Roger440

Whilst sorting things out post flood, An area of screed was in rather poor condition, probably to weak. Handy as the insurance company chaps were convinced it was screed, over insulation over concrete. So they were saying floor out to replace insulation. Happily, its screed over concrete, and presumably under that, insulation. (built 2007) But that got me thinking. Why would you put 90mm of screed over a concrete slab?

Building regs is just a joke. It can only be useful if its enforced , and enforced by people who cannt be "influenced". As for self certifying trades people, its even worse. I have a whole suite of certificates. Not one job is compliant with the applicable regs. Some pretty much not at all. Many were council BCO's. I dont know what the answer is. There are not enough knowledgable/skilled people in the industry anyway. If you take away a whole load to be inspectors, it will make things worse.

Alll of this. The daft bit is, its not a new system. Its the same system everybody throughout europe, and here, would have had to deal with if they were sending or recieving goods from outside the EU.

There are no tarrifs ONLY if its manufactured in the EU. Anything actually made outside the EU, but shipped from an EU country will still attract duty. So its not really a free trade deal, more half of one.

Thats taking the P. I dont pay anything like that for full container loads. It suggests they are not including VAT, but i wonder if it is really?

For what its worth, he surveyed my house prior to purchase. Identified lots of issues. Everything he saw, which couldnt be further established without destructive work turned out to be pretty much bob on. Ive found nothing of note that he didnt pick up. Expensive. Very. Useful and worth it. Definitely.

If you can be sure the dpc is fixed/working, then all should be well, but id still tread carefully. My house is similar, old bit half the size of the new bit, though i didnt build it. I just accept that the downstairs part of the original house just wont be that good. Ie, no insulation on the walls, but will have in the floor (foamed glass) My old 30's semi cost twice as much to heat as this, and this is twice the size. Thats despite having the flue from the wood burner (now removed) open, But it has to be or the humidity starts to climb. Basically its viable top close off the ventilation without creating other issues. I suppose i could use MHVR. But as its comfortable, and not that expensive to heat, i'll live with it.

There has been a flurry of posts on here about older houses. Stop, and get educated on it first. Insulated plaster board, celotex etc. No, no no. Not in an 1800;s house. Seriously, peruse, at length, these 4 sites before you do work you later find needs ripping out. One word. Breathability. https://www.heritage-house.org/ https://www.mikewye.co.uk/ https://www.lime.org.uk/ https://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=1

Yes, everything temp said yesterday. Its a nightmare. Simply no containers available. Currently you need to pay 8-10 times the ore october rates IF you can get one. If your products are bulky releative to cost, prices are going to be going up big time. Ask me how i know...................................... Worldwide trade is coming to a standstill. Not going to be pretty.

These guys seem pretty good. And significantly cheaper than the likes of watco. Been using their floor paint. Seems top quality. (ive used a few............) https://fixmaster.co.uk/categories/repair-products

It still wont soak the entire brick. Its impossible. It cant work. Unless you house is built of sponges! My house has had it done. Line off tell tale holes around the base of wall. Had zero effect. Walls are damp, inevitably. Gypsum plater inside, concrete floor with DPM undr, render painted with modern plastic paint. The perfect recipe for damp. As it happens, we removed the plaster today. Sockets are 400mm up the wall. The steel back boxes are terminally rusty. The srcews holding the rads on, terminaly rusty. Chemical DPC not doing whats its claimed, thats one certainty.

Unless you can "fix" the DPC properly, it needs to dissipate the moisture through whatever is on the wall both sides. Ie, breathable. And dont let the drivel on modern coatings that claim to be breathable fool you. There is a measure for the breathability. Compare that number to actual lime based poducts and you will see the issue. That said, just talk to the lime guys and be guided by them.

Thats what im using for the floor in the old part of the cottage.

Yes, this website^^^^. And read all of it.

420 is rather a lot. Solutions aside, thats the water table now. Id suggest that at times it will be higher.

You could look at it another way. And some evidence it actually works? Think about it. A man will drill some holes in you wall and inject "something". This something needs to permeate through the bricks and mortar to such an extent that they form a barrier impervioius to water. Its simply not credible. Get a brick drop it in a bucket of water for a week, then cut it in half. I bet you its dry in the middle. Thats a week in water. But a bloke with a mastic gun is going to squirt something into you brick to make it completely waterproof in a few hours. Doesnt look like the damp comes up far enough to be a problem?

OOh, and a chemical DPC us just a scam, as already pointed out. Dont waste your time or money.

Once you have read the heritage house website, you will, hopefully realise, that with a compromised DPC, you are not fixing your damp issue, merely covering it up. With a DPC on the inside, and EWI on the outside, your wall will be wet forever. As one of the videos says, if you wash your clothes, put them in a plastic bag, and hang them on the washing line, what do you think will happen. This is, effectively, what your proposal does. Either you need to fix the dpc properly, or treat the building as though it doesnt have one. The fact the floor was rotten says you have a problem with moisture, Dumping a load of concrete in there wont fix it. You need to understand the reason why first and work from there.

Our posts overlapped. Not much point using sheepswool if you slap plasterboard over it. Plasterboard will prevent moisture leaving the wall. If you are allowing breathability, it has to be every layer, including the paint. One "waterproof" layer will render your efforts worthless.

Given its age i would tread very carefully. It wont have a damp proof course, so the walls and floor will need to breathe or they will get wet (probably are now.) Most insulation systems will prevent that from taking place, storing up future trouble. Id suggest a peruse here would be a good idea. https://www.lime.org.uk/ Im just about to use their sublime insulated floor system. Periodproperty forum is good too, though some of them can be a bit harrdcore!

What mr punter said. Ventilation. Where is it? The vapour barrier is a red herring. My previous hgose was a 30's semi, just platerboard and 100mm rockwoll. Totally bone dry. Never an issue in 80 years. Why. Ventilation. On a windy day it was plenty draughty up there. This looks like its sealed up.

The damp is coming from somewhere. And is has to go somewhere. So you now have concrete floor with a dpm, pushing it out to the walls. And you are going to insulate and render it outside. So you would, effectively waterprofed / sealed it. So the damp has nowhere else to go other than come out inside. Id guess the render you hacked off was also cement based? Your wall is no different, it has moisture in, it needs to evaporate. It cant, or couldnt, other than internally. If you cover that up with say, tanking, you wont "see" the damp, but your walls will be wet forever. As one of the videos on heritage house say, if you wash you clothes, put then in a bin bag and hang them on the washing line, what do you think will happen? If you left the render and insulation off, i suspect it would dry out in due course. Rule of thumb is 1 inch per month. Its 9 inches thick. It needs to breathe. Lime, lime lime. As per the heritage house site. In a new house, there would be a dpc in the brickwork to prevent this. You could try retrospectively installing, but thats a big undetaking. And runs the risk of the bricks below the DPC being permaently wet, which may, or may not be a long term issue. Theres a reason they use concrete block now. The front of my house is the same construction. It was damp all the time in there. 90+ humidity, permanently. Reduced the ground levels outside, removed the plastic dpc from under the floor, removed the render on the INSIDE. Put a vented cap on what was an open chimney. 12 months later, i can drill into a brick and it comes out as dust, not a slurry. Room sits at 60-65% humidity all the time. Ive still to remove the modern paint off the lime render outside, but it doest reach the floor so im getting away without it. Everything you could want to know is on the heritage house website. These links might be useful too:http://www.mikewye.co.uk/ & https://www.lime.org.uk/

Oh dear. Did you aquant yourself with the link above? I suggest you do so asap before you do anything else. Installing your dpc and slab "may" be making it woirse not better. Periodproperty forum is a good source of info too. Im about to do mine. There wont be any DPC or concrete!

If you check some other walltite videos, you will see it goes in as a liquid. there wont be voids. It can be used to crate flood proof walls.

What a fantastic place