tobydog
Member
- Messages
- 923
- Location
- South Suffolk
The time has come to start stripping out the rest of the cement that is readily removable and not (hopefully) structural.
Last year I hacked off some cement rendering to part of the brickwork below the sole plate after I picked up rot in the plate. The cement was on both sides of an internal wall and I found that the brickwork under the cement was saturated. I only took the cement off the side that was easier to access but the wall has already dried out no end.
At the front of the house where I took the cement off on the inside (only a 3m length in the old kitchen at this time) I unfortunately found a 100cm gap between the brick course and the sole plate. The bricks had simply disintegrated in the wet. Half the sole plate had also gone and to say I had a ready supply of compost was an understatement. I cleaned out the cavity as best I could and scrapped away the loose wet and rotten wood. 30 to 40 years of cement induced damp / damage started to dry out in a matter of days. It responded so quickly.
We have a concrete floor in the old kitchen but lovely old tiles, however, there is a 7 - 10cm wide strip of concrete that goes around the two edges of the room where the sole plate is. Inspired by my earlier endeavours I started hacking this out at the weekend. To my surprise I only had to remove it to a depth of around 10cm before I reached a very thin black film that looks like bitumen. Below this was sand which, overtime, had compacted. At this level things were very damp, however, it's now only Wednesday and I can see huge improvements in the drying out process for the bricks at the lower level. Alas, the concrete floor will have to stay despite finding what looked like part of the old floor in the wall cavity I clear out.
I still have plenty of cement to remove (even the internal render is cement in places) but seeing the quick improvements has given me great confidence that I can now stabilise the degradation and it allows me to leave it the year or two I need to save up to have the wall and plate repaired properly.
The previous owner (we've been in just over two years) had made repairs to damp walls without sorting the cause. We saw damp in the same walls soon after we moved in, however, as soon as the cement on the opposite side was removed, the damp disappeared. The owners father was a 'builder' but if I can sort small problems like this simply with the great help of PPUK and the great advice elsewhere on the web from sites and people simply talking sense, what does that say about certain builders.
The lounge is a much bigger issue because the wall is 10m long and I need to do some core drilling before I start hacking. Engineers will use pressure sensitive drills but I'm think that if I use a 2mm drill and aim at the lower level of the plate I will soon know if I'm heading through solid oak or compost!
Please rest assured that if I am in any doubt as to whether any cement is structural, it will stay put. From what I can tell this would only appear to be the case in part on the outside.
Last year I hacked off some cement rendering to part of the brickwork below the sole plate after I picked up rot in the plate. The cement was on both sides of an internal wall and I found that the brickwork under the cement was saturated. I only took the cement off the side that was easier to access but the wall has already dried out no end.
At the front of the house where I took the cement off on the inside (only a 3m length in the old kitchen at this time) I unfortunately found a 100cm gap between the brick course and the sole plate. The bricks had simply disintegrated in the wet. Half the sole plate had also gone and to say I had a ready supply of compost was an understatement. I cleaned out the cavity as best I could and scrapped away the loose wet and rotten wood. 30 to 40 years of cement induced damp / damage started to dry out in a matter of days. It responded so quickly.
We have a concrete floor in the old kitchen but lovely old tiles, however, there is a 7 - 10cm wide strip of concrete that goes around the two edges of the room where the sole plate is. Inspired by my earlier endeavours I started hacking this out at the weekend. To my surprise I only had to remove it to a depth of around 10cm before I reached a very thin black film that looks like bitumen. Below this was sand which, overtime, had compacted. At this level things were very damp, however, it's now only Wednesday and I can see huge improvements in the drying out process for the bricks at the lower level. Alas, the concrete floor will have to stay despite finding what looked like part of the old floor in the wall cavity I clear out.
I still have plenty of cement to remove (even the internal render is cement in places) but seeing the quick improvements has given me great confidence that I can now stabilise the degradation and it allows me to leave it the year or two I need to save up to have the wall and plate repaired properly.
The previous owner (we've been in just over two years) had made repairs to damp walls without sorting the cause. We saw damp in the same walls soon after we moved in, however, as soon as the cement on the opposite side was removed, the damp disappeared. The owners father was a 'builder' but if I can sort small problems like this simply with the great help of PPUK and the great advice elsewhere on the web from sites and people simply talking sense, what does that say about certain builders.
The lounge is a much bigger issue because the wall is 10m long and I need to do some core drilling before I start hacking. Engineers will use pressure sensitive drills but I'm think that if I use a 2mm drill and aim at the lower level of the plate I will soon know if I'm heading through solid oak or compost!
Please rest assured that if I am in any doubt as to whether any cement is structural, it will stay put. From what I can tell this would only appear to be the case in part on the outside.
