Damp - help I’ve had 5 different tradespeople tell me 5 different things

[purpletrees16]

I bought a house with damp in the bay window and some suspiciously next to a drain on the side wall and some in a porch. Driveway slopes away but is too high & covers air brick. 1930s

Just had a range of tradespeople (from damp specialists to drainage people) have a look at it and every single one has come away with a different plan. Costs vary but it’s the sort of job where is seems they are going to escalate due to set out exclusions in the quote document but the starting point is £750 to £1500. It’s not so much about the money but about not Messing up the house with chemical injections or bad damp solutions that will be ongoing. House needs decorated etc. but we’re looking to create a safe & warm family home rather than something that looks like in a magazine finish wise so it suits us and we got a great area/space for the price.

I’ve been told not to do chemical injections
To do chemical injections
Not to do french drain as no where for water to go
To do ftench drain as arco drain won’t work with left/right camber and french drain will drain under driveway as there is a camber away from house.
To remove all my skirting immediately
To let my skirting dry out and then replaster & replace damaged in bay and leave the wood.
To flat render the whole bottom front outside (currently painted bricks going to pebble dash.)
To do arco but have a second channel to make the water flow in the right direction.
That the two metal down pipes need immediate replacing
That they are fine and if I do the bathroom extension in a few years I should do then.

Everyone will fix our misaligned drain. Only one company also does guttering cleaning. There’s a crack in the mortar at the side that seems to sit out with everyone’s quotes at the moment.

Trade 1: £750

• clean guttering and sure up leak at end cap
• dig out square around air brick using slope to get water away.
• seal up edge of driveway and wall with triangle of cement (?)
• come back in two months after it’s dried out and re plaster in front room.

Trade 2: £1350
-arco drain along front

• seal up edge around with plastic triangle.

Trade 3: ??
-arco drain but also a drainage channel as this guy took more measurements and thinks that it will have to left rather than right and therefore need a second run off channel to get the water away

Trade 3: ??
French drain
Arco drain on straight bit
Fix mortar by making crack bigger & filling in

Trade 4: £1500
Reseal the front with smooth render 1.2m & Waterproof it
Damp injections
Remove all skirting along hall (original and screwed in apparently - going to be hard to replicate.)
Replaster bay (lots of provisions in this pit)

Any advice would be well received!!!

Tempted to do small to start with and see if that dries it out and then next year can do more. We’ve got money to sink into the house but no rush for everything to be completed -just safe for dog & 2 years till kid.

Also going through resolving damp issues in an 1840s property with additions in 1870, 1920, 1960 and 1980s.
After a couple of false starts we had an independent damp survey done by David Kinsey . We are starting to work through his recommendations, although it’s a slow process finding competent tradesmen, and of course they are booked up for ages, but hopefully over the next few months we will begin to see results.

And rambling.

God I must be middle-aged - I've just read a thread about damp-proofing, with interest, all the way to the last post......

I've used a company called Damp Detectives. The guy I've had out is brilliant. They're surveyors, not selling anything. They might vary across the franchise's but I would recommend my surveyor to anyone in the SW. Spends 3 hours on a survey, checks every inch, up in the roof the lot. I want to marry him but I'm not sure how to broach this with him.

While you're waiting 2 weeks for the surveyor, go out and dig out the paving bricks at the base of the wall. May as well get started as they have to go sooner or later!

Thanks - I’ve bought a pry bar to lift something else so I’ll have a go. They are concreted in so won’t lift easy.

Also tempted to fit a shoe on the drain to be honest. That’s not hard!

I work in an area where I have some experts in my team in terms of renovating properties in their spare time and as they are all engineers they approach it with more research than I’ve done (I’m not in construction but my team is multi disciplinary) and the informal advice so far is that I should be peeling off the front paint immediately!

I’m relatively new so this has been a bonding experience at work - who knew!

@ramarama

God I must be middle-aged - I've just read a thread about damp-proofing, with interest, all the way to the last post......

don't fight it, fascinating topic.

The first couple of bricks will be a pain but I expect that the rest will come up simple enough

you will need gardening gloves, lever, and a hand trowel to dig out the loose material.

Barrow to put it in (or you can buy rubble sacks, they are very thick polythene, I use the sacks that water softener salt comes in. Your council tip may accept them for a fee, or, if you are going to have builders in, put it in the skip.

Around the drains, look out for bright red worms. They eat organic material and like broken drains. Not harmful and you can sell them to anglers. Also look out for wild tomato plants.

I’m not sure anything can live in my patio drive. I’d be surprised if there’s even a dandelion root but will happily transport all worms to the garden. I am a fan of most creepy-crawlies: a fascination that grew from making other kids run away when I dangled them in their faces that never quite went away as an adult. On of my hobbies as a kid was my own pond and vegetable patch that I am excited to start up now I finally have a garden... I currently don’t have a shelf spare because of my love of house plants has had to hold the whole obsession up for the last 10years.

I will be popping separating all the mud out and putting the bricks in the garage with the rest of our stuff that awaits the return of free access to tips. Was only going to lift the square in front of the brick - so should only be a few bricks anyway.

(There’s no greater joy as a small girl in a white dress to digging around a muddy puddle and making boys the same age run away screaming. Fond memories.)

On a more serious note - do I have to do anything to stop water pooling? Use sand to make a gradient that points away?

open up the trench and it will lie at the bottom and (probably) soak away.

A leaking drain may fill it.

I was once standing in a hole repairing a broken gully when the hole filled up with warm soapy water. The neighbour had pulled out their bathplug. Their gully was also broken (as is usual)

Wait, there’s a drain at the front of the house? I thought the drains were on the tarmac shared drive (which I will definitely wait for contractors - neighbours are lovely and I have a long term relationship to start with them that’s more important than the damp at this moment 😜.)

Sorry OP you've got the hassle but thank you for summoning PigletJohn.

I thought I had become a minor expert in managing damp but reading this thread, I realise I'm an amateur.

I thought your gully was at the front?

Where does the water from the bay window gutter go?

The guttering is piped to the neighbours on one side and the driveway on the other. Two more photos attached.

I think one of the drainage person that had a look around with a flashlight said that hethought the neighbours one went straight to the road.

maybe

but if it is cracked and leaking (as usual) it could be running anywhere.

Interesting - well I will update tomorrow evening on what happens :).

Thank you to everyone @PigletJohn @RealisticSketch and Everyone for all your advice so far! I no longer feel completely daunted and confused like I did when I started this post so thank you both so much!

I’m sorry to hijack this thread but I’m googling and googling damp and came to mumsnet as it can be the oracle on a lot of things!
I’ve just moved a chest of drawers to hoover and discovered lifting paper and a tide mark. Have I got rising damp or can I hope for a cold, neglected corner that could get better
Need to get a damp specialist out, but that’s not going to be possible for a couple of weeks!

Best to start a new thread, as your problem, cause and solutions may be different.

Sorry to resurrect - I have lifted the driveway and dug out the air brick and a trench. I am now documenting where the water goes as it rains and am having my guttering done in a few weeks (I have another roof task due to purloin and a soffit issue so am combining into that job - all booked but awaiting time as managed to get a contractor recommended by a neighbour who is good and therefore unavailable!)

I am not using the main damp room for anything.

To help it dry out, is it worth chipping off the damp plaster myself inside? I’m sticking in a dehumidifier in front of it and we have a professional dust masks and safety goggles we got for sanding.

Or should I just strip the vinyl paint instead and let it dry? (Love chemicals - less dusty).

It will dry quicker if you strip the plaster off. But take off the skirting for a start. Thus will usually expose bare brick so you can photograph it and see how wet it looks.

If the plaster is damp, it will not make much dust, so this could be a good time to do it. Maybe the bottom two feet?

Have you been able to lift floorboards yet?

A domestic fan, blowing on the wet wall, will evaporate water off the surface. The wall will become cold due to the loss of heat by evaporation of the water.

Photograph it all, with flash, and then again at weekly Intervals so you can see if the dampness is reducing. Draw round wet patches with a pencil and date the lines.

@purpletrees16

Sorry to resurrect - I have lifted the driveway and dug out the air brick and a trench. I am now documenting where the water goes as it rains and am having my guttering done in a few weeks (I have another roof task due to purloin and a soffit issue so am combining into that job - all booked but awaiting time as managed to get a contractor recommended by a neighbour who is good and therefore unavailable!)

I am not using the main damp room for anything.

To help it dry out, is it worth chipping off the damp plaster myself inside? I’m sticking in a dehumidifier in front of it and we have a professional dust masks and safety goggles we got for sanding.

Or should I just strip the vinyl paint instead and let it dry? (Love chemicals - less dusty).

Is it one of the damp meters with two prongs? If so, have you tested the reliability of the readings? ;) I got one and found it was like a random number generator - I couldn't reliably get the same reading in one place so I gave up with it.

Instead I bought a cheap room thermometer off amazon which also includes a humidity reading. It worked very well for tracking progress. Might work for you? Although if it is a small area in a big room the air might be relatively dry anyway. Optimal humidity for a room is 40 - 60%.

Thank you all for the advice! Shall tackle that & a bit of trench widening this weekend. Neighbours are going half on the shared drive too which will do the trench round the house as tarmac and in no way liftable. Also needs to be filled with something as it’s not very wide!

A little bit of a mystery is the dampest bit of wall (according to IR map by surveyor) is dry out front but I think it’s because it doesn’t have a radiator so it’s the same reason but the water there doesn’t get heated.

Could try a flash picture but at the moment there’s no line - the damp goes from the floor to window & there’s very little wall at the edge. Could also have been painted over recently ish but I can’t see it.