Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Smallhold Farming and Rural Living => Property, Buildings, Equipment and Alternative Energy => Topic started by: grinling on July 16, 2012, 20:27
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Here is a picture of the bottom bit of the house.
It has a "damp proof course" which has been put in the bricks rather than the mortar by the previous owner or even the one before that.
It has then had bitumen type paint put on the lower bit, which we think was trapping rising damp. Cobbles used to be up to the wall but hubby has taken 1 row away.
Should we brush away the black stuff and put in a damp course lower down.?
Should we cement between the house and slabs sloping away from the house and add shingle? How deep should the shingle be?
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The builders removed the bitumen from the bricks below the injected damp proof course ( it should be in the bricks by the way) when mine was done., and some paving which was too high removed, to allow the damp wall to dry out.
Your paving level looks low enough now for that to happen, so just removing the bitumen should sort it out ;)
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make sure there's nothing in between the damp proof course and the wall above it, "bridging" which will allow the damp to rise and cross over to the brickwork above, I wouldn't put bitumen under the damp course the reason being if damp comes up it will be a lot better for the wind ans sun, and warm air to do the job of drying the brick work out under the damp line, if you do its a barrier to keep the damp within the wall as there's no escape
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see paint brickwork , Its virtualy impossible to damp proof a house that had no damp course and trying to causes more problems . go with living in the house as it was designed use lime bases products never use cement it does not breathe keep all paths away from the base of the house use a shingle strip to stop water splashing onto the building