Owning your own home

Damp was not an issue on that wall, only being supported by an outside crapper and barely attached to the house was the main issue

Ah OK. Thanks all 👍

Wouldn't a plinth bridge the DPC ? Seems like a bad idea

like this diagram

thanks for this ill ask the builder as its all very confusing.
as any solution that gets put forward has alternative put forward because the other one is wrong .

i think the builder is saying the kitchen floor has been dug down below ground level so the DPC has been compromised.

but thanks for this diagram its helpful

that's shit. Flat problems..

Hope it gets sorted for you

if the kitchen has been dug below ground level then the best solution I would think would be to dig the ground level lower outside so that it is lower than the dpc and sloped so that water drains away from the house.

If you cant do that then I would have thought that so long as the french drain is dug below the dpc it should work, unless it's filling and collecting water from everywhere thats above it. Does the french drain have an actual pipe draining suitably far away from the house or is it just a ditch filled with gravel?

We are removing the bottom 6 inches of render on our house as it currently goes to ground level for the reasons illustrated in the diagram, so yeah, your basically just adding the 6 inches that our surveyor recommended removing..

It's just a ditch filled with gravel. cowboys and my trusting nature from long ago when we 1st moved in. Having done some more reading I think a proper French drain with piping and have it drain off to a drain point will help. But also read that it being a clay soil French drains are not that effective. 🤔.
I think I'll try to get a 2nd opinion. Anyone got a good builder to recommend for this sort of thing?

Bit of an odd one- but does anyone have contacts/ recommendation for an Architectural glass specialist? We have a ludicrously large piece of glass in our house, which has managed through the various high winds over the past few years, but would like to just have a check to see if we need to sort the seals. Its the sort of thing where replacement would be a fucking nightmare, so if theres a way of mitigating the risk I'll take it.

Neighbour has an old boiler above my bathroom which leaked onto my fresh plaster before Christmas. He got it sorted PDQ and offered to pay for repairs (didn’t take him up on it) which was great.
Happened again.
Does anyone know how bad it is to soak plaster a couple of times? Should I take him up on his offer and get it replaster? From speaking to his tenants, it’s a really old boiler that it would have been cheaper to replace than overhaul a few years ago according to the plumber who worked on it.

Also hating my stained glass window which gets a ridiculous amount of weather and is having water come in and soak the window sill and soak the underneath of the window

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Does anyone know how bad it is to soak plaster a couple of times?

Sort of. Our boiler leaked and ultimately the closest bit of the ceiling plasterboard bowed and became unsafe. If the leak got caught quickly it might be fine, but you probably won't know until it drys out properly.

If that section is still perfectly flat once dried you should be OK.

Are they paying or is it insurance? Because if it's their cash you can position it as; "I'm happy to wait to see if it's OK, but are you cool to cover it if later issues transpire"? Whereas if its insurance just get it redone now to be on the safe side.

Does it have secondary glazing outside?

It's just a ditch filled with gravel.

Which is often good enough - depending on why it was put there - in the picture @apc posted, for example, a gravel soakaway, cut against the wall, would stop the worst of the wicking up the rendered bit.

I'd go so far as to suggest, though, that a cement plinth / parging as an effort to mitigate damp is utterly bonkers.

ta looking at the diagram what your saying makes sense. i also think that alot of the damp in the kitchen is from bad ventilation.

On this damp conversation I've got a few varied damp issues at my place (end of terrace ~ 1910 house), some obvious causes, some not.

I'd like someone to come in and draw up some fixes (not just some fucker trying to sell a chemical DPC) which I could then pass to a builder/do myself.

Does such a person exist? Does anyone know one in North London. Is there some sort of qualification for this kind of stuff? It's an area that seems full of cowboys.

Secondary glazing on the outside is going to have to be the way with that one unfortunately, trying to seal every piece is an endless task.

Plaster can take a bit, because it doesn't have any paint on it yet is likely the best as can dry straight out again without retaining or blistering up.

Trying to get neighbours to realise the best method sometimes not the easiest, but when they do play ball its all fine. Boiler shouldn't be really leaking at all, unless theres something mega wrong with it. If they become difficult to deal with you can always call gas safe and report an issue to them. I once screwed through an unused gas line late at night and needed some help, they sent someone out in under an hour, obviously gas vs water leak, but if thats the state of it, then who's to say the gas side is up to spec.

I have used a surveyor specialising in damp - they mostly confirmed what I thought, and had a few additional ideas. Let me dig out the report & see how I found them.

Solving damp is a bitnof an iterative process. Try one thing, see if it works, try another, does it improve, and so on.

I've done French drain (gravel filled), as there was a concrete path up against the wall.

Next up - PIV.

There's a wall needs repointing too.

It's partly cowboys, partly very difficult to diagnose. There are times if you are working on a house for years that you find causes while you are sorting other things when you've had people look at the symptoms and scratch their heads for years.

Anyone who says they can come in and solve all damp problems is probably a cowboy or they've been working in the business 150 years.

fuck me you and your building doesnt have much luck does it!

Does it have secondary glazing outside?

(also cc @BrickMan will reply to both in this)

It used to - but the secondary window outside was gone. Rotten, glass not connected to the wood and probably quite dangerous as could have fallen out on to next door's porch/drive. Stained window had to come out to be repaired, which meant taking the outer window out. Deliberately didn't put it back as would have had to pay ££££ to have a new one made.

My logic (and that of the guy who did it) was that once the stained glass had been refurbed, try it out and see if it needs the second window. That second window can't have been original, and cathedrals have stained glass which won't leak water in...

So I think I am going to need to get that outer window re made and hopefully not mess the bathroom/walls up too badly between now and then.

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nope :( really gutted with it all

Edit - the roof is also leaking for sure. Got work done on it, but couldn't get it all done due to access issue and neighbour (I understand why) not allowing some scaffold to rest on his roof whilst 1 guy did the repairs. Neighbours themselves are fucked when they need to repair the back half (bottom right of it on the pic) having not played ball

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cheers. is a crack i can carve out and fill sound?

he is a property investor and will be paying himself. will try the see how it goes side

yes i do also remember the roof story....

however - what a great part of bristol to live in

trying to remember the progress and nice bits

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@EstelleGetty or @Sheppz might