Advice fitting skirting to non fully plastered walls

[Gerrydelasel]

So may be because of splash back during rain there was penetrating damp?

Splashback, rain running down the walls, some capillary action... water soaks into the wall. Anything within a few inches of the ground is going to get wet, that's just the way of old houses!

 

[foxhole]

Anyone mentioning rising damp is going to be a cowboy. Even the myth of rising damp got a mention on QI the other night.

 

[LuckyA]

How is rising damp a myth, sorry? Where are the facts?

Just merely the surface tension of water would allow it to go up a capillary, just as there are interlinking capillaries in bricks.

 

[Gerrydelasel]

How is rising damp a myth, sorry? Where are the facts?
Just merely the surface tension of water would allow it to go up a capillary, just as there are interlinking capillaries in bricks.

Caipillary action is real of course, but when people say 'rising damp' these days they usually mean the mythical kind that was invented in the 1980s. Here (so the story goes) water will somehow climb all the way up the wall, without limit. Damp above a doorway? That's rising damp of course! It's coming from floor level!

It's ludicrous of course; capillary action can suck water up a few inches, but not foot after foot.

 

[LuckyA]

You're actually taking me back to my uni days here now and this is a pretty interesting subject. There is an inverse relationship between meniscus height and the diameter of the capillary. So the smaller the capillary, the higher the water is drawn up. Of course this suggests there is no limit to the height the water can be drawn up via capillary action, which I agree is absolutely ridiculous as eventually gravity/self weight of water will counter it.

If I remember correctly, self weight was never considered in the theory. I might go back and have a look lol. Could this be my next PhD

 

[endecotp]

My joist levels are low in relation to the ground level

More commonly known as "my outside ground level is too high".

Photo of the outside would be interesting. Has the ground level been raised at some point? Concreted dirveway or path or something?