Damp/tanking/sandblasting

[JanieB]

My new next door neighbour moved in just before Christmas. I've known him for many years as a friend. He owns the ginnel between our houses. The terrace was once 5 farm workers cottages built around 1790. Both his and my houses have had persistent damp for many years in a specific area in the ginnel. My previous neighbours and I complained for years to the water company that their mains pipe was leaking but they denied it.

When my new kitchen was built in 2015 part of the ginnel had to be dug up which is when we could prove that the pipe was leaking. It has now been fixed but 20+ years of damp takes time to dry out.

My new neighbour has had a "damp specialist" out who has recommended a dpc and tanking the rooms but also said the paint on the ginnel walls had to be removed. The ginnel has many layers of paint on the walls which my neighbour has tried to remove manually but didn't get very far, so he's booked a man with a sandblaster. I saw what happened to my neighbours wall on the other side of me. The bricks are so soft they just melt. She had to have the whole wall carefully fronted with modern brick that closely matched the original. I've told him that sandblasting will remove the wall and I'm not happy as it could affect the stability of my house. I can't really advise him as to the tanking or dpc as I'm not a specialist. I just know from my own house that was tanked by a previous owner that it just drives the damp further up the wall.

I did show him how fragile the bricks were on my side but he's convinced the "specialist" is right. I'm just glad he hasn't cottoned on that on my side of the ginnel it's a party wall and the ginnel side belongs to him.

 

[DavidB]

JanieB

I am not on commission! But please check out Peter Ward on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/stibnite11

He exposes how the damp proof industry is a con.

Your neighbour is going to waste their money, potentially damage their house (and possibly yours) and probably not stop their damp. As you say it will just go somewhere else.

If you have a fault - like your previous faulty underground service pipe - then the building never gets a chance to dry out. Once faults are fixed then the next job is to undo any inappropriate repairs, decoration or coverings i.e. plastic paints, cement, or gypsum plaster, too high ground levels, plants and shrubs against walls, blocked air vents.
Then another areas to look at is salts in the bricks - this draws moisture out of the air and makes the walls damp - damp proof specialists con house owners by saying this is rising damp. The salts might have come from an old chimney.
Sometimes repointing or replastering with lime will draw these salts out and dry out the walls.

I would strongly urge your neighbour to check out Peter Ward to get a different view. I can see why the paint might need removing - but the sandblasting sounds too destructive on your homes soft bricks. Although if it is a plastic paint that is trapping water in the wall then it will be good to get it off - but perhaps there are better ways.

 

[JoceAndChris]

You poor thing! Neighbours can be a nightmare especially when they're friends.

I would print out a bunch of literature ( check SPAB) making the case David puts and write on his link.

I would write a strongly argued though polite letter explaining that the needs of old buildings aren't met by sandblasting or tanking. I would offer to pay half the costs of hiring a specialist to chemically remove the paint or I'd do it myself. ( check our strippers of Sudbury)

In my case I'd also print out a load of photos of what happened when you sandblast brick. I can take some for you if you need some, I have a whole basement of sandblasted brick and in places think I will have to go the route of your other neighbour who got the repairs done.

I'd post the whole thing through his door with a few packs of beer as a sweetener. There is no point falling out over this and persuasion and education with the right experts to back up your arguments is the best way. Maybe buy him a copy of The Old House handbook. The SPAB guidelines " look before you leap" are excellent and available online. Good luck.

 

[JanieB]

Myself and my daughter have spent several months reclaiming my garden. We are now at the stage where it needs digging all over. We can't use a rotovator (that every male we come across insists we need because we know there are walls and flagstones just under the surface that will destroy any machine). We have dug about a quarter of it. There used to be a kitchen separated by a yard at the back of the house. The wall nearest the house, or rather the remains of it, is about 18" and holds up the garden. We have now found the sides and back walls. I knew the flagstone floor was still there as I dug down about 3' a few years ago to find it.

Several bricks in the outside walls of the house are seriously disintegrating and I was faced with taking them out and replacing them with modern bricks. I think this dilemma has now been resolved. I also wanted to outline the garden beds with bricks and wondered where I would source them. I now have my own source.

The other alternative is that we leave it all in situ, dig all the earth out and have a sunken patio garden. Um, not going to happen.

 

[MatthewC]

I'm just glad he hasn't cottoned on that on my side of the ginnel it's a party wall and the ginnel side belongs to him.

I'd want to check exactly what the deeds say about it - it might be 100% your wall, or he might own the ginnel itself but does that make it a party wall? If it is then the Party Wall Act (qv) applies, and if it isn't then he should leave it alone. Either way he can't do anything without some sort of agreement from you.

DavidB is quite right regarding the so-called "dpc specialist". The key question always is to ask who employs that person? My money would be on him being employed by the people who do this work, in which case he has a vested interest and should be ignored for that reason alone. And I bet he has no worthwhile qualifications anyway, except in sales techniques...

 

[Zebra]

You raise a lot of issues there, janieb, but I'm not sure what your question is. I thought we were talking about damp on a party wall. Now you have the remains of an old kitchen under the garden. When you mention replacing bricks in the outside walls of the house with modern ones, do you mean bricks in the old kitchen under the garden, or in the actual house? Why would you want to use modern ones instead? How has that dilemma been resolved? I like the idea of leaving the old kitchen flagstones in situ and making it into a sunken patio. Why do you say that is not going to happen? What do you propose instead?

 

[JanJonWestWales]

I get a shiver up my back when I see "tanking"...it goes all the way up past my waist - 'cos I am wearing rubber pants :mrgreen:

 

[JanieB]

You raise a lot of issues there, janieb, but I'm not sure what your question is. I thought we were talking about damp on a party wall. Now you have the remains of an old kitchen under the garden. When you mention replacing bricks in the outside walls of the house with modern ones, do you mean bricks in the old kitchen under the garden, or in the actual house? Why would you want to use modern ones instead? How has that dilemma been resolved? I like the idea of leaving the old kitchen flagstones in situ and making it into a sunken patio. Why do you say that is not going to happen? What do you propose instead?

No questions, just ideas in my head. The two sides of the ginnel have historic damp caused by a slow leak from the water main. The leak has now been fixed and the walls will dry out in time. My house has had a DPC since 1981. Next door hasn't.

I didn't want to use modern bricks to replace the ones that are crumbling in the walls, both in the ginnel at at the front of the house. They would look wrong, but finding replacement old ones isn't easy. Finding the back wall of the old kitchen is a bonus as the bricks are the same age as those in the main part of the house. I'm aware that one solution to the problem would have been to remove the dodgy bricks and turn them round but to be honest they're not in a good enough condition for that.

The footprint of the old kitchen is quite substantial as it was three rooms. That is a lot of digging and we can't get a machine in to do it. Ginnel too narrow and no access at the back. We also have no idea as to the condition of the remains and it could turn out to be a lot of hard labour for myself and my daughter or a lot of expense for nothing. It was a lawn with a patio and flower beds round it. The patio is still there and I intend to replace the lawn and flower beds.

 

[Zebra]

Oh. OK.