Plaster and kitchen units

[DaveJ123]

I want to install some new base units under a kitchen window, but the plaster behind the units is totally shot; it comes off in sheets exposing a grey material (render?) covering the brickwork. Is there any need for plaster there? I don't know if there's any damp in the wall particularly, but thought I'd tear off the plaster and screw some battens to the wall anyway to attach the units. Is this ok? If it's not, I don't mind having a go at plastering -no one will see it- but how long would it be before I could put the battens up?

DaveJ

 

[TexMex]

If you plastered the wall, I think it's had long enough to go off now. Go ahead and screw them battons on. I bet the wife has waited long enough for her kitchen to be put in.

 

[Tony6]

Dave,

Stop and think for a moment you are going to spend good money on new units and leave maybe a damp wall untreated??

If you do this the units will smell of damp .

The norm is to treat the damp first then put new units up.

Depending on how bad it is ;remove plaster / render

You can paint bitumen on the wall and render over it when tacty then plaster.this is a cheap way of doing it !there are many ways of treating damp conditions so unless you are there to see it .It is hard to advise on

 

[murraysnudge]

Good point Tony but why is the wall damp? It could be that the sink/worktop wasn't sealed correctly so there isn't really a problem at all. I've renovated several houses which had this problem and they were dry-lined, which isn't a good idea in a kitchen. I always remove the plasterboard in the sink area and render it with sand/cement.
The other reason for a damp wall may be if it's a solid 9" wall with defective pointing in an exposed site giving rise to penetrating damp by driving rain. Repointing the brickwork is the answer there.

 

[TexMex]

Tony
"Stop and think for a moment"? Dave has now had almost 2 months to think . I agree with murray. Where damp is found behind a sink unit it is almost invariably due to a previously faulty installation (bad seal on the splashback, leaky waste even a dripping compression joint). Come to that it could even the result of a one off dissaster with the washing machine in years gone by.

Sorry Tony, not having a pop at you, but my original flippant posting was out of sympathy for this poor guy waiting for two months for a reply. The picture of him sitting in front of his computer every night waiting for an answer, whith his wife in the background "when are you going to finish my kitchen" just cracked me up.

 

[DaveJ123]

Thanks Tex - it's quite slow that plaster stuff isn't it?

Seriously, I haven't taken the old units out yet. Probably will need to look into this damp question ..thanks chaps.

Dave

 

[TexMex]

Dave
Have you had a look at the problem area lately. With the amount of rain we've had in the last couple of days, NOW would be an ideal time to check. If the problem is related to a structural defect (such as dpc, pointing or whatever) the patch should be possitively oosing now. If it's dry I think it's a pretty safe bet that the offending water originally came from inside the house.

 

[DaveJ123]

Yep, thanks Tex. This had just occurred to me, too. Can't see any obvious evidence of dampness in the wall, there, at the moment. Where the plaster's falling off isn't actually around the sink; the sink's got a rock hard built up tiled area which took me hours to chisel away so that I could get a worktop up closer to the wall. The bad plaster is under a window. Doesn't seem to be a leak, unless the original window leaked. House was built around 1939.

I've used a layer of one coat diy plaster just to even out the wall so the end of the sink worktop and the edge of the window worktop will meet in line and be fairly well against the wall. I'm currently viewing the area of my plaster at the end of the sink worktop to see if the 'two-tone effect' is dampness drying out in thicker plaster or dampness coming in - possibly caused by me damaging the brickwork by hitting it so hard for so long to shift the tiled area! I'm hoping that comment will continue to be facetious! The tiles around the sink are built up on a rock hard, dark brown material, whatever that is, as opposed to the light- grey material under the plaster.

Didn't realize it had been 2 months. Thanks for your concern Tex. I'd actually given up on this question, assuming it had been deemed too daft to answer.

Dave