Jump to content
DOSBODS
  • Welcome to DOSBODS

     

    DOSBODS is free of any advertising.

    Ads are annoying, and - increasingly - advertising companies limit free speech online. DOSBODS Forums are completely free to use. Please create a free account to be able to access all the features of the DOSBODS community. It only takes 20 seconds!

     

IGNORED

Surveyor missed nearly £13000 of Damp


M S E Refugee

Recommended Posts

M S E Refugee
44 minutes ago, Bricks & Mortar said:

I'd be very wary of acid.  Maybe on a high quality brick wall, built with cement mortar.  If there's lime mortar, or sedimentary stone (like sandstone, for instanc) - the acid could just eat this up.

Any chance of a photo of the brick/stonework in question?

 

20180731_153541.jpg

20180731_153847.jpg

20180731_153556.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 94
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Looks like you have the remains of an old chimney and fireplace there - that will be another reason for the seriousness of the damp - cooked lime mortar degrades badly and takes up water like a sponge.  I would be tempted to have a good old hack around of that mortar and see how bad it is and look at chiselling out and repointing as necessary.   The bond in the stone is not great and it is almost rubble quality so best to go at it gingerly and do small runs at a time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

M S E Refugee
2 minutes ago, onlyme said:

Looks like you have the remains of an old chimney and fireplace there - that will be another reason for the seriousness of the damp - cooked lime mortar degrades badly and takes up water like a sponge.  I would be tempted to have a good old hack around of that mortar and see how bad it is and look at chiselling out and repointing as necessary.   The bond in the stone is not great and it is almost rubble quality so best to go at it gingerly and do small runs at a time.

There is no damp on that part of the wall, we got the builder to take the plasterboard wall down as it seemed to encroach into the bedroom more than it needed to and also to have a look behind it.

One of the builders says he has worked on this type of thing before and is confident that he can achieve a pleasing result.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, M S E Refugee said:

There is no damp on that part of the wall, we got the builder to take the plasterboard wall down as it seemed to encroach into the bedroom more than it needed to and also to have a look behind it.

One of the builders says he has worked on this type of thing before and is confident that he can achieve a pleasing result.

All good then, carry on! One thing as it has been so dry are you confident you know the areas that are susceptible to damp - for that reason alone it is probably worth keeping the wall uncovered during this winter just to keep an eye on it and have it bare so that if any other works are need you can do some additional patching inside.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

M S E Refugee
2 minutes ago, onlyme said:

All good then, carry on! One thing as it has been so dry are you confident you know the areas that are susceptible to damp - for that reason alone it is probably worth keeping the wall uncovered during this winter just to keep an eye on it and have it bare so that if any other works are need you can do some additional patching inside.

We are having one wall tanked in our bedroom and I shall see how that goes.

The Builder originally wanted to tank all of the ground floor but after comments on here and further research I have postponed the tanking and I am getting the roof fixed and new sandstone cills and a jamb and a few other odd jobs done.

I am not sure whether builders try to scam people with damp proofing or they genuinely believe they are doing the right thing,the British building industry seems to be obsessed with trying to almost hermetically seal every building they work on to stop heat loss etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, M S E Refugee said:

We are having one wall tanked in our bedroom and I shall see how that goes.

The Builder originally wanted to tank all of the ground floor but after comments on here and further research I have postponed the tanking and I am getting the roof fixed and new sandstone cills and a jamb and a few other odd jobs done.

I am not sure whether builders try to scam people with damp proofing or they genuinely believe they are doing the right thing,the British building industry seems to be obsessed with trying to almost hermetically seal every building they work on to stop heat loss etc.

Did they find any material breakdown of the render / cracks at all? 

Old buildings definitely need to breathe, it helps massively with damp and condensation - by their nature older buildings will have lower U value and colder internal walls and a condensation magnet as a result - especially when furniture put in front of susceptible walls preventing airflow. Think there is a good chance if no cracks found nearly all problems at or near roofline and windows. Watch how they tan the walls - it is not tricky at all if they are just applying vandal or similar - not much different to applying a thick paint and not having to give a toss about the finish!

Re builders - problem is every old building is pretty unique, not just built fairly individually in the first place but all the years of maintenance/changes/previous failures/bodges. Last thing the builder wants to do is come back and fix issues so  belt and braces approach is often preferred.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

M S E Refugee
36 minutes ago, onlyme said:

Did they find any material breakdown of the render / cracks at all? 

Old buildings definitely need to breathe, it helps massively with damp and condensation - by their nature older buildings will have lower U value and colder internal walls and a condensation magnet as a result - especially when furniture put in front of susceptible walls preventing airflow. Think there is a good chance if no cracks found nearly all problems at or near roofline and windows. Watch how they tan the walls - it is not tricky at all if they are just applying vandal or similar - not much different to applying a thick paint and not having to give a toss about the finish!

Re builders - problem is every old building is pretty unique, not just built fairly individually in the first place but all the years of maintenance/changes/previous failures/bodges. Last thing the builder wants to do is come back and fix issues so  belt and braces approach is often preferred.

 

He said he will fix any cracks in the render but I think you are correct in that most of the problems stem from the roof and windows.

We currently have Sparrows nesting behind the guttering where there is stonework missing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, M S E Refugee said:

He said he will fix any cracks in the render but I think you are correct in that most of the problems stem from the roof and windows.

We currently have Sparrows nesting behind the guttering where there is stonework missing.

I didn't think sparrows could piss that much. :)

Missing stonework/ guttering, err yep that would definitely not help!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
M S E Refugee

I am into my second week of my summer leave so we have stopped at home as the builders started work last week,this week they have not turned up at all and haven't returned our calls.

It looks like I may have to take Spunko's advice and look at doing jobs myself,I am pretty pissed off at wasting my holidays waiting in for builders.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 01/08/2018 at 08:49, Green Devil said:

Getting a wall rendered in lime will cost between 5 and 10 times the price of that in cement..

No real reason it should be anything like that having done walls in both myself - bag of portland cement about £5, larger but same weight I think of lime about £20, plastering / rendering sand the other main material used so same price.. If anything I found lime easier to use as much more sticky than cement mix. Lime nastier on the hands though but cement not great either.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, M S E Refugee said:

I am into my second week of my summer leave so we have stopped at home as the builders started work last week,this week they have not turned up at all and haven't returned our calls.

It looks like I may have to take Spunko's advice and look at doing jobs myself,I am pretty pissed off at wasting my holidays waiting in for builders.

Very poor, sorry to hear that. For the job you need to do the tools list is small which is the good part if you decide to do so. Maybe do interior works yourself - away form inclement weather and height access issues and get builders to do outside and stuff at height.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

M S E Refugee
2 minutes ago, onlyme said:

The interior pointing is time consuming but is a job that can be picked up and put down - just sheet off a small area, keep the mix the same, hack away small sections, remove dust, wet down the area a little bit and get pointing.

Loads of examples of techniques and mix to use:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pointing+wall+with+lime

 

I have watched quite a few tutorials on YouTube with regard to pointing with lime mortar and it looks like something a novice could become quite competent after a few hours of practice.

My main concern would be getting the correct ratios for mixing the lime mortar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, M S E Refugee said:

I have watched quite a few tutorials on YouTube with regard to pointing with lime mortar and it looks like something a novice could become quite competent after a few hours of practice.

My main concern would be getting the correct ratios for mixing the lime mortar.

You'll see by reading comments that there is no 100% correct answer - a lot depends on effect you want, but doesn't need to be 100% right. Thing to do is do a few test batches with the materials that are most conveniently available - small plant pot measures and see what works for you in terms of look/workability and then go with that on a larger scale, take your time wit the measurements using appropriate bucket/container sizes and not much to go wrong then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is utterly boring and time consuming to manually carve out old mortar, particularly if you don't have a mortar rake (or don't want to use one). I repointed my inglenook by hand with a chisel and hammer, it took weeks and weeks of doing a bit after work every day. One of those jobs that takes five times as long as you first think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, spunko2010 said:

It is utterly boring and time consuming to manually carve out old mortar, particularly if you don't have a mortar rake (or don't want to use one). I repointed my inglenook by hand with a chisel and hammer, it took weeks and weeks of doing a bit after work every day. One of those jobs that takes five times as long as you first think.

If its tough going Mr Bosch comes out to play, but yes is time consuming which makes it an expensive job and one that can be worthwhile forgoing the time for.

image.thumb.png.dec7daf2a10cc0bdb4afd43a1d66708c.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
Bricks & Mortar

From the photos, I think the wall is a tricky one to get a nice finish on.  I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for a first attempt, particularly as it seems to be your living room.  Looks like the stones are small, and with a large variation in 'suction' (the amount of water each will draw from the new mortar) - I can't really tell about the suction, but it looks to me like some of the rounded stones are heavy, igneous lumps, that won't draw anything - while the bricks will suck like a...  oh, let's keep it clean.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
M S E Refugee

I have had some damp patches on the side of my fireplace and the base of the sandstone has been steadily eroding.

So I have taken part of it back to the sandstone and brick, and after removing some kind of renovating plaster/tanking then a layer of sand and cement then finally gypsum plaster, after I removed all of this crap it started to dry out although worryingly there are drill holes along the bottom of the sandstone where I assume a damp course was put in and this is still wet.

Could the concrete floor be the cause?

 

 

20180930_144914.jpg

20181002_083550.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...