DAMP

[BIGJIM72]

+1 for a dehumidifier

 

[calumscott]

Not an option for your nice stone walls but I'm going with aerogel on my damp walls. Double thickness brick with no cavity - old school!

Helps having a brother in the insulation business!!

The answers are, insulation and ventilation. Nothing else will cure it.

 

[CoxyBoy123]

Not an option for your nice stone walls but I'm going with aerogel on my damp walls. Double thickness brick with no cavity - old school!

Helps having a brother in the insulation business!!

The answers are, insulation and ventilation. Nothing else will cure it.

Indeed there is a distinct lack of ventilation in my strange shape house

 

[Megaross]

Issues with damp in older properties often stem with modernisation not taking into account older building techniques - something developers are notorious for because these don't come out until people start living in the properties.

Particularly anything lime - which needs to breathe and move naturally.
Adding double glazing can be a major contributory factor, in older properties double glazing should always have trickle vents. Without them you won't have adequate ventilation. The other option of course is just to keep your windows constantly open a crack.

Penetrating/ rising damp is comparatively rare - 95% of the time it's a ventilation issue.
Or something as daft as washing being dried indoors.

If you have big problem walls on single skin the usual practise is to strip all plaster and render then dryline, which can sometimes help

Whatever you do, don't go slapping PVA on the walls. DIY programs on tv have spread massively wrong information about the usage of PVA - only time it should go near a wall is before plastering (to reduce porosity which will dry the plaster too quickly and cause a failure), never after plastering or as a problem solver, it'll create big problems down the line.

Fix damp problems, dry plaster, then paint with alkali resisting primer and decorate.

 

[BrotherMalice]

Whatever you do, don't go slapping PVA on the walls. DIY programs on tv have spread massively wrong information about the usage of PVA - only time it should go near a wall is before plastering diluted down (to reduce porosity which will dry the plaster too quick), never after plastering.

Thanks for that information, I thought we were doing the right thing, oh well, its not my house and the landlord is a cnut anyway or he would have done it!

 

[Megaross]

Yeah, I'm a long time member on a DIY forum and the amount of "why is all the paint peeling off my walls" posts on there due to misuse of PVA is remarkable.
And the odd "why have all the tiles fallen off my walls" ones due to wrong use of PVA too.

They should have a bloody sign up in front of it in the DIY sheds.

Sorry to hear about the landlord, some are a bloody nightmare, there should be a tenants union or something.

 

[BrotherMalice]

I don't care that much, we are buying a house soon so he will have to fix all the numerous problems before he can rent it out again!