[chrissie B]

well its not a gardening prob but one we have year in year out which is a cement fungus prob , we thought it was damp at first but have been told that there is no cure for it excepr knocking down the whole wall and as its a rented house not possable , its an old house with very thick walls.
im hoping that there is a builder person out there knows of a product we can use , have been told via internet about a product called eradarot , but dont know where to get it from .we tryed the stuff here but it dosent seem to work , all we do is patch it up every year , so hoping some one can advise please .
chrissie b

[muntjac]

cement fungus ? sounds like abodgit and run kinda problem....... if i had green growing on my walls id just whack it with domestos leave a day n hose down.. werks for me

[shaun]

my favourite subject is concrete and cement products
chrissie are we talking a rendered/plastered wall is it inside or outside,whats the wall made of ?
a bit more information will help and a picture says a 1000 words.

[chrissie B]

Hi Shaun , well its an inside wall and what happens is we get some flaking and then the white plaster blows a bit then we scrape it all off , there is no discolouration no smell but the cement of the wall the grey stuff is crumbly and gritty.it started at one end and has traveld along the wall its about 16 ins off  the ground .the house walls are thick and its an old house 1929 thats old for here as earthquakes bring a lot down in the past.
i will try to get a pic but we just plastered iitover the other day and its flaking already. i think its the grey stuff .
hope you can help .
chrissie b  

[muntjac]

sounds like damp to me .. is the soil higher up the outside wall than the old damp course its probably slate anyways. id plump for a new damp course and have the plaster taken off to about a yard up .specialist attention ... not a bodgeitngo type  

[chrissie B]

the house is rented so digging deep for a damp course wont be from me , and i dont know even if these type of houses have them , and the problem donent come from ground level i think it would be a phanonimon if i could spell it  
chrissie b

[David.]

As a retired surveyor, I have never heard of the term "cement fungus" used to described a building defect, but I have heard it used as an alternative to "concreteing over" to describe greenfield development.

If a problem was to arise in this country, the remedy would be the Defective Premises Act, maintaining your tenancy (in temporary accomodation) whilst the works were carried out.

Contact your equivalent of (in the UK) the Environmental Health Department of your Local authority.

[chrissie B]

im afraid building regulations dont seem to matter here in greece , you just slap a bit of stocko on it (polyfiller)and hope for the best or if you can't manage it your self then some one else comes and slaps a bit on it for you.
chrissie b

[shaun]

the damp is in the walls and all your doing is cosmetic by covering it.like david says theres no such thing as cement fungus,what you need to do is,remove all the plaster/render where the damp is present and a bit more,then think about a injected damp course system(basically its a chemical that is injected into the wall to repell and stop the rising damp) let the wall dry out and then re-plaster.you can get all types of additives to mix with your cement for stopping damp comming through but in the end the damp will win.
you can hire the eqiupment yourself in the uk
another way is to remove all the plaster from ceiling to floor and fix a membrame to the wall then you can dot n dab plaster boards to this or plaster straight onto it ,its used in cellars and places like that .and its expensive

[chrissie B]

thanks for the reply , we do have a fuzzy type of fungus ive seen it .
i will scower the net for the products mentiond and give it a go .
if i put wood cladding around my walls after being treated do you think it would cause any big problems
chrissie b