Hey,
Thanks for looking.
So I've got myself into a bit of a mess with a property I'm developing. We managed to buy a house to develop with my GF and her Dad, but costs are quickly adding up and unfortunately we can't afford all the trades to come and do this stuff for us.
Basically, I want to try and get at least some of the plastering sorted myself (probably not the skim) but experience is lacking. Hopefully you guys can take a look at the stuff below and give me some advise:
When we managed to get the wall paper off the wall we found that there was damp half way up the wall (Pics:
https://imgur.com/a/JgBUS). We first thought that it was raising damp, but we got a damp survey and they said it was hygroscopic salts in the brick pulling moisture out of the air and into the plaster. They recommended using a tanking slurry on the wall to stop it, but I've read on some forums that you can just use 50/50 water and vinegar with a few drops of washing up liquid in it to neutralise the salts. Is that true? If not what should I use on it?
We also have a few spots of Efflorescence, would that be treated the same way? We've had a full damp course done anyway since it needed doing in other areas.
We're going to be dot and dabbing the house, basically all the ground floor and some upstairs (mainly patching upstairs). We're going to use 9.5mm stuff for a ceiling (screwed to beams), but weren't sure on weather to use 12.5mm on the walls - does it make that much difference? Also any tips on getting the sheets level would be great.
We've got a wall where an old chimney stack used to be, and it's covered it soot. I've heard that the soot will eventually make it's way through the adhesive and stain yellow on the other side - what do you guys suggest? Batton the wall out so that the soot won't soak through?
Any advise for a total novice would be great (I ain't giving up my day job)!
Cheers,
Martin