Hello all,
Really happy to have stumbled on this forum! I will keep back story to a minimum but myself and my boyfriend have taken on a renovation project of an 1850's very humble workers terrace cottage in the peak district. It *will* be just lovely
We are both in our late 20's, and at the stage of life that we have a small budget to get us going, but plan to do the work room by room as we can afford, but we of course want to do the work properly.
I did get a survey done by a heritage specialist which cost a fortune, but feel it was money well spent ...Ive also now read lots about breathability. I wont bore you with the extensive ailments of the house (I will save them for later posts!) but the room we are tackling first is the front room.
The house is stone built mid terrace apparently with rubble filled walls according to neighbour, 2 up 2 down but with a very small 70s flatroof extension on the back and 70s attic conversion.
The first room we are focusing on is the front room.
The room is damp, this was picked up on thermal imaging but also the smell as you walk through the door! Mainly around the bottom of the walls. Probably an active woodworm infestation in some of the skirting/some rot. The issue I've been told is caused by the fact that the floor (there is no cellar, floor is straight onto soil with flags originally we think) has been concreted so no original flags (boo) and water is therefore being pushed up the walls, the original lime plaster has been skimmed with gypsum, and in the small amount of plaster we have removed had a combination of lime, old black bonding, gypsum and plasterboard. Old damp proofing courses have been taken and there is a line on the internal wall where we think this is too. Also we have found the drill holes in the stonework, where I presume something intended for damp proofing was squirted in. The outside wall also has cement mortar.
So we have had a quote of £2670 for the following works:
Internal
- Dig out a channel around the perimeter of the room (room is about 4x4m) and fill with geocell glass and lime
- Re plaster with lime upto half height of the room and skim the ceiling
External
- Upto about a meter on the outside of the house rake out and re point in lime
**To reduce costs we are going to remove the plaster / skirting /rubble /radiator ready for our builder to start**
SO my questions:
Has anybody dug out a channel? How did it go, was it a success in helping with damp?
Does the price sound fair?
Any advice at all very very welcome!!
Thank you very much for reading and hello to you all
Jo
Really happy to have stumbled on this forum! I will keep back story to a minimum but myself and my boyfriend have taken on a renovation project of an 1850's very humble workers terrace cottage in the peak district. It *will* be just lovely
We are both in our late 20's, and at the stage of life that we have a small budget to get us going, but plan to do the work room by room as we can afford, but we of course want to do the work properly.
I did get a survey done by a heritage specialist which cost a fortune, but feel it was money well spent ...Ive also now read lots about breathability. I wont bore you with the extensive ailments of the house (I will save them for later posts!) but the room we are tackling first is the front room.
The house is stone built mid terrace apparently with rubble filled walls according to neighbour, 2 up 2 down but with a very small 70s flatroof extension on the back and 70s attic conversion.
The first room we are focusing on is the front room.
The room is damp, this was picked up on thermal imaging but also the smell as you walk through the door! Mainly around the bottom of the walls. Probably an active woodworm infestation in some of the skirting/some rot. The issue I've been told is caused by the fact that the floor (there is no cellar, floor is straight onto soil with flags originally we think) has been concreted so no original flags (boo) and water is therefore being pushed up the walls, the original lime plaster has been skimmed with gypsum, and in the small amount of plaster we have removed had a combination of lime, old black bonding, gypsum and plasterboard. Old damp proofing courses have been taken and there is a line on the internal wall where we think this is too. Also we have found the drill holes in the stonework, where I presume something intended for damp proofing was squirted in. The outside wall also has cement mortar.
So we have had a quote of £2670 for the following works:
Internal
- Dig out a channel around the perimeter of the room (room is about 4x4m) and fill with geocell glass and lime
- Re plaster with lime upto half height of the room and skim the ceiling
External
- Upto about a meter on the outside of the house rake out and re point in lime
**To reduce costs we are going to remove the plaster / skirting /rubble /radiator ready for our builder to start**
SO my questions:
Has anybody dug out a channel? How did it go, was it a success in helping with damp?
Does the price sound fair?
Any advice at all very very welcome!!
Thank you very much for reading and hello to you all
Jo