Rising damp in a Victorian house

ed110220

Habbakuk wrote: »

The wall with the dampness is the wall which adjoins the next terraced house if you know what I mean....ed110220

I'm going to have a look tomorrow and see what kind of stains there are.

No insulation has been carried out for at least and I mean at least a couple of decades. What if I try and take some pics?

How far in from the outside wall is it on the party wall? In my parents' house the damp appeared on the party wall, about 30 cm from the outside wall. It was caused by the ground outside being higher than the damp proof course.

Habbakuk

I'm going to investigate some more tomorrow. I simply wrote it off as rising damp and the builder (well actually he's a trained carpenter with a small building company) said the same. But now I've been reading more about it, I can now see there's a lot more to it and not as straightforward as I first thought. Thank you.

Habbakuk

Errata wrote: »

It's done above ground level.

Why would he want to dig down a number of feet then? Although he has said that I would be able to do this after I suggested it. I've written down here 'plaster and skim' regarding this and he did mention injecting a dpc. He is of course as I think I already mentioned going to send around a guy who is a dampness expert to give his opinion. I've been told by family members that this guy is honest. And I'm reluctant to question his judgement when he has so many years in the building trade and I'm pretty clueless.

Habbakuk

Here are some pics I took today:



The first image above shows the 'rising damp' damp above the skurting. You can just about see the different colour wallpaper a few inches (about a third of the image) above the skurting from the lighter coloured paper above.



Second image is a little along the wall which is a 'party wall' along to the storage heater which is positioned against an outside wall. The dampness seems to stop short of the heater but it's on 24 hours a day at low heat.



This is what I took a picture of outside the outside wall. The bin in the corner is directly opposite the storage heater on the inside. I was suprised to find that this tiled floor outside seems to be slightly higher than the floor of the room with the 'rising damp'.

What do you guys think? Should I dig down a few inches in this outside area so that it's below the inside floor? This tiled area I would say is just a 12 foot by 12 foot tiled are in almost a 'pit' before some steps leading up to a small garden. The black dots are some for of growth on the tiles. This is an uncovered area. Maybe this is the cause of the dampness?

zaax

You need to go around the house to see if the damp proof course has been breached, also check for blocked gutters and that the downs pipes are empting properly

nb some Victorian houses don't have damp proof course also they can be of very shallow foundations

Habbakuk

That's something a lay-person like me would find difficult to do I presume? I had a look today and I couldn't see any evidence of a damp proof course.

wallbash

Habbakuk wrote: »

That's something a lay-person like me would find difficult to do I presume? I had a look today and I couldn't see any evidence of a damp proof course.

As a very rough guide, DPC is two bricks above ground level, the mortar will look a little thicker!

Has some one overfilled a flower bed? installed a new patio ?

But I would look at down pipes first. Then Gutters.

wallbash

nb some Victorian houses don't have damp proof course also they can be of very shallow foundations

When exposed the foundations can be so shallow as to be frightening.
We now expect a minimum of a metre in undisturbed soil , the Victorians got away with inches.But they used lime mortar ...... we don't. their houses which have stood for many years flex/ move.

wallbash

I posted some photos from my renovations, you might find amusing.
Will give you some hope. I might put a bet on your new venture might not be up to ( down to ) what we achieved.


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1186031

Habbakuk

wallbash wrote: »

As a very rough guide, DPC is two bricks above ground level, the mortar will look a little thicker!

Has some one overfilled a flower bed? installed a new patio ?

But I would look at down pipes first. Then Gutters.

Did you see my pic above with the red tiles?


Both houses adjoining this property are either in the process of being renovated or been done recently. So both have been empety too.