ToughButterCup

Truth claims , unevidenced, damage discussion. When Moderators do that it damages both discussion and Buildhub. I make no claim about it. I merely present evidence. Here are all 191 posts I have written about the stuff.

I have never had any water ingress through Durisol ever. And it took a full year between building and covering part of the Durisol blocks. The outside of the most exposed part of our house - last few square metres - was rendered last week. That is four years after it was built. I understand Durisol is mostly air. Like - say- a pullover. On contact with water from the outside, water simply drains downwards. For water to travel through the substance, it would require external pressure to move it from outside to inside.

Right next to the sink, within splashing range? So just for the Hell of it , I connected SWMBO hair dryer. I survived. Ok, that's a pity. But... How is it that almost every German woman and every German teenager survives an electric point a few mm from the sink?

Visiting the Fatherland. I find this horror at the AirBnB where we are staying.... German chippies aren't perfect. Got a horror you found on holiday?

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Yep. Pull up a chair: here's a cup of tea. Cake? There's a copy of The Spectator over there, and there's a copy of the Daily Mail in the bog.

Now's the time for a dig around in the inside wall, and floor boarding. Get a damp meter and see just how damp (or otherwise ) it is. Here's a link to a series of choices of damp meter. (I assume you haven't got one)

It could be. Test it with a hose. I'm with @ETC above. It seems to me that the gravel is possibly a visual distraction from the reality.... All the front area is in effect a solid or semi solid surface. That said, the problem could be worse. Test that soakaway first. Run a hose on it for a while. If it backs up, then it's blocked.

And Gary ( @nod ) isn't the suspcious type .... so he must be right. He has one Hell of a Mother In Law by the sounds of things..... 😜

I wonder @Pollyanna, do you know if there is a soak-away for the surface run-off ? I'd like to scratch that really well manicured red gravel off and see what's underneath it. If its builder's rubble or MOT1 (builder's sub-base that compacts to form a semi impermiable layer) , then that layer could (stress could) be fairly dense and keep the water near the surface. Add @SteamyTea's point (run off from the roof) and you might have the cause of your problem. First job now - where does the surface and roof run-off water go? Hopefully a working soakaway. If NOT then bingo, there's your answer.

Ugh, yes @Temp . All zee Tschermuns are moaning like billio about the Fingerabdrueke (finger marks). Talk about first world issue. 😔

Right: you seem to me to be saying that the area round that corner gets occassional ' ... secondary ... ' flooding. There's your water-path then. Divert it somehow French drain? deeper splash strip? lower the splash strip to below the air brick? all three? Catch the water coming down the drive and route it somewhere 'safe' ? Photo of your drive / garage / water path? Please, if that's intrusive, a sketch?

Ha! See the air brick ....? It looks a tiny bit '... low...' to me. Probably doesn't make too much difference, but it might . The rest of the wall looks well maintained - recently well-painted, and there's a proper drip strip to absorb splashes. I'd try and clear round that corner - strip the carpet back. Take a pic and we'll all have a look. Thanks Ian

Go outside to the same corner as shown here. Take a photo of the wall - see if you can get the damp proof membrane in the shot, and post it here, please? Why? To see if the source of the water / dampness has anything to do with the level of soil in relation to the damp proof membrane - or not. It doesn't look to serious .........

How common ! .... How right !

Here's what the flush-plate looks like when it fails.....

And that well understood reliability is what made me buy Gerberit : and the disappointment the deeper. They replaced the failed part within 48 hours.

A little rant. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. This particular design of Geberit flush plate uses levers - not buttons. It's round - so it's a button isn't it ? No it's not. The visual lie is the roundness of the lever. How do I know? One of the two Geberit flush plates we installed broke. So I had to take the flushplate assembly off the wall. The lever is made of a very thin, springy piece of stainless steel, it's stuck to the back of the so-called button. In normal use, pressing the 'button' means people press the middle of the circle. So less than half of the potential power of the lever is used - and the resultant water flush weak. With obvious results - or lack of result if you like. The only way to make the flush work as it should is to press and hold the bottom of the lever while the flush takes place. For the priviledge of being allowed to buy two flush plates, I spent £160. And the ones we bought were the cheapest available at the time. "Oh, yes, they have been known to fail " said the Geberit Tech support guy. And promptly sent me another flush pate assembly of exactly the same design. One word for it ..... Shite.

Yes. But a few years of doing the same task, No. Google and follow Peter Millard on YooChoob. Lots to see there.

Preceded by a massive shortage of lads and lasses with Ordnance Disposal skills.

Have a qiuck look at this .... I installed an iBox behind the mixer / controller . (I bet there are others that do the same) . You can have an outlet for the fixed shower head separate from the flexible hose - and you can duct both of them anywhere. The main point is to be able to switch on either outlet without getting soaked . I put the flexible outlet low down anticipating life in a wheelchair at some stage. And for a few days after my hip operations, I was very grateful for that ....

When a cat walks over it and you can't see the paw prints....

Look at the maximum variation your lawn mower will cope with, and (say) halve that. Dont make the mistake I made - did the job so badly it turned my Mountfield rotary mower into a rotavator.

Brexit.

Good on you lad. Stay injury free - warm ups, cool downs, stretching and that stuff.