Damp tips

[DaveBrigg]

With every passing year, the skills of an earlier generation of 'craftsmen' are becoming more lost in the swamp of time. In an effort to preserve some Lincolnshire vernacular techniques, I present a short feature on how to ensure that your house never becomes too dry.

1. Keep hoppers and downpipes blocked, or even better, break them off an inch from the ground. If done properly, you should find a natural green tinge appearing on the wall.
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2. Don't repair the roof until the daylight coming through keeps you awake on a summer evening. If you do need to repair, a bit of bent wire and some mastic should ensure that this is only a temporary fix.
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3. Coat your house in cement, to prevent any moisture evaporating away. For a proper job, put a few cracks in the cement ready to top up when it rains.

 

[Jon Maine]

Of course when you're building is partly below ground failed tanking can add to this situation too

 

[DaveBrigg]

4. Raise ground levels to above the internal floor level. Use concrete if you can, to increase the splash from rain and make it harder for someone to undo later.
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5. Cover stone floors with rubber-backed carpet or plastic sheeting. Even better, try both.
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6. If you allow the lead flashing on your chimney to decay, every rainy day will bring a new design to the chimney breast. When you become skilled in neglect, the same effect can be achieved with roof valleys.

 

[Jon Maine]

Park your car somewhere new each day, that will help too.View attachment 2
Always good for a free water supply let your house sit in a riverView attachment 1
Forget to repair render and do any general maintenance

( can't help but notice rather large plaster lathes)

 

[DaveBrigg]

:lol: :lol: Jon
7. If you don't like seeing your damp walls crumbling into porridge, cover them up. Plastic coated cardboardworks best at trapping the moisture, thereby still allowing brickwork to fester.


8. Likewise, if the damp is causing your roof to collapse, an acro prop and some garden trellis will do a fine job.
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9. As the owner of a damp house, you will be the envy of all your friends who struggle to remove woodchip wallpaper.
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[Jon Maine]

Cant keep this up much longer :lol: :lol:

Dont forget ventilation can helpView attachment 2

Kitchens can get steamy so ventilation there is important tooView attachment 1

ventilation around beam ends is good

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I see you two were having some fun last night!

Great tips there! Is it your house Dave? Fantastic! That will be absolutely beautiful with TLC- so many features. Quite a lot to do though! Should I just drop everything here and come over with Jaqy and the hammer?

 

[judrop]

:lol: :lol: Great giggle for a wet morning, wonderful photos, amazing !

 

[Gareth Hughes]

When painting over serious structural cracks, a strip of decorators' tape will not only bind everything together until after the sale, but will also preserve remnants of previous external colour schemes for the benfit of future generations.

 

[Jon Maine]

If you can manage it build your arches with the curvature the wrong way it is always a good start
Negative arches are always interesting

 

[JoceAndChris]

:shock: :shock: :shock: :lol:

This house is suddenly seeming just fine by comparison!

 

[DaveBrigg]

Sadly, all the pictures I posted were of our house when we bought it. I'll let Jon explain where he took his pics. We knew there was a problem when we saw the mice were wearing lifejackets. However, after receiving some excellent guidance from this forum we're now as dry as a Methodist hall on a Sunday morning. Here are the 'after' pictures. (all work approved befoehand by the Conservation Officer)

1. Handmade tin hopper and downpipe beyond salvage. Replaced by plastic in the short term. Soakaway dug in front garden to take rainwater. More limewashing needed.
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2. Roof slates removed, breathable felt laid and slates replaced, by someone who knew what they were doing. Flashing added around window. No leaks
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3. Cement render removed, cracks filled and cracked bricks replaced. Lime rendered. The cement hood moulding still needs repair.

 

[DaveBrigg]

4. Concrete broken and removed and ground levels lowered. French drain dug at the base of the wall. Bottom 8" of cement filler removed from the wall and replaced by lime render. The remaining cement is over the width of a brick in places, and waiting until I have the courage and skill to break it off and reinstate the brickwork.
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5. Carpet and plastic removed, ground levels outside lowered and downpipes repaired (see above). Walls lime rendered. The skirting board was removed to dry out, but crumbled and may be beyond repair. Curtain and draught excluder added in front of the door, which has reduced risk of condensation. The earlier soaking has left salt stains on the stone.

6. Leaking chimney and roof valley cured when the roof was relaid and the leadwork renewed. I couldn't get a good picture of the room.
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[DaveBrigg]

7. Plastic coated hardboard removed and fireplace opened up, adding warmth and ventilation. We're still having problems with damp to the left of the fireplace.
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8. Rotten roof timbers replaced, and part of the ceiling height increased. Ceiling patched with lime. The chickenwire guard around the top of the staircase still needs a little attention. View attachment 1

9. Crumbling plaster removed and replaced with lime. Total rewire needed, and the electrician used some sort of health and safety rules as an excuse not to keep the old bakelite switches.

 

[JoceAndChris]

WOW Dave! That's a fantastic accomplishment there- well done! It must be so satisfying to have pretty much ridded your house of damp, and it's looking great in those pictures.

Really inspiring and encouraging as there is similar stuff to do here- thanks for posting pics! How deep was the French drain - and how did you know it was safe to go ahead with that? (I presume there aren't deep foundations in your house?)

 

[DaveBrigg]

Thanks Joce. The French drain is about a foot deep. The foundations at the back of the house are very shallow, so the sides of the drain slope away from the house rather than being vertical. There is a breathable membrane at the bottom, of the type sold in garden centres, to stop weeds coming up. We are lucky in that the soil is very sandy, so no extra drainage was needed. It was one of the more enjoyable tasks, because for a few hours of mild labour a definite improvement can be seen.