The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Fri Sep 01, 2006 7:06 pm**

We have an old cottage (1850) with no damp proof course. One wall inside the house suffers from damp. This wall has the drive on the other side of it. The drive, which is in poor condition, is right up against the house and higher than the inside floor level.

We want to re-surface the drive, probably with tarmac. This should prevent rainwater entering the ground through the drive surface as it probably does now. We would also put a slope on the drive to direct water away from the house. We are also considering putting some sort of dry channel or french drain between the drive and house wall to prevent damp earth being against the house wall and to direct rainwater to a soakaway. This would be a cheaper fix for the damp than chemical injection damp proofing, which we've heard doesn't always work anyway.

We thought the bottom of the channel/drain should be below the floor level inside the house, but as we have no damp proof course we're not sure how effective it would be. It might have to be a lot deeper than floor level to be effective.

Does anyone have any experience of this sort of situation and can advise how to fix the damp?

Posted: **Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:26 pm**

Had same problem in last house - same age as yours.
First off, excavated round property - it started to dry out immediately - you could almost hear the cottage breathe a sigh of relief !
Old plaster removed - it pretty much fell off - injected dpc - then waterproof render coat (good old Ronafix) followed by finished plaster. This was almost 20 yrs ago, and am told the house has had no damp problems.
With your drive adjacent, the french drain should work. You might find some underpinning is involved - we had no decent footings to speak of - sat on chalk though.
A professional on-site opinion would seem well worthwhile.
All the best.

Posted: **Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:59 pm**

Thanks for the quick reply.

I should have mentioned the house has a cellar and hence very deep foundations, so underpinning probably wouldn't be needed. But would this mean a drain might have to be deeper than the inside floor level??

We were thinking of a two step approach - try this french drain first and see if it works, then do the injection if still needed. Because of the thick walls we were told we'd have to do the injection from inside and outside the house and we were hoping to avoid all the disruption with re-plastering inside the house (it doesn't look like it'll fall off of its own accord at the moment). We were told we'd have to wait a year to re-plaster too. Is this right?

The Brew Cabin

House damp and high adjacent driveway - How to fix internal damp in cottage