Lime Grouting Walls Cornwall

[Stevers]

Another approach to the louvre problem might be to the catch the water and send it back out again.

We have a nice old (not quite original) French Window on a balcony in an exposed position facing south west - what were they thinking! It quickly proved impossible to stop driven rain coming in, so I put an internal gutter system in place to catch the rain and send it back out again. It is made of 22mm copper pipe split in two set into the floor with 15mm copper 'S' bend trap and downpipe - all soldered together. It's been there for at least twenty years and it's very gratifying when the outlet pipe through the wall drips!

 

[Oldschool]

many thanks that sounds like an ingenious solution, not quite sure how we could rig that up and how to exit it. I was wondering about battening some roofing membrane over the inside let's air through but not water?

 

[Oldschool]

To close this one off then, you might also want to use the following old trick to verify the source of damp in your bedroom.

Tape a sheet of kitchen foil to the wall over the affected area and leave it there for 24hrs or so. Then, if the foil is wet on the room side your problem is condensation but if dry and the side next to the wall is wet then its an external water source.

Regarding the louvres, it would be unwise to block these as they support air-flow through the attic spaces and around the roof timbers. Closing these off can induce/promote rot. You might consider an external screen of some kind, or if easily accessible indoors an internal shutter, to prevent or minimise driven rain incursion.

thank you again will definitely be trying the kitchen foil trick! I'll try to update on how things progress, we'll be hampered now i think until Spring with lime 'season' over.

 

[Flyfisher]

Part of our house is 'rubble wall' construction and had suffered from many years (decades?) of water ingress from the top due to a leaking roof that had been poorly patched such that all the penetrating water was funnelled down to the top of the wall. The result was that much of the original lime mortar had been degraded and the u'rubble' within the wall had become quite loose in places, to the extent that some bits of flint could be easily removed by hand!

A digression not directly relevant to this thread, but only to set the scene for how it was eventually repaired. Some sections of the wall needed to be completely rebuilt but other areas were stabilised by pouring a very runny lime grout into the voids. This was on the recommendation of our CO and seems to be a well established technique for period properties. The areas in question were not sufferring from damp so this was mainly a stabilisation remedy.

I was a little dubious about the idea at first because I wondered how far the grout mixture would penetrate, but we managed to pour quite a few bucketfulls into some places in the wall so it obviously went somewhere. I suppose it was a little hit-or-miss because I can't be sure it reached every void in the wall, but from the amount poured it must surely have improved things and I've not noticed any problems since.

 

[Oldschool]

Part of our house is 'rubble wall' construction and had suffered from many years (decades?) of water ingress from the top due to a leaking roof that had been poorly patched such that all the penetrating water was funnelled down to the top of the wall. The result was that much of the original lime mortar had been degraded and the u'rubble' within the wall had become quite loose in places, to the extent that some bits of flint could be easily removed by hand!

A digression not directly relevant to this thread, but only to set the scene for how it was eventually repaired. Some sections of the wall needed to be completely rebuilt but other areas were stabilised by pouring a very runny lime grout into the voids. This was on the recommendation of our CO and seems to be a well established technique for period properties. The areas in question were not sufferring from damp so this was mainly a stabilisation remedy.

I was a little dubious about the idea at first because I wondered how far the grout mixture would penetrate, but we managed to pour quite a few bucketfulls into some places in the wall so it obviously went somewhere. I suppose it was a little hit-or-miss because I can't be sure it reached every void in the wall, but from the amount poured it must surely have improved things and I've not noticed any problems since.

thank you Flyfisher that is exactly the approach I was wanting to investigate, albeit I was looking at pressurising pumping of grout which may force it further down, your reply is much appreciated.

 

[Flyfisher]

In my case, the wall had a lot of loose material inside and out so I would have been wary of pressurised pumping of the grout liquid in case it dislodged anything. In your case (gorgeous house btw), the external granite wall looks very solid so perhaps a pressurised approach is less of an issue. I claim no particular expertise, its just my musings, but I'd certainly discuss my concerns with the contractor and ask them how they manage the pressure so as not to damage the wall in any way.

 

[Oldschool]

In my case, the wall had a lot of loose material inside and out so I would have been wary of pressurised pumping of the grout liquid in case it dislodged anything. In your case (gorgeous house btw), the external granite wall looks very solid so perhaps a pressurised approach is less of an issue. I claim no particular expertise, its just my musings, but I'd certainly discuss my concerns with the contractor and ask them how they manage the pressure so as not to damage the wall in any way.

thank you so much. Yes wall is v solid but I am quite cautious since don't want to end up in even more of a fix than we already are!