'Tanking' a cellar...

[Feelslikea1sttimer]

We are in the process of buying a house, that has a smallish cellar which would be perfect to use as office space. From what we can see the cellar is mainly dry, a couple of damp patches in 2 of the corners but doesn't let in lots of water... It has a radiator down there and lighting already but we would like to tank it out and plaster the walls etc to make it into a proper room, but we have no concept of cost/work involved

Does anybody have any idea of how much it would cost on average per sq metre?

Thanks

If it's fairly dry then you can probably get away with sand and cementing the walls and then putting on a layer of finish on top which would be much cheaper than putting in waterproof membranes etc.

Ah that sounds like a better option, worth looking at...

Thanks

it will need lots of constant ventilation.

Some contents insurances won't cover items in a cellar, worth checking out if you want to put computers etc there :)

Ah mrsg that's a very good point as we would have a couple of computers and servers and things down there... We may have to go back to the drawing board!

piglet we are going to have to get the professionals in to have a look... All these things i hadn't thought about!

Thanks

cellars need to be draughty to blow the water vapour out. It will be coming through the floor and walls.

If you do any panelling, it will be damp behind, so don't use wood. You mentioned damp corners, so existing ventilation is insufficient. Ventilation gets damp out, heat just makes it warm.

If you want to spend any money, consider digging out the floor. Provided you do not destabilise the wall foundations, you can probably increase headroom as well as laying a better concrete floor with dpm and possibly even insulation. Best to include a gutter round the edges so that if you do line the walls later, any water can be collected and pumped out. Modern approach is that you will never stop damp getting into a cellar, so you have to arrange to take it out. You can get special floor tiles with a drainage gap underneath.

I'm getting confused between two similar threads.

Is this the right one?