Hi folks,
How would you line the inside walls of an old brick kitchen/bathroom extension that's seriously damp? The rooms have been gutted but there's no way we can start putting in new cabinets given the condition of the walls. More details below...
Just purchased our first house. 1890s mid-terrace, two-up-two-down with a brick extension at the back housing a kitchen on the ground floor and a bathroom above. We gutted the kitchen and bathroom as everything was pretty grotty. Our plan was to inject a DPC around the base of the extension and tank the floor, as suggested by our survey, and install a new kitchen a bathroom. However the condition of the walls where the kitchen cabinets and the bath used to be is disturbing: very damp downstairs with some of the bricks crumbling or soft; upstairs, where the bath was, the brick wall is bulging slightly, there are big gaps between the crumbling bricks, and it seems pretty damp too.
From reading here and elsewhere I suspect the render on the outside of the extension (and possibly the rest of the stone house) is concrete and that is what's keeping the walls damp. The render has cracked in places so it's probably letting water into the wall but not back out again, or at least the concrete is preventing the walls from drying out.
I've hacked away at the inside and uncovered some of the brickwork. There used to be a window which has been blocked up using concrete blocks (I think) and the internal render on top of that area is really sticky and hard to remove. One of the walls appears to be made of a mix of brick and rubble held together with a couple of inches of concrete on the inside so I'm reluctant to remove too much of that. The bathroom is generally in better shape but that's mostly because the walls are entirely tiled and underneath is an inch or two of concrete. I'd rather not take that off if I don't have to.
What options do we have? We need to do something to the inside of the damp walls before fitting kitchen and bathroom. Plastering on damp walls seems like a bad idea. Putting cement render back could make things worse. Maybe "dry"lining? With vents at the top and bottom of the walls to let the moisture back outside? I suppose we should insulate somehow but the rooms are already quite small. I'd love to knock it all down and start over but financially that's not really an option
We were looking forward to our new project but this part is a bit overwhelming. Any ideas welcome.
How would you line the inside walls of an old brick kitchen/bathroom extension that's seriously damp? The rooms have been gutted but there's no way we can start putting in new cabinets given the condition of the walls. More details below...
Just purchased our first house. 1890s mid-terrace, two-up-two-down with a brick extension at the back housing a kitchen on the ground floor and a bathroom above. We gutted the kitchen and bathroom as everything was pretty grotty. Our plan was to inject a DPC around the base of the extension and tank the floor, as suggested by our survey, and install a new kitchen a bathroom. However the condition of the walls where the kitchen cabinets and the bath used to be is disturbing: very damp downstairs with some of the bricks crumbling or soft; upstairs, where the bath was, the brick wall is bulging slightly, there are big gaps between the crumbling bricks, and it seems pretty damp too.
From reading here and elsewhere I suspect the render on the outside of the extension (and possibly the rest of the stone house) is concrete and that is what's keeping the walls damp. The render has cracked in places so it's probably letting water into the wall but not back out again, or at least the concrete is preventing the walls from drying out.
I've hacked away at the inside and uncovered some of the brickwork. There used to be a window which has been blocked up using concrete blocks (I think) and the internal render on top of that area is really sticky and hard to remove. One of the walls appears to be made of a mix of brick and rubble held together with a couple of inches of concrete on the inside so I'm reluctant to remove too much of that. The bathroom is generally in better shape but that's mostly because the walls are entirely tiled and underneath is an inch or two of concrete. I'd rather not take that off if I don't have to.
What options do we have? We need to do something to the inside of the damp walls before fitting kitchen and bathroom. Plastering on damp walls seems like a bad idea. Putting cement render back could make things worse. Maybe "dry"lining? With vents at the top and bottom of the walls to let the moisture back outside? I suppose we should insulate somehow but the rooms are already quite small. I'd love to knock it all down and start over but financially that's not really an option
We were looking forward to our new project but this part is a bit overwhelming. Any ideas welcome.
