I'll try to make this as brief as I can, it may be of interest to some. I've added a few pix as they speak loader than words of course.
March/April we noticed damp on internal wall:
There was also evidence of water running on external render, low down under the DPC.
This picture was taken last week shows an area of wet on the ground, covering one slab. You can see the water on the walls.
Anyway, I got a surveyor out have a look and his report concluded that we had a rising damp problem caused by a change in the water-table. The DPC had been bridged in many places due to poor rendering etc. He advised on repairs and I contacted a couple of 'builders'.
The first guy who turned up said we didn't have a DPC. To cut a long story short I located it myself with a screwdriver. I then found a chap with a full brain to take off the internal plaster and external render as advised, this work took place last week:
As he was taking off the external render we noticed a clear area where water seemed to be coming from. Obviously there was a fair amount of moisture being released now, but this was noticeable:
Before & After Pix.
Note the small whole in the cement to the top of that last picture. Water was practically dribbling out of there.
We decide to investigate further by making a rather larger hole:
In this one we can see the water flowing from the left on top of the DPC. There was a conduit where the cement had been placed between the blocks and the water was happily flowing out that way.
At this point I'm thinking the surveyor was wrong and our problem is a leaking pipe leading to the kitchen sink. Unfortunately all the pipes are under the concrete floor, and there is no sign of any dampness anywhere.
As a test, we turned off the internal stop-cock and waited to see if the water stopped flowing. Over-night this happened. We turned the water back on and 3 hours later the water flowed again through the hole.
We have come to the (hopefully correct) assumption that the pipe is the cold water pipe and we're getting a plumber out to sort it next week.
It seems the water has been spreading all over the DPC to walls internal and external for many months. There was a bridging of the DPC, but it was being bridged downwards !!
I'm praying it dries out everywhere but doubt that's actually realistic. At present we're hoping the walls dry sufficiently to re-plaster/render but after 5 days the process seems very slow.
Does anyone know whether we can speed up the process anyhow? Is the cement going to dry out or just the blocks. (Sorry for duff terminology, I'm not familiar with the right terms).
Here's what it look like today:
PS.
A huge thank you to woody for this reply to an earlier question. You seemed to hit the nail on the head with this:
March/April we noticed damp on internal wall:
There was also evidence of water running on external render, low down under the DPC.
This picture was taken last week shows an area of wet on the ground, covering one slab. You can see the water on the walls.
Anyway, I got a surveyor out have a look and his report concluded that we had a rising damp problem caused by a change in the water-table. The DPC had been bridged in many places due to poor rendering etc. He advised on repairs and I contacted a couple of 'builders'.
The first guy who turned up said we didn't have a DPC. To cut a long story short I located it myself with a screwdriver. I then found a chap with a full brain to take off the internal plaster and external render as advised, this work took place last week:
As he was taking off the external render we noticed a clear area where water seemed to be coming from. Obviously there was a fair amount of moisture being released now, but this was noticeable:
Before & After Pix.
Note the small whole in the cement to the top of that last picture. Water was practically dribbling out of there.
We decide to investigate further by making a rather larger hole:
In this one we can see the water flowing from the left on top of the DPC. There was a conduit where the cement had been placed between the blocks and the water was happily flowing out that way.
At this point I'm thinking the surveyor was wrong and our problem is a leaking pipe leading to the kitchen sink. Unfortunately all the pipes are under the concrete floor, and there is no sign of any dampness anywhere.
As a test, we turned off the internal stop-cock and waited to see if the water stopped flowing. Over-night this happened. We turned the water back on and 3 hours later the water flowed again through the hole.
We have come to the (hopefully correct) assumption that the pipe is the cold water pipe and we're getting a plumber out to sort it next week.
It seems the water has been spreading all over the DPC to walls internal and external for many months. There was a bridging of the DPC, but it was being bridged downwards !!
I'm praying it dries out everywhere but doubt that's actually realistic. At present we're hoping the walls dry sufficiently to re-plaster/render but after 5 days the process seems very slow.
Does anyone know whether we can speed up the process anyhow? Is the cement going to dry out or just the blocks. (Sorry for duff terminology, I'm not familiar with the right terms).
Here's what it look like today:
PS.
A huge thank you to woody for this reply to an earlier question. You seemed to hit the nail on the head with this:
