Plastering directly onto brickwork

TommyD888

Hi All,

I have recently purchased a property that is very much a project house. My first room to tackle is the bathroom which has been damp for some time and on top of that was recently the main room to be effected by a burst water pipe in the attic.

I have stripped the plaster off the walls right down to the brickwork as the plaster was literally like soil and came off incredibly easily. I intend to allow at least a week for the walls to dry out and breathe before I do anything and even after 24 hours I can see a massive reduction in dampness.

Can somebody advise what treatment I will need to apply to the walls and the best materials to replaster such a job to prevent any further damage from any lingering damp issues?

Any advice is very much welcomed!

Thanks,

Tom

phill99

Why a week? Just because you have seen signs of the surface damp receding, it doesn't mean that the internal structure of the bricks will be dry.


Assuming that the damp was caused by the leak and not ingress of moisture, the once the brick work is dry then you can get if boarded with plaster board, or a two coat wet system (bonding coat and skim). hover does the work will apply a coat of pva over the brick work before bonding (or applying plasterboard adhesive). A two coat wet system will take some time to dry out so will mean you can't tile until it has dried out. using plasterboard means you can tile the next day.


However you may want to wait for more than a week for te brickwork to dry out properly.

TommyD888

Thanks for the reply phill99. Maybe I am rushing the renovations slightly there - I could do with getting the bathroom finished in 6 weeks so potentially I can leave it for 2-3 weeks to dry.

The burst pipe was not the only reason for the dampness; there was about 1 foot thick of ivy covering the side of the property which was removed about a month before I purchased. When I removed the plaster there were a few patches where the ivy had got into the inside of the wall. Furthermore, the rendering on the front of the property has bubbled around the bathroom wall so my next job is to remove the rendering and eventually get that replaced.

I appreciate you havent seen it and it will vary from case to case but how long would do you think would be sufficient time to let the walls dry out?

Thanks

FreeBear

How old is the property, and what type of walls do you have ?
i.e. Cavity walls or double thickness solid brick ?


Plasterboard isn't going to last long in a bathroom as the stuff doesn't like damp environment. That said, you can get moisture resistant plasterboard, but it would need fixing properly to the walls. If you're going to fit a shower, then cement board may be a better solution.

jk0

Ditto re cement board. Batten out the wall with 22x45mm vertical treated timber at 300mm spacing. Then you can attach cement board at the bottom, and plasterboard the final foot or so where the shower won't spray.

TommyD888

It was built in 1930's with double thickness solid brick walls.

Most of the posts I have come across suggests applying a cement slurry with a binding agent - would the cement board be an alternative to this?

Thanks

jk0

TommyD888 wrote: »

It was built in 1930's with double thickness solid brick walls.

Most of the posts I have come across suggests applying a cement slurry with a binding agent - would the cement board be an alternative to this?

Thanks

The idea of the cement board, (apart from being easy to diy) is that it leaves a small cavity behind it. This lets it dry out between showers if the grout fails and lets water in. Thus the tiles should remain attached.