Is this the best approach for our damp kitchen?

SeLondon81

Hello

We are currently having our kitchen renovated. We knew there was some damp but thought it was a combination of a leaky roof and condensation.

The house is a mid terraced victorian, about 1900 with a typical through lounge and dining room and then what was the old kitchen behind, which at some point has either had an extension of enclosed what was some sort of scullery/toilet into a single story extension- this is pretty old and brick built. The back of the house was quite badly damaged in the war so possibly rebuilt in the 40s.
The house has suspended wood floors with stripped boards throughout and we don't have any damp problems elsewhere. There's no damp in the half of the room that has a suspended floor. When we lifted the tiles to relay them, we found an old cracked concrete slab that looked like it had been poured around the remains of two internal brick walls
. The slab and brick walls (maybe an old toilet- there was a blocked waste pipe too) were very damp and smelly. The slab and about 50 cm earth have now been dug up and the plan was to put a suspended wooden floor back in with air bricks so it can breathe and dry out.
The walls still feel quite damp. There is black mould and the plaster is in bad Nick. Our builder was asking if we wanted a damp specialist to look at it. Our feeling is that this will just mean a dpc is recommended. As far as we can tell there is no dpc in the house but it's not causing problems elsewhere. So plan b is suspended wood floor (will be tiled) and strip off the damp plaster and re plaster internal walls. The new kitchen will also be much better ventilated with a large skylight and extractor hood.
Will this be sufficient or should we get a DPC put in? The other factor is that we are in a rush as we have a baby due in a few weeks so need to get finished! Will re plastering seal in damp? The walls are not externally rendered.

Any advice gratefully recieved!

Chanes

You need to find from where the damp is coming if it is rising you will need to put a DPC in. Is there any pipework buried or nearby that could be leaking? Condensing moisture can be cured with ventilation

You really shouldn't try and mask it with plaster.

SeLondon81

No leaking pipes. Pretty sure the damp was being wicked up through the concrete slab (which was straight onto the earth) into the walls. It was worse where the remains of a brick wall (which sort of subdivided the space) was. There's no rising damp in the other half of the room which has a well ventilated suspended floor but is otherwise exactly the same construction, same outside etc. It literally ends where the concrete floor finished, so I think we have removed the cause?

phil24_7

It sounds like it was a poorly installed slab with no DPM. Removing this along with checking any remaining pipework for blockages should have cured your problem but it will take a while to dry out, probably longer than you would like.

You can of course waterproof render the inside but this could cause issues further down the line. A house like yours is designed to 'breathe' and waterproofing the inside will only allow water to travel in 1 direction through the wall which is not ideal.

What type of plaster is currently on the inside and what condition is it in? You may be able to leave it on there to dry out naturally, it will only need removing if it has blown or is poor condition.

P.S. For the love of God, please don't get an injected DPC as they are pretty much useless!

adom_thomas

Hi,

Can you please share the images for better understanding?