Water/damp coming through

[Julesr6]

Hi,
Solid stone wall, ground level higher than floor level, ground is rock so cannot lower.
A puddle appears when there is a lot of rain, in front of the slate to the right of the wood burner, and the wall to the side.
Should I DPM the wall? Water possibly coming in at floor level.

Thank you

 

[Cubist]

@Julesr6 Sorry that this thread has not seen a response yet and I hope this 'bump' gets some additional input from others.

From your previous post I recall that this is a converted chapel or school built on a hillside. Do you happen to know if both this side and the rear walls were raised directly above the the underlying rock? Or was the rock excavated first to allow construction of the walls?

Given where you are finding the puddle; is the surface of the slate also wet? Or does it only appear on the tiled floor? If the latter then the water may be tracking from a source elsewhere in the room and you may be able to locate that source using paper kitchen towels.

Assuming though that this is rainwater penetrating through either the wall or the rock, and noting that there is no room to allow installation of any kind of drain to the side of the property, your best option may be to attempt to divert water run-off from the hillside to the other side of that path. If all else fails though 'tanking' those walls may be the only option.

 

[Julesr6]

Thank you for your reply Cubist.
The rear wall is above ground level, I don’t not know if rock was excavated first or not but assume so. There is a drain on the other side of the path, I think the water is possibly coming through the rock, no water on the slate around the wood burner. Think I may have to tank the wall.

Thank you

Rear wall, you can see the height of the path next to the side wall at the far end.

 

[Cubist]

Silly questions perhaps but... does the puddle only appear when that wood-burner has been in use? Also, is the burner loaded and left to run overnight or is the fire allowed to burn out?

I ask as the wood-burner may, in effect, be drawing damp from the walls around it and pushing this moisture out into the room where it then condenses out over that tiled floor or in/over other cold spots.

Also, the hillside immediately behind the house appears to be composed of an ancient shale bed and it's likely that the building was constructed with rocks extracted from this as the base for the final structure was exposed. Do you have any records that may confirm this?

 

[Julesr6]

Hi Cubist,
The puddle only appears after very heavy rain, a couple of times a year, the wood burner is not left burning overnight.
Unfortunately I don’t have any info about the construction.
Thank you for your help.