Hi all. We are currently refurbishing 1960s house to eventually live in.
After stripping wallpaper from inside walls of this window structure, we noticed the plaster which covered the cavity, at the very bottom on the left and right (circled in red) was damp and black with moisture. We've knocked the plaster back around the window as the plan is to remove this window structure and have a flush UPVC window fitted and the window structure itself removed.
We are complete beginners but it looks like to me that the right hand (from the inside) cavity is pretty much bricked up with the exception of missing pointing? It still caused damp at the bottom before paper was removed and plaster knocked back.
On the left side (from the inside), the cavity looks much more open and looks mainly filled with old plaster. There is fired in cavity wall insulation behind further back which is still soft.
I was asked by the builder to drill a hole on the outside top of the window structure to check for lintel provision prior to it being removed by window fitters. I have done that, and there is both an inner concrete lintel and outer concrete lintel holding up two rows of bricks, currently hidden from the outside below that window structure at the top. I have inserted some polythene where I have drilled and covered with tarpaulin temporarily until the structure is due to be removed for window replacement.
Last week we went in one day and exactly where the damp plaster had previously been on the left (from the inside) circled below in red, there was water on the window sill, onto the sheet used to cover the window and the water had gone onto the floor.
We are concerned as to where this water is coming from and why it is running through the cavity onto the window sill.
I initially considered whether my drilled hole on the outside of the window may have caused this but then remembered that the previous plaster covering that area was brown to black in the first place in that exact area (circled) before I even drilled any holes in the outside.
Any idea where this water is coming from, what needs to be done and how the cavities should be filled or sealed prior to getting window fitters to install?
Also should anything be done above from the inside between the two concrete lintels to seal the cavity in some way prior to new UPVC windows?
Thank you.
Water has leaked
After stripping wallpaper from inside walls of this window structure, we noticed the plaster which covered the cavity, at the very bottom on the left and right (circled in red) was damp and black with moisture. We've knocked the plaster back around the window as the plan is to remove this window structure and have a flush UPVC window fitted and the window structure itself removed.
We are complete beginners but it looks like to me that the right hand (from the inside) cavity is pretty much bricked up with the exception of missing pointing? It still caused damp at the bottom before paper was removed and plaster knocked back.
On the left side (from the inside), the cavity looks much more open and looks mainly filled with old plaster. There is fired in cavity wall insulation behind further back which is still soft.
I was asked by the builder to drill a hole on the outside top of the window structure to check for lintel provision prior to it being removed by window fitters. I have done that, and there is both an inner concrete lintel and outer concrete lintel holding up two rows of bricks, currently hidden from the outside below that window structure at the top. I have inserted some polythene where I have drilled and covered with tarpaulin temporarily until the structure is due to be removed for window replacement.
Last week we went in one day and exactly where the damp plaster had previously been on the left (from the inside) circled below in red, there was water on the window sill, onto the sheet used to cover the window and the water had gone onto the floor.
We are concerned as to where this water is coming from and why it is running through the cavity onto the window sill.
I initially considered whether my drilled hole on the outside of the window may have caused this but then remembered that the previous plaster covering that area was brown to black in the first place in that exact area (circled) before I even drilled any holes in the outside.
Any idea where this water is coming from, what needs to be done and how the cavities should be filled or sealed prior to getting window fitters to install?
Also should anything be done above from the inside between the two concrete lintels to seal the cavity in some way prior to new UPVC windows?
Thank you.
Water has leaked
