Home DIY

I'm boarding out the inside of my understairs cupboard next week. The exterior wall currently just has some shutty old blown plaster and one patch has a tiny bit of damp, as does the concrete floor- not much, just enough to send a cardboard box a bit mouldy over the course if a year. I have some Jewson silicon wall sealer for exterior masonry that you paint in and it permeates the brick to water tight it, and my dad reckons I should paint it with that black bitumen type paint as well. I then plan to batten out the wall, add some cavity wall insulation board such as kingspan ( leaving a few mm for an air gap) then board it out with 12mm ply or OSB.

Questions are; is it worth using the black bitumen type paint as well as the other or is this likely to cause probs with the bricks rotting in future etc?, and what type/depth of kingspan should I use on the exterior wall ( bearing in mind I don't want to loose to much storage space under there?
The whole thing is a bit of a dry run for doing similar in my garage next year in order to turn it into a studio/workshop/utility room, so I'd like to get it right this here first.
Any wisdom anyone? Cheers

you need to find the source of the damp before just painting over it

Nothing on the other side of the wall thats obvious? blown render, gutters etc?Otherwise it is probably condensation forming on cold walls

It's just above ground level, maybe a foot and a bit up, outside looks sound, but that side of the house gets no sun as in-between houses, and all the plaster on the inside is a mess as apparently when the houses were built it was plastered mid winter, and in a hurry ( were taking 1950s here, so some of the materials were a bit 'experimental'. Condensation was a right fucker last winter, but the loft is much better insulated now, the radiators are better,
and the rest is getting plastered too so that should help with warmth and I'm retrofitting trickle vents in some windows too so that should help with breathability etc. The house had next to no proper upkeep for the last few years, so I will repoint that wall in summer as some other areas need it. I've used the Jewson's silicon damp proof stuff before on a similar age building ( 50s council flat) and it worked a treat

Given it's under the stairs, and all that, is it necessary to give it a finish. with it being a problem area striping it back could be preferable (and the initial process) to additional layers .. more like leaving it raw

You mean hack the old plaster off? That would work except I need the cupboard I'm building under there to be good and clean for kitchen storage etc, so it really need boarding out with something. The point of adding the insulation board was really just because I thought it preferable to add it than not as warmer house=lower bills, better for us living there and better for the environment. The damp really is not too bad, I can just see/feel it's been there that's all. The wall was packed front to back with boxes until today, so breathability of that wall in the last 12 months will have been f-all, which prob helped cause the damp to show.

Guess I'm saying if the plaster has blown get it off, and see the condition of other plaster that may have been added or if the bond of the under coating has deteriorated beyond repair, putting bitumen paint on an interior wall is more drastic than I've ever heard

I though it sounded a bit drastic too, it was just my dad ( ex engineer/builder) mentioned it so I figured it would be worth looking into.

Some times in the morning ideas don't seem so good! Occasionally the bond to the underplaster had deteriorated to the point where it crumbles off with a finger and it's just the top layer balancing on the wall, your dad would have seen this a mile off, do you really want to get into removing good plaster? Most probably not.

Gave the wall a paint with the Jewson silicon waterproofer this morning and all seems good. The damp part of the plaster took it okay so all should be good with just that I think. Will see how it feels in 24/35hours when fully dry and soaked into the wall-if it works it should stop any plaster crumbling if memory serves as well as stopping the damp.

Not 100% convinced that will work, if it was condensation then it will still condense on the wall, the plaster just wont get damp, stuff will still go mouldy.

Fk the fking lintels in my house and their fkin imperviousness to any kind of fking drilling to mount a fkin curtain pole.

I feel your pain

SDS drill and bits?

Me

Although the link was mistakenly to the 5 peice. I have the 7.

Cramer 40407EN Silicone Profiling Kit 7 – Professional Silicone Tool Kit with Sealant Finishing Tools and Caulk Removal Tools – Easy Silicone caulking with Guides https://amzn.eu/d/0tfFxWY

I've only used the full right angle for skirting, but it's nice and has a cute box. Wish I'd bought it when we first moved in.

https://www.metrofixings.co.uk/product/simpson-strong-tie-sae5001252-125mm-width/24040

I’m knocking down a wall in my garage and need to put in a joist.

I’m going to use something like this hanger for the joist. But how would I attach this to the wall? Standard screws with a raw plug or something a bit more industrial like anchor bolts?

Lovely. Cheers.

What's the joist for and what's the wall made of? I think it's usually M12 bolts and resin. Or they make hangers for attaching timber that can be cemented in place if you have access and enough courses of brick above it.

Edit: the description for that product recommends M12 bolts and resin!

Lol thanks.

It’s in my garage. Not a load bearing wall but supporting the roof.

I’ve never used raw plug resin

Are you sure this should be in DIY?

This all day long. Ours appear to be made of the hardest concrete known to humanity

A job for another day. The rest of my house has walls with the resistance of blamanche. I purposely drilled higher than 120mm to avoid the lintel and it still went wrong. Curtain poles are the bane of my existence. I'll take any other DIY job on before doing them.

Could do it all with push fittings and plastic 15mm. The top pipe in the picture looks like it has a non return valve on it (to the left of the t joint).

Having had something of a look around 15mm copper and stainless pipe is common here, but plastic pipe is only in 1/4" and is universally referred to as water filter pipe. There are quick connect (as push-fit is known) for that diameter, but at 15mm it's all brass compression fittings.

I might buy a few bags of 15mm push fit and some 15mm plastic pipe when I am in the UK over Christmas and take it back with me, as it'll look a bit less out of place above the counter top and be easier to route due to the bendiness factor.

Same, hate it, the last house was some kind of hollow cardboard / crumbly plaster combo that meant nothing worked and it constantly fell down, this house has concrete lintels that I eventually managed with my big boy drill but put one in the wrong place, that was a year ago, I still haven't found the energy to sort it.

It is nice to know I'm not alone.

I wonder if some sort of carbide tile bit might eat the lintel better?

You need an SDS drill, and a small enough SDS bit which is suitable for the task. It will feel like using an HGV to crack a walnut, but it'll work.

Had the same in the extension bit of our flat - one roller blind bracket has a screw missing; I simply couldn't make any headway with a normal drill (this is before I owned an SDS drill).