greyknight

Hi Paul, thanks for taking the time to write that, I broadly agree with all your comments. So I have a tub of NHL putty which I mix with sand to make mortar, 1 part putty to 2 parts sand. I'm not very good at pointing yet so need to practice that. The issue I've had is that the small amount of pointing I've already done has cracked when drying so I probably need to pull it out and do it again, but try to keep it damp as it dries. I think being only 1 brick thick the walls will dry fairly quickly and the timbers seem okay to me. I'm wary about using a damp meter because research has shown they are next to useless and shouldn't be relied upon. There is no issue with outside ground levels, mainly from the point of view that the house is built on a dwarf wall so the lowest timbers are 18" above the floor. When you say you have used lime around your windows, do you mean raw lime putty, or mixed with sand to make mortar? How wide a gap do you think you can fill just with the putty on its own? There's definitely no problem with rising damp, it's literally just rainwater ingress from top down that's the issue here. Thanks Graham

Thanks, yes that oakum stuff is exactly what I'm using. It's soaked in stockholme tar but is fully breathable. I don't know whether the mortar that's in there is lime or not to be honest, but the stuff I'm putting in definitely is, though I'm using non-hydraulic lime as that's what you are supposed to use for old properties. I'm not convinced that pointing alone will stop the leaks though because lime mortar is permeable so water just soaks through it like a sponge. Yes I'm going to lime wash it afterwards, but this is all a summer job really as you aren't supposed to use lime mortar in cold temperatures.

Hi folks First post so thanks for letting me in. I recently moved in to a 17th century grade II listed timber frame cottage and over the past couple of months I've been having problems with one of the gable end walls leaking quite badly when it rains. The wall is south west facing so takes the battering of the elements most of the time. The timbers are also exposed both outside and inside. The previous owners have had some work done and a number of rotten timbers have been replaced and the infill panels towards the top of the frame have been replaced with lightweight materials to prevent further stress on the frame, all good. However, the lower infill panels are brick and it seems to be these that are leaking badly around the edges when it rains, water seeps in under the timbers and runs down the interior wall causing staining and large damp patches. It dries out again when the rain stops, but I can't carry on with ugly interior walls covered in streaks and mould. I've read and watched a lot of materials on how to look after old houses like this and because it's a listed building I know I have to use traditional materials to do any repairs. My main question is how should i go about waterproofing around the edges of these leaking infill panels? I've already ground out some of the old mortar around the edges of a couple of the panels and hammered in some shipbuilders oakum (tar soaked fibre) which is a well documented method, but I'm not fully convinced about the results. What I'd really like to find is a person who has experience of timber frame houses to advise me, I don't seem to be able to find a local specialist and I don't trust just any old builder to understand the importance of using the correct materials and methods. So, the main question, how do you get a good watertight seal between timber and brick without using cement mortar? thanks Graham