damp kitchen

[pinkfoxes]

Hi All, long term lurker here, signed up today so quite excited!

I have a 1920s-ish victorian terrace house. The kitchen is at the back and down a small step. Since we moved in there has been a terrible smell of damp in the two corner cupboards, we also have seen slugs. I have tried leaving the window open an sometimes the door but no better. The room is colder than the rest of the house too. We had laminate put over the original quarry tiles (with underfloor) but I now understand the quarry tiles are damp proof course and we should not have done this?

Has anyone had anything like this and can offer advice?.

Thanks so much

you probably shouldn't have covered the quarry tiles as they will 'breathe' and you have stopped them doing it. The house we are in had a lot of damp at the back and the main problem there was the ground levels outside which had been raised too high over the years and were now higher than the kitchen floor inside. We had to get it all dug out and have gravelled over the whole area so now any water just soaks away. So check the g round levels outside and also check any guttering or down pipes to make sure they are not leaking.

Thanks for replying. Do you mind me asking the cost of the digging works?

Hi - I honestly can't remember the cost but it took 2-3 days with a couple of large guys and spades! Then they just put weeding mat and covered with gravel. It was something that could be DIY except both me and DH don't have the time or fitness these days to do that.

at that age it is highly likely that the water pipe under the floor is leaking. Do you have a water meter?

Also, you probably have (had) iron soil pipes and a salt-glazed clay yard gulley outside the kitchen, and clay underground pipes. These are very likely to be cracked and leaking, especially if you are in a town that experienced bombing in the 1939-45 Unpleasantness, or the house is on clay.

An experienced local builder will have seen hundreds of local houses just like yours so will know what is likely to need doing.

Some photos, inside and out, will help.

All the leaky stuff has to be dug up and replaced. This can be done at the same time as digging up the old floor. The new floor can have insulating foam underneath so it will be less cold. You might also have wet underfloor heating (pipes run off the boiler) laid at the same time, they make the room very comfortable and are much cheaper to run that electric UFL.

It is much more expensive to lay UFL if you are not having the floor dug up for some other reason.

Is that a seasonal name change PJ? I love it!

piglets chase kittens

Cute!