf but tbh i find it much easier to digest on paper.

cyclonebri1

fluffymuffy wrote: »

Were it me I'd replace the whole floor - get rid of the joists and have a totally solid floor. But this will involve moving the plumbing and be a bit of an upheaval. So a softer solution might be to raise that subfloor with fill & slab. This will involve pulling up floorboards and putting them back.

As I think you'll see, I've come round to this way of thinking too, but if I where going to that trouble I'd slab to the final floor level, I'm sure an earlier post set there was dry rot in the joist ends, so that would still leave that to be addressed
Yes it will take a lot of hardcore base, but it will fix the issue I'm sure.

OP, the report is saying exactly what I was saying, your problem is condensation/evaporation from the lake below rather than rising damp. You must dry the top surface to prevent this either by pumping when needed or by raising the base level.

Use the pump or it's replacement short term and see how it goes, but I think you need to slab it to effect a proper fix.

dave_lunt2

Hi, I have been reading your dilemmas and I am in no way qualified to comment but I had a thought. When you pumped the water out and found it returned. Do you think the water that returned could be soaking through the ground from the adjacent property's and if you continued pumping a few more times then it might not return as frequently? I.e. Pump it, wait for water to return, pump it, wait for water to return etc and perhaps monitor the time the takes to fill back each time.

I might be completely wrong but just thought I would throw it out there. I wish you the best of luck trying to sort it out.

JustAnotherSaver

Thanks very much.

My issue with "see how it goes" is that we haven't yet moved in to the house proper, which we was wanting to do. We're currently paying mortgage but we still have to pay my mum board - double bubble. We planned on doing this anyway while we got the house right, before we found out how big a job 'right' was.

The upstairs, now we've been told the roof is ok, can be done. The bathroom is good to go as is (ok toilet top is chipped & the grab handle on the bath has come off, but this isn't vital & can be sorted way down the line).
The 2nd bedroom is good as is - nothing needs doing.
The box room just needs a lick of paint to get rid of the colour that's there.
The master bedroom just needs the black mould on the wall tending to & then wallpapering & that's that done for the upstairs.

The problem is downstairs & we're reluctant to get everything in (sofas, TVs etc) only to then face major work. We'd rather that major work got carried out while it's empty.

* I also have a concern about the price for this solid flooring. If we're talking £1000s then that's not so bad. If we're talking £10,000s then we can't do that. Concrete is expensive. Then there's the deal about how much hardcore/limestone (whatever gets used) is required & then the shifting of plumbing to God knows where.

dave_lunt2 .... Ahh, that must've been what was meant earlier in the thread about pumping the whole streets water out.
Just to say - after a good bit of rain last night, the level was at 4.75" today. Higher than the 4.50" level initially.



I must admit, so long as there's no big time downsides to the solid flooring (aside from cost), i am liking the idea of this. It just depends on 1) what disadvantages/problems this presents us with & 2) the cost.

JustAnotherSaver

The wife has come up with an interesting/worrying thought...

If you imagine the main road with 3 branches coming off it to your right, all these right turns within a couple 100 yards of each other. We viewed a house on each of these roads & bought the one that we did which is at the upper end (upper as being further up the main road which is a slope).

The wife raised the point that 2 of the houses we viewed had whopping great cracks upstairs in the corners. I don't mean wafer thin cracks, i mean CRACKS! She says they both did, i thought only one did (the other end, not the middle of the 3 right turnings).

Thinking about it, as the crow flies, i think they're all fairly in line with each other. The one we bought & the 2 we viewed, give or take a couple of houses.

Now the HB-survey didn't mention any subsidence, though the damp fella mentioned something. I think he said settlement but could've used another term.

So it boils down to - i wonder if this mystery does it exist, does it not, stream/beck, is causing these cracks?

Or maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves.

cyclonebri1

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Thanks very much.

My issue with "see how it goes" is that we haven't yet moved in to the house proper, which we was wanting to do. We're currently paying mortgage but we still have to pay my mum board - double bubble. We planned on doing this anyway while we got the house right, before we found out how big a job 'right' was.

The upstairs, now we've been told the roof is ok, can be done. The bathroom is good to go as is (ok toilet top is chipped & the grab handle on the bath has come off, but this isn't vital & can be sorted way down the line).
The 2nd bedroom is good as is - nothing needs doing.
The box room just needs a lick of paint to get rid of the colour that's there.
The master bedroom just needs the black mould on the wall tending to & then wallpapering & that's that done for the upstairs.

The problem is downstairs & we're reluctant to get everything in (sofas, TVs etc) only to then face major work. We'd rather that major work got carried out while it's empty.

* I also have a concern about the price for this solid flooring. If we're talking £1000s then that's not so bad. If we're talking £10,000s then we can't do that. Concrete is expensive. Then there's the deal about how much hardcore/limestone (whatever gets used) is required & then the shifting of plumbing to God knows where.

dave_lunt2 .... Ahh, that must've been what was meant earlier in the thread about pumping the whole streets water out.
Just to say - after a good bit of rain last night, the level was at 4.75" today. Higher than the 4.50" level initially.



I must admit, so long as there's no big time downsides to the solid flooring (aside from cost), i am liking the idea of this. It just depends on 1) what disadvantages/problems this presents us with & 2) the cost.

You are talking 4kpounds to fix this forevever, or 2k for a deviation of the issue which will come back and bite.

I now think you have exhausted, with all due respect, the topic, we can't help further unless you decide to act