Would injection damp proofing have cured this?

[paddytt]

The more I learn about damp problems, the more I realise the damp proofing fraternity and the mortgage banks are really having us on....

As well as the ground levels around the Thatched House being too high, we found another reason for the high damp readings in the NW walls - especially near the back door where the surveyor thought that salt effloresce might have caused a spike in the levels. An old cast iron downpipe looked ok hiding in the corner by the porch, but when we were digging away the cement path to lower the ground levels, we found the end of the drainpipe was so badly corroded that the water wasn't even entering the drains. Worse than that - the bath and sink empty into a hopper at the top of this drainpipe - so every bathtime was cleaning the foundations! (see photo below)

What really gets my goat was that the mortgage company withheld some of our mortgage money until works recommended by an "expert" injection proofing company were complete. We didn't get it done, and we are glad we didn't, but isn't it time that banks and mortgage companies woke up to the facts and stopped people from making their investments worse not better?

I suggest the Banks send a Damp Proofer to Greece to stop the money draining away.

Anyway, rant over, see the latest on the blog:

http://thethatchedhouse.blogspot.co.uk/

 

[JohnB]

You've got drains (even if they're not working)? My downpipes dump water at the base of my walls, although the waste does go into the septic tank.

 

[Penners]

the damp proofing fraternity and the mortgage banks are really having us on.... the mortgage company withheld some of our mortgage money until works recommended by an "expert" injection proofing company were complete.

I hold the same view about a proportion of the damp treatment industry, Paddy, but the banks and building societies could perhaps be viewed slightly differently.

When a financial institution grants a mortgage they are required by their shareholders to ensure that, should the mortgagee default, they can liquidate the property to recoup their loan on it. That's fundamental stuff.

But in seeking to maximise the value of the asset against which they're lending, they are just as much the victims of the cowboy 'damp-proofers' as the rest of us. It's a sad fact that the house will almost certainly command a higher market price if the vendor is able to produce some spurious certificate that 'guarantees' the damp-proofing work on it. So the mortgage lender doesn't actually care whether the work is effective or not - they just want the added value created by that certificate.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I wonder if anyone has ever managed to claim on one of those sustificates?

 

[tobydog]

I'll let you know later in the year. The 20 year guarantee on our house runs out next February. The wall that was treated is incased in cement / gypsum and is very cold to the touch. We had a very bad case of condensation on one part of the wall only and it was the part that had to be re-treated. It was really weird because it stopped vertically as though someone had drawn a line down the wall. One side was sopping wet and the other bone dry. I rang the treatment company (well respected and long standing in Ipswich!!). To be fair they were very helpful and sent me a claim form within a few days. They charge £70 for an inspection but you get that back if remedial work is needed. With the dehumidifier the wet wall dried up so I thought I would leave it until the last moment next winter before calling them in. Sod's Law says our expected dry summer will catch me out.

 

[Matt Green]

With the dehumidifier the wet wall dried up so I thought I would leave it until the last moment next winter before calling them in. Sod's Law says our expected dry summer will catch me out.

If it cleared up with a dehumidifier, I'd save your £70 Toby- it's likely to be water condensing on the cold cement surface.

I've had a gut full of damp threads over the 7ish years on here and I have to be more careful about how I phrase things these days, but here goes anyway:

The plastering is not included in that guarantee, just the effectiveness of the DPC. What the customer perceives is guaranteed is that they have dry walls that hold decoration; what is actually guaranteed is that the wall is dry when tested under invasive condition, i.e.: a sample is taken from within the fabric of the wall and the amount of moisture is measured. The guarantee is that the water content of the masonry is less than 5% when tested. The difference in perception and actuality is massive. A DPC is injected based on the results of a non-invasive test (that, it should be noted, can determine if a wall is suffering from water moving upwards through it from ground level if undertaken correctly), whereas the functionality of the DPC once fitted is confirmed by undertaking a destructive test.

Of course if a destructive test was undertaken in the first place....
...but then who wants holes drilled in their walls if they are trying to sell a house?

Matt

 

[Flyfisher]

As well as the ground levels around the Thatched House being too high, we found another reason for the high damp readings in the NW walls - especially near the back door where the surveyor thought that salt effloresce might have caused a spike in the levels. An old cast iron downpipe looked ok hiding in the corner by the porch, but when we were digging away the cement path to lower the ground levels, we found the end of the drainpipe was so badly corroded that the water wasn't even entering the drains. Worse than that - the bath and sink empty into a hopper at the top of this drainpipe - so every bathtime was cleaning the foundations!

We had similar problems with blocked soakaways resulting in downpipes simply soaking the base of the walls, and if you've ever ventured out onto a roof during a decent rain storm you'll have seen just how much water is collected! In order to quickly fix the basic problem and buy time to install new underground drainage, I used lengths of 4-inch underground flexible conduit to carry the downpipe water away from the house. It's obviously only a temporary fix and does depend a bit on the ground conditions around the house but it's totally effective and the affected walls dried out very nicely.

 

[Penners]

I used lengths of 4-inch underground flexible conduit

You can call it what you like, FF, but I know a hosepipe when I see one.

Tut tut!



:wink:

 

[Penners]

The plastering is not included in that guarantee, just the effectiveness of the DPC. What the customer perceives is guaranteed is that they have dry walls that hold decoration; what is actually guaranteed is that the wall is dry when tested under invasive condition, i.e.: a sample is taken from within the fabric of the wall and the amount of moisture is measured. The guarantee is that the water content of the masonry is less than 5% when tested. The difference in perception and actuality is massive. A DPC is injected based on the results of a non-invasive test (that, it should be noted, can determine if a wall is suffering from water moving upwards through it from ground level if undertaken correctly), whereas the functionality of the DPC once fitted is confirmed by undertaking a destructive test.

That's an extremely valuable analysis by a guy who knows what he's talking about. Pity it can't be waved under the nose of everyone who is planning to have "damp-proofing" treatment done.

 

[Flyfisher]

I used lengths of 4-inch underground flexible conduit

You can call it what you like, FF, but I know a hosepipe when I see one.

Tut tut!

:lol:
I wonder what the legal definition of 'hosepipe' actually is?

Mrs FF was cleaning her tropical fish tanks yesterday, which involves emptying about 10% of the water using - yes you've guessed it - a short length of hosepipe. I wonder if that's strictly legal at present?

 

[Moo]

I use an excellent gadget for cleaning/emptying my fishtank. It's a sort of pump, battery-powered, that I got from one of those mail-order catalogues that come with the Sunday paper. The great advantage is that it also sucks up all the sludge from the bottom of the tank, so I usually start by doing the cleaning, then decant the water into buckets (using a jug) until the tank's about a quarter full, and finish off by topping up with fresh water.
Mind you, Clive's only a goldfish. Not sure if tropicals would put up with such cavalier treatment.

 

[Feltwell]

Clive? I thought all goldfish were called Bob.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Round here they were all called Nemo.

Until I got fed up of cleaning the stinking tank, and released them into the Alyn.

 

[Penners]

Is "Alyn" Welsh for "community"?

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Is "Alyn" Welsh for "community"?

As in River Alyn.

 

[Feltwell]

An ex-employee of my father's used to breed goldfish as a sideline. Apparently they are born black, and some never turn gold. Those that hadn't turned gold by a certain age he would release in a local salt flash* - they seemed to like it there and would grow very large and fat, and some would eventually turn gold, much to the confusion of the anglers who caught them.

* a salt flash is a remnant of the salt industry in Cheshire. In years gone by salt mining, which often involved pumping water undergorund and pumping it back up as brine rather than physically digging it up, caused lots of problems with subsidence. Some of these subsided areas flooded and are known as salt flashes, despite the water in them being fresh.
Salt mining wasn't always kind to period houses either.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21133841@N03/4111868557/

http://englishviews.com/old-postcards-of-northwich/

 

[Penners]

Yes, I guessed that. I was simply enquiring after the future of Nemo's welfare. "Released into the community" and all that...

...Oh, please yerself.

Good grief - look at the time! And I haven't opened a bottle yet*.



* Despite appearances to the contrary.

 

[JohnB]

If you've got goldfish in your house walls, you must have more than a damp problem :wink:. Or has Fred Drift put in an appearance again?

 

[Moo]

Clive? I thought all goldfish were called Bob.

That may be true for ordinary goldfish.