Hi all. I noticed damp on the walls and this got worse as time went on. I thought it was caused by condensation and to a certain point it is.
I have removed the skirting boards which were rotting, two of the joists will need replacing and so will some floor boards.
The problem is that water is coming in from next doors wall below the floor boards. The house was built in 1906. I dug down and removed lots of bricks, broken pipe, rocks and gravel and (ARGH!!) clay. The water table appears to have dropped but I now have 2 ft of water that is not going away or getting higher.
Any idea how deep clay normally is?
I realise I need to add an air brick for ventilation and hoped to fill the hole with dust free limestone and gravel. I was going to put a membrane sheet on top with the intention of preventing the water vapour to destroy everything again. I was also going to treat the wood against rot and paint the walls to skirting level with black rubber - damp proof material. The plastering would be redone with the necessary waterproofer. Would this be a terrible idea and how long would it last yr or decades?
I am unclear what to do now because less than a metre away from where the water comes in I have found a drain pipe that runs from the problem area to the front of the outside wall (just less than 30ft), Would it be best to test this some way to see if I can use this to drain the water away? I am assuming this is what happened years ago.
Please help me with suggestions as I am getting desperate now - baby due in March and the house looks like a building site !!
lot of questions there ,chances are your downpipes if old are silted up,so that water is NOT getting away from the house
ventilation is VERY VERY important under timber floors,if some clown has blocked the airbricks up un block them
get the heating on full whack to try and evaporate the moisture
try and identify any point where water may be running towards your house and see if it can be diverted
putting a membrane and stone under the floor will do nothing,if there is that much water you need a soakaway 5 m at least away from your house,or even run the water into the foul drainage system
hope this helps
LLL
tA for the reply, just a quick response before i go to zzzzzzzzz
The house was built in 1906 and is a terrace on a steep hill with a concrete yard outside. The water is coming from my neighbours wall - coming down the hill but it is only really at one visable place. There is solid stone below floor level around the chimney breast. The stone is less than a foot in depth and directly under that is clay. I can see (when it rains) the water coming through and it fills up to a certain level just below the joists. I am pretty sure that the pipe I found will be blocked or clogged up with clay but the water is nearly a metre away from it. Prior to me digging up the damp gravel surface I could not see any puddles of water. I just have a nice swimming pool now where I have dug down 2 feet into more and more clay.
It appears that there has been gravel on top of the current problem for 30 odd years and I was hoping I could do the same - are you saying this will not work or will make it worse?
I suppose I could install a sump pump but didnt really want my electric bill to go up!
and the house looks like a building site !!