Home DIY

I'd rather the house didn't subside

Are you trying to collect moisture or get rid of it?

thank you that's brilliant - just looking at my options when I get round to doing it - only one wall is crap that needs to be tiled - suppose its a question for my plasterer

Get rid. Its outside the kitchen which is quite moisturey on the inside walls

I'm not convinced it is necessary or right.

quite moisturey

This makes me very uncomfortable

I'd rather the house didn't subside

As long as you don't go below the footings, you're probably going to be fine.

Obvs I am not a builder, / structural engineer, - if you think there's a risk, you should probably find one of them to opine.

I will not be having any qualms about digging a French drain down the side of my house though.

That paint on the side of your house may be contributing to damp too - It's (I'm assuming) a solid wall with lime mortar, which likes to be exposed to the air so that it can dry out.

Losing the concrete on the ground is a probably a good start though. - it looks like it's breaching the DPC.

And as with all damp problems, it's usually a question of trying one thing, seeing if it works, and if not, trying another.

I got the 5 rung which is just about high enough to get up to the gutters of a two storey Victorian house but is also a reasonably sized step ladder.
https://www.midlandladders.com/Ladders/extension-ladders/little-giant-ladders/little-giant-leveler-5-rung-p-2263

Thanks, this is somewhat reassuring. Sorry for making you feel uncomfortable :)

To quote my PM "speaking, moistly".

Can someone talk to me about efflorescence?

There's some on the outside of my house, we're permanently in the shade on this side it's been damp, etc etc.
What do I need to do/look out for/ burn?

Do you need pics?

Nailed it.

(I really like boring).

How old is the wall?

At least 46 years old.

In your pjs?

Primer is not usually a term applied to wall paint (emulsion). There are a few high solid content emulsions that are useful for colour changes. Dulux Trade Supermatt used to be my choice. I use a specialised ceiling paint from a local supplier now but I can't remember what it's called.

If on the off chance you are talking about paint for woodwork then Zinsser 123+ is a good primer. Don't forget to stir the paint in the tin before you use it and keep stirring it as you go along. The solids settle very easily.

Sometimes there's a good reason to use it on walls but it works out pretty expensive.

primer is not usually a term applied to wall paint

Huh? Maybe terms are different out here, but in NA ‘primer’ is used on walls all the time, unless things have really moved on (a distinct possibility).

I had one put in just over a year ago. We had a lot of water coming down the hill and into our brick - once the clay soil had reached its full capacity there was only one way to go and that was into the house.

It shouldn't be dug deep enough to affect the structure but it did affect the water table. As the water was being taken away from the clay efficiently, when the weather wanted up and the clay dried out it did increase seasonal movement in our house. Which was quite a concern at the time but we had a structural engineer round and he wasn't particularly concerned.

He said water tables change all the time - a more standard culprit is a neighbour chopping down a large tree, but this can affect seasonal movement as the soil dries out.

Was asking about age because it's common/normal on new brickwork.
Is the wall still wet/damp? if so try and fix that.
If it's just removing the visible staining, try scrubbing with water and then rinsing it down after.

Ah. No. Definitely old.
I'll take some pics. There's some inside my brick bin shed (no airbrick).
Then there's some on the external wall where there's a gap between the bin shed and the wall. And then some on another bit.

Wall is bone dry. Brick shed gets swamped when it rains.

It's just soluble salts being left on the surface after the wall has got wet then dried out from the front face. Scrubbing it off and rinsing the salts off mostly works.

as every other kid in Scandinavia I grew up watching a show about child abuse in Sweden. The central plot point of each episode was the kid (Emil) had to make it to the carpenters workshop (the snickarboa) and lock himself inside, so his dad wouldn't catch him and punish him.

Well, hopefully this early education meant that you thought twice when you were about to fall off your stilts through a window into the blueberry soup or hoist your little sister up a flagpole.

I'll give it a clean. Thanks.

I've only been a painter in the UK for over 30 years so I can't really speak about NA. I'm ready to stand by my statement that primer is not usually used as a term to describe 'wall paint'. We use a term 'mist coat' which is a watered down coat of emulsion usually applied to new plaster.

Something I've noticed about NA is the term 'wall paint' which is something I've never used or heard used in the UK, in spoken word that is.

Thanks, figured it was cultural.

Anyone here done circular or curved formwork for concrete before?

I recently re-painted a massive studio from matt black to white, 3 or 4 coats of leyland super leytex matt emulsion created a perfect finish. There was also the benefit that I didn't then need to paint it with more expensive Dulux paint afterwards.