Help Please!

[Genesis]

We have moved into an 1840 Welsh stone and slate cottage. The old lady who owned the property was renowned for her love of concrete. Both interior and exterior walls have substantial concrete layers and will take some serious work to lift off. The problem lies in that some of the plaster work is falling off in the kitchen and bathroom area where the floors are below ground level.

We had wanted to lime plaster but have been informed that you can only put on 10mm layers at a time, which would be difficult to acheieve when some of the gaps that need plugging are over 60-70mm deep. The area in which we live is quite damp and have been advised that it will also take a lifetime to dry. We really would like a functionning kitchen and bathroom - which we have been without for over 3 weeks now and is driving us slightly crazy.

In relation to the damp we have looked at the idea of a french drain. The front of the house is fine but at the back we have a retaining wall which at the widest point is two foot between the house that holds the mountain behind us at bay. The ground has been worked at some point to draw the water down aand around the side of the house into a drain but it is still quite damp on the back walls inside. There is a difference of about 2 foot from exterior ground level to the floors in the house. The option of a french drain seems difficult if not impossible given the width

Can anyone give us advice on what is our best plastering option and how to stop water seeping into the rear wall of the house?

 

[vicky whitworth]

Hello, and welcome.
I live in a rubble stone cottage that had been concreted including the floors and internal walls. Here's what we did - left the concrete floors but had all the concrete removed from the internal walls back to the rubble stone. It was a nightmare to get off, and the rubble stone walls were pretty scraggy with huge gaps and voids and missing stones. We then had it all lime plastered with the plasterer filling the gaps with stones where he could and getting it eventually to a smoothish finish. We then painted in distemper. We have damp patches at the bottoms of the walls in places - they come and go. The cottage is on the spring line which doesn't help. Our walls are about 2 foot thick. I think if you live in a stone cottage you have to be prepared to live with some damp. I'm philosophical about it - it hasn't killed me yet We lived without a kitchen for the best part of three years all told while this work and an extension were done.
My thoughts are to take your time - and do it 'properly' and how you want it from the outset because if you compromise what you want early on you will never go back and re-do it later. I wish now I'd had the concrete floors taken up at the time while the mess was being made, and I wish I'd had the extension built in cob but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Good luck with it. Vicky

 

[Genesis]

Many thanks

We had a concete floor and have taken it all off and it really seems to be helping to reduce the damp, and it's revealed a lovely slate floor throughout! Wobbly but nice

 

[Flyfisher]

The area in which we live is quite damp and have been advised that it will also take a lifetime to dry.

There's a rule of thumb used here that suggests about one month per inch-thickness of wall. There are a lot of variables involved, hence it's only a rule of thumb, but it's unlikely to require a full lifetime to dry things out - unless, of course, the source of the damp is not removed, in which case it might take far longer than a lifetime.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I'd echo the advice about time - it will take time to do it properly. If you don't do it properly then you should get used to a damp house. There is no way to reliably and permanently exclude damp from traditional buildings other than to remove the source of damp.

I spent the weekend before last digging a trench about 100ft long by four feet deep and 2-3 feet wide - to remove the side of a mountain from behind my stone outbuildings (with a 3 tonne digger I should add!). The buildings still have the old cattle troughs on the back wall, and these had actually filled with water to the brim from the water coming down the mountain and through the wall.

It will take 6months to a year forthe walls to dry I reckon.

i discovered a number of things:

a) it is easy to tip over an articulated dumper truck on little more than a 15 degree slope - I know ALWAYS wear the seatbelt, having coming less than inches from having my head squashed by the rollbar as I came out of my seat when it tipped on its side. :shock:

b) a mini digger is fantastic in tight spaces.

c) the guys that built the outbuildings dug 6 feet into the clay mountain down to bedrock to build the outbuildings a couple of hundxred years ago. By hand. With hand tools. This is an incredible feat of strength and committment. :mrgreen:

A French drain is the last piece of the jigsaw. It will almost certainly be part of your solution, by the sounds of it.

3 weeks without a bathroom or kitchen? We managed 6 months, living in the place in three rooms with small kids. It is grim though! :evil:

 

[Genesis]

Many thanks. Its the issue of space - firstly to get in to dig a trench but more importantly having the space wide enough for a french drain. The wall has a narrow walkway and then theres a a garden - in either case theres no way wer can get a digger in as the garden area has 3 large (over 70ft) pine trees! and then after the garden theres a large stone wall over 8ft high!!!! Our thoughts were that we'd have to put a drain in the gap between the house and the wall. Thats where the damp seems worse. I will try and get some pics up. All ideas are really welcome

 

[Zebra]

Not sure I'm understanding about the retaining wall between the house and the mountain, and then the walkway, and then another wall! Think pictures are called for!
French drains are good but they don't necessarily work wonders. I built one which didn't work and I dug it out altogether and left the trench empty, but I'll await pictures before commenting further!

 

[robgil]

3 weeks without a bathroom or kitchen? We managed 6 months, living in the place in three rooms with small kids. It is grim though! :evil:

Yup , been there , two years or there abouts, not nice at all but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. In hindsight a caravan/static would have been a much better way to do it even if cramped.

 

[MdB]

In hindsight a caravan/static would have been a much better way to do it even if cramped.

Did that for 9 months. Unfortunately, we were forced out due it being -2°C in the living room and everything froze (pipes, toilet, dog water bowl..) so we moved back into the house as the heating was one of the few things finished. We then spent 9 months living in a tent inside the living room whilst the bedroom / bathroom was worked on.

(and don't think we had it bad - others here have had it far worse...)