Need a Straight Forward System to takle the "So called Rising Damp?"

[JohnD]

if you can get the wind whistling under that floor, it will evaporate some of the water away, so it won't all have to rise up the walls. Is it bare earth below? Any particularly wet patches? The water pipe may run under the hall floor.

lime plaster is IME creamy white, and thick. Gypsum is pinkish if dry, brownish if wet, or sometimes greyish

Now you have hacked off the old stuff the bare brickwork will be able to dry out to some extent.

Covering it up is pretty sure to have made it worse.

Some photos may help. The walls may be especially wet round the hearth. Ventilating the flue top and bottom will help dry out the chimney.

are you a builder or a plasterer? Or the homeowner?

 

[Groovejet]

take the bricks out a few at a time, install a modern dpc and replace the bricks.
or inject a chemical dpc. i’ve had good results with both methods.
tanking is a last resort and can cause other issues.

sensible approach that'll work for once, yeh.
but as ive seen better results today, im thinking using rods drilled along hall. and chimney walls , using summit to rid the salts, then i havnt decided yet

 

[Groovejet]

if you can get the wind whistling under that floor, it will evaporate some of the water away, so it won't all have to rise up the walls. Is it bare earth below? Any particularly wet patches? The water pipe may run under the hall floor.

lime plaster is IME creamy white, and thick. Gypsum is pinkish if dry, brownish if wet, or sometimes greyish

Now you have hacked off the old stuff the bare brickwork will be able to dry out to some extent.

Covering it up is pretty sure to have made it worse.

Some photos may help. The walls may be especially wet round the hearth. Ventilating the flue top and bottom will help dry out the chimney.

are you a builder or a plasterer? Or the homeowner?

Yes i hope the wind will now pass through the floor space.
Tell me again what will it tell me if i see what plaster ive removed?
Im a gas fitter by trade, you'll know the dance? During the past 20 years i do it all. House renorvations bathrooms kitchens. I wouldnt take on a full house to plaster, but ill plaster a room or so.

 

[Groovejet]

ive got some photos to upload

 

[Groovejet]

Sorry, uploading the photos is taking ages.
The 1st photo of salts on wall, is directly behind front door. Its the worst wall in the house. The adjoining wall to next door. The entire rest of the hallway walls were covered in plywood panels, but this small are wasnt.
So i guess that if the plywood wasnt fitted, the hall walls would have been exactly like that salty wall. But as the rest was pannelled, the wall's behind were saturated, basicly the walls were sweating behind the panels.
You can see ive removed plaster below the timber rail, which was good , so i wont need to match the plaster in to match the top half of walls.
And the photo of stairs is just showing how far i removed plaster, although im going to remove 600mm more plaster , just creeping up the stairs, as i could see a water mark on bricks. So im going to treat wall with salt neutraliser.

 

[Groovejet]

Thats all i have atm. Now ive removed the plaster, the brickwork isn't that bad. In hall i can see a water tied mark, but as people said, rising damp is misdiagnosed alot.
So the salts are the main problem i guess, which is rising damp related? Or lack of air circulation & condensation is it?
So that leaves chimney breast areas. The alcoves left & right of breasts are also suspect. But most other walls in house look good.

 

[Deleted member 292770]

leaving the salt on the wall doesnt help. it absorbs moisture and perpetuates itself. remove it as soon as it appears.
treating the brickwork alone won’t cure it. your cement will need salt inhibitor/waterproofer.

 

[Deleted member 292770]

Thats all i have atm,

it should all come off , 1100mm up the wall.

 

[Groovejet]

JohnD??
Thanks for your input, appreciate your experience. I can certainly tell, you know your onions,lol.
Im sorry mate, i dont know if you seen my update, but floors are timber. Sorry , i made the mistake thinking concrete, as under stairs had no flooring,so i saw the concrete.

 

[Groovejet]

leaving the salt on the wall doesnt help. it absorbs moisture and perpetuates itself. remove it as soon as it appears.
treating the brickwork alone won’t cure it. your cement will need salt inhibitor/waterproofer.

So SBR & salt neutraliser?

 

[Groovejet]

it should all come off , 1100mm up the wall.

Yeh thanks, i admit i didnt measure from floor to wooden rail, as it looks well over 1meter high anyway. Ill check it

 

[Deleted member 292770]

So SBR & salt neutraliser?

not sbr necessarily. a dedicated brick salt neutraliser followed by cement base coat containing waterproofer/salt inhibitor.
personally I use dryzone renderguard gold.
bear in mind you’ll need to get the dpc or penetrating damp issues sorted first

 

[Deleted member 292770]

JohnD??
Thanks for your input, appreciate your experience. I can certainly tell, you know your onions,lol.
Im sorry mate, i dont know if you seen my update, but floors are timber. Sorry , i made the mistake thinking concrete, as under stairs had no flooring,so i saw the concrete.

the more air you can get through the void the better.

 

[Groovejet]

not sbr necessarily. a dedicated brick salt neutraliser followed by cement base coat containing waterproofer/salt inhibitor.
personally I use dryzone renderguard gold.
bear in mind you’ll need to get the dpc or penetrating damp issues sorted first

Ohh right, good job you said that. I didnt know the 2 salt solutions were differant. ok
Isnt SBR upto the job like? Ive always thought it was good for other jobs anyway.

 

[Groovejet]

the more air you can get through the void the better.

I thought that.
So more air bricks maybe.
Im not a fan of internal vent on chimney breast. But if it means me not getting a return call, its worth it.