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Lime
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I think in the past an influx of water after an almost continuous and heavy raid period would be expected and treated as normal.
Keith Bowman
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Just to cheer us all up (we have leaky wall syndrome too) our ash is out well before the oak. 
Zebra
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And yet some of us have solid walls with lime pointing, and don't have puddles inside. Is it to do with the porosity of the substrate, the stone/brick etc? My brick is extremely porous, for example, so perhaps it absorbs more rain without letting it through.
I also wonder about the quality of the pointing. Has the mortar been replaced all the way through the wall, or just the top centimetre or so, leaving voids inside for water to run through?
I also wonder about the quality of the pointing. Has the mortar been replaced all the way through the wall, or just the top centimetre or so, leaving voids inside for water to run through?
Keithj
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Can't remember if I said (it's my age, you know) but we get serious water coming in through the walls when there's a strong southerly wind and heavy rain at the same time. The walls are lime on laths outside, and plasterboard and gypsum inside (spit!) with a wool filling between to keep some heat in.
Our lime expert has decided that the water "puddles" on the wall under the pressure of the wind and blows through the lime, runs down the inside, then soaks the plates and comes through to the inside. It makes rather a mess :shock:
His proposed fix, scheduled for this summer, is to remove the outer lime render for six inches or so up from each plate, fit lead (angled gently inwards to touch the inner plasterboard/gypsum) to catch the water and take it outboard of the plates, and then replace the lath and lime render outside. The lead will be visible as a little lip projecting out and down over the tops of the plates, but should (he hopes) stop the wet coming in.
I'll report back when the job is done and we've had a serious windy storm.
Our lime expert has decided that the water "puddles" on the wall under the pressure of the wind and blows through the lime, runs down the inside, then soaks the plates and comes through to the inside. It makes rather a mess :shock:
His proposed fix, scheduled for this summer, is to remove the outer lime render for six inches or so up from each plate, fit lead (angled gently inwards to touch the inner plasterboard/gypsum) to catch the water and take it outboard of the plates, and then replace the lath and lime render outside. The lead will be visible as a little lip projecting out and down over the tops of the plates, but should (he hopes) stop the wet coming in.
I'll report back when the job is done and we've had a serious windy storm.
Zebra
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Just out of interest Keith, I take it your lime-on-laths externally is original? How old is it, and in what kind of condition? I see how that would let puddles through, as it's not very substantial. You had mentioned it, but I had misunderstood, and thought we were all talking about brick.
Sonyaclegg
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We have used Stormdry. The house was sandblasted by the PO which took away 400 years of naturally built up protection. The gritstone is very porous and we had some very bad patches. We checked the pointing which was all intact and tried to discern where water may be finding its way in. We eliminated all usual causes of water ingress to be left with the conclusion the stone was absorbing at a great rate. We did a small test section which has completely resolved the problem. It does let the stone breathe, is absorbed to 12 mm and acts as gortex for buildings. We were a worried it would change the look of the stone but we need not have been. No visible difference to the section treated to the untreated section.
Keithj
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Greetings, Zebra,
No, this is new (2011) lime-on-laths, replacing much older ditto. The only bricks are below the sole plate, and are fine. The sole plates had been concreted over, and therefore rotted away and the rest bodged something rotten. When we looked more closely, the whole gable end wall was beyond repair, so was replaced with green oak, laths, and lime. It looks as if the previous wall had had the same problem.
At the moment, there's a tarpaulin battened over the wall. That's doing a perfect job of keeping the rain out, but looks less than impressive.
No, this is new (2011) lime-on-laths, replacing much older ditto. The only bricks are below the sole plate, and are fine. The sole plates had been concreted over, and therefore rotted away and the rest bodged something rotten. When we looked more closely, the whole gable end wall was beyond repair, so was replaced with green oak, laths, and lime. It looks as if the previous wall had had the same problem.
At the moment, there's a tarpaulin battened over the wall. That's doing a perfect job of keeping the rain out, but looks less than impressive.
LadyArowana
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