Cellar conumdrum

[Pford75]

Hope the learned souls on here can help with a question re: our cellar.

Our house, built 1780, has a brick cellar. Obviously, it is a little damp and the floor construction has grooves around the edge to catch run off and channels this to a sump in the corner...all fine.

However, we have some damp on an exterior wall in a room above the cellar (not close to sump). Upon investigation, I found a large piece of slate in the cellar floor.....beneath this is what can only be described as a well of some sorts. Circular, brick construction and full of rubble and water. Even with the rubble in the bottom, it appears to have a further five-six feet of water above the rubble!

Since this is right against the wall, I'm guessing that the water is rising up the wall to the room above (no DPC). There is no concrete render, no external shubbery etc. to prevent evap'n to the outside...all pointing is lime.

So, should I fill the well? Could it be some kind of old soakaway? Is there another way of eradicating the damp above? I can live with the cellar being damp, but I need to sort the problem in the room above.

Pete

 

[biffvernon]

Wells are a common feature of houses built before public supplies of piped water were introduced. Your well is an interesting historical feature, useful if there is a hose-pipe ban, and should be retained. Filling it in would make no difference to the local water table and the amount of water that could rise up your wall, so you would not achieve your object.

But it is very unlikely that the offending damp is because of 'rising damp' related to proximity to the well. Water does not usually rise very far up brickwork by capilliary action. The damp problem is more likely to be from condensation and may be resolved by considering heating, ventilation and getting the relative humidity in the room right.

 

[Pford75]

Thanks for the response. I assume you are referring to the cellar for heating, ventilation etc? The room above, with the damp is already more than adequately heated and ventilated.

Given that the cellar covers the entire ground floor of the house (apx 22.500 sq ft), this is the only room above with any damp and coincidentally, the only part of the cellar with permanent water (ie. the well).

I don't understand why filling the well completely (not with just rubble) would not prevent it from filling with water. Sure there might be some damp rising through whatever I fill it with, but nothing like the amount of water which gets into the cellar at present?

 

[Aidan]

It may be a cistern, rather than a well; it sounds a bit shallow for a well.

Cisterns were apparently storage chambers built under houses to store rain water and were generally abandoned when a piped or pumped supply became available. I don't know much about them, but they crop up here regularly.
Search the "Archived Topics".

For example, this one;
http://periodpropertyshop.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2671

It may be water leaking from abandoned or diverted pipes that formerly filled the cistern. You can get dye to trace drains; a pinch of that in the gutters, washed down with a hose might colour the contents of the cistern, if that is what it is.

 

[biffvernon]

No, I was thinking about the room above. If it's damp then I'd say that it was not adequately heated and/or ventilated. But if the dampness is on a cold wall and is caused by condensation from warm wet air, then adding more heating and/or ventilation does not always solve the problem.

The water won't just be in the well - it will be in all the pore spaces in the ground up to the same level as in the well. You just don't notice it there because you can't see it slopping about. Filling the well in does not get rid of the water - it just dilutes it with rubble, old supermarket trolleys and whatever.

Make a feature of it. Lower a waterproof light, fit a glass lid, enjoy it. Solve the damp wall problem in a different way.