Can anyone help me please? We recently bought an old house with a kitchen extension. Our left hand kitchen wall is an external wall, and forms our neighbour's right hand garden wall. The wall is very wet internally, and when it rains the plaster gets wet and falls off the wall and the bottom of the ceiling connected to it. After asking several puzzled roofers to identify the problem, they all confirmed there is nothing wrong with our roof. Eventually an excellent mason we employed said that there was cracked concrete render on the outside of the wall letting the water in and trapping it. As it is a solid wall, the water had nowhere to go but into our kitchen and up into the lower part of the ceiling. He took the old render off and replaced it with lime render to let the wall breathe. We have a damp proof course in the bottom of the wall. The wall still gets wet when it rains, but now it dries out more quickly afterwards. A plasterer who subsequently looked at the wall said that the plaster on the wall is salt damaged and so has become very absorbent to water, so it will get wet for evermore and will need to be replaced. So we're going to hack off all the old internal plaster this weekend, and use a dehimidifier to dry out the kitchen. We have also been advised by a damp proof guy to tank the wall up to the ceiling with damp proof plaster, but as it's a solid wall and needs to breathe, I'd prefer to find another way of curing the damp if I can. I have read that damp proofing walls can often just move the damp elsewhere, and we don't want to push the damp any further up the ceiling or further into our house. So I'm wondering this. Would it be enough to take of the plaster, dry out the wall with a dehumifier, then paint the brick with salt neutraliser (to stop the salts coming back through to the new plaster), then get the wall replastered just with ordinary plaster? This is getting more technical than we expected when we bought the house, so any advice would be gratefully received:-;
Damp Kitchen Wall
- Thread starter Gail06
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johniosaif
Private Member
Hi Gail.
it needs eyes on it to understand the cause firstly, there is obviously still water ingress so that needs to be sorted firstly , i assume all gutters,gulleys, soak aways,drains have been checked during bad weather.if the wall can breathe on one side i expect it is helping to dry it out at least. your house must be lower than your neighbours, can you please post some pictures externally and internally to help us understand..
it needs eyes on it to understand the cause firstly, there is obviously still water ingress so that needs to be sorted firstly , i assume all gutters,gulleys, soak aways,drains have been checked during bad weather.if the wall can breathe on one side i expect it is helping to dry it out at least. your house must be lower than your neighbours, can you please post some pictures externally and internally to help us understand..
Okay thanks, I will. Sounds like you've hit on the problem. Our neighbour's garden is at a slightly higher level than our kitchen floor. The mason, the plasterer and the damp expert all agree that the best thing would be to ask the neighbour to move his patio and flower bed 12" from the wall (they are currently right up against it), and put a French drain in to let water drain away. We would have, but the neighbour's flatly refused, threatened to sue us if we enter his garden, accused up of upsetting his wife (you get the idea:-; So now we're trying to solve the problem internally instead.
johniosaif
Private Member
I think they are not entitled to that attitude as damage caused to your property can be attributed to them, of course we all avoid neighbours disputes, its a horrible thing to be sending legal letters to each other. I think at this stage i would use the services of an experienced chartered surveyor to view the property,
there are many ways to solve it internally but not been an alarmist, water penetration over many years will cause your walls to decay and although its a worse case scenario, it would be expensive to rectify.
Well your neighbour sounds a barrel of laughs.maybe ask him round to see the problem,then this may alter his attitude.whatever it takes you really have to get the exterior sorted first,hack off the inside then dry out and before sand and cement with waterproofer float an skim top coat.
Thanks to you both for your help, I appreciate it. Yes our neighbour's great to live next door to:-; We've already shown him our sopping wall and tried to explain why we need the work done, but he just said the work is unnecessary and we're making a fuss. My hubby's taking the tiles and plaster off as we speak, and the wall's soaking underneath. We've just bought a dehumidifier, and we're going to try and dry it out a bit. I think you're right though, the outside needs to be sorted, looks like there's no avoiding it! I must admit we are worried about long term damage to the building. So I have the name of a structural surveyor who I'm going to contact on Monday. He's already said he'll come round if we want and do a report. Thanks again.
kebab king
Private Member
Is he attached to your house at any point, if so try your l;ocal council, you may be to do the work through the party wall act, its long winded but basically you end up issueing them with a intent to carry out the work. May help.Failing that try the Citizens advice.As said, that needs to be sorted 1st.
johniosaif
Private Member
The paty wall act is a toothless act, it can be ignored, party wall disputes tun into tens of thousands of pounds, not a road that you would want to travel, the surveyor and his report is the first step to take,for any tanking,damp proofing questions there are many here who can advise.
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