Damp cellar

[Luc2011]

Hi

I have a problem that when I moved into my house, the cellar was very damp and pieces of wood and plaster were falling from the ceiling. To address this, I got someone to tank the cellar. Unfortunately he only did 2/3 of the cellar with tanking slurry and plaster, leaving the rest bare brick.

Since this time, the cellar has continued to be damp and has black mould all over the ceiling. I have tried to ventilate the room using an extractor but this does not seem to be helping. I am now trying to tank the rest of the cellar myself with slurry but I don't know what I am doing and don't have a great deal of money. I have begun to attempt to strip the paint off the brick, but it is very difficult to remove and won't come off without a sandblaster which I cannot afford. I am worried about spending money on renting this equipment because I am not certain about the quality of work that the guy did on the rest.

Is it possible to tank over painted brick? Do you think it is worth investing in tanking the third section considering I am not sure of the quality of the other sections? Do you have any advice about cleaning paint off the bricks? Do you think that it would be better to invest in a better ventilation system?

I don't really want to use this room anymore, I just don't want it to go mouldy!

 

[TheVictorian]

Cellars are damp, period. Unless they have been converted.

My cellar (130 years old) has walls that are slightly damp to the touch, the front wall has been tanked by me purely to stop water ingress through one of the walls. The other 3 walls are as they were originally, limewashed brick.

The best way to prevent mould is to ventilate it well, there should be a decent draught through the cellar with plenty of airbricks.

There wouldn't usually be any plastered surfaces in a cellar as damp would cause them to deteriorate. I'd remove anything that has gone mouldy and then improve the ventilation, this should fix the problem.

 

[Luc2011]

Thanks. That will save me scraping the paint off this evening. I will look at getting some more air bricks and improving the through draft and see how it goes.