?Rising Damp?

[Hash]

Hi all

 

Gf purchased semi detached house which is ?100+yrs old (not too sure on this myself but as per survey). We were stripping one of the ground floor walls of plaster as she wanted an bare brick feature wall.

 

As we were doing noted that the lower 2 layers of brick were wet so tore up floor and the ends of wooden timbers under the chipboard was rotting black and mushy. The beams were sitting on an uneven concrete floor. All edges of the concrete floor where it met the brickwork im the whole room was surrounded by a visibly damp line.

 

The room had previously had a flood from a lealy pipe which had been repaired prior to being bought. 

 

There didnt seem to be a DPM under the concrete and it appeared to be sitting on soil underneath so after a lot of back and forth we deiced to take up a little and see if we could establish if there was a in the brickword below the soil (slate) that the concrete was sittinf above, a dpm under the concrete thatbwasnt sitting in visible brickwork or if could find a leak as there were some pipes feeding under concrete.

 

 

Dug up a little more than though would keed to but cant find any evidence of slate layer, no dpm at all, wet clay/soil under conxrete and some old broke pipe but not leaking. Also found a hole in brickwork which may have been a ?airbrick at some point?

 

Im no querying taking up concrete digging down about 40ish cm deep and placing some air bricks feeding into a ventilating pipe going round the walls and then placing gravel and relaying concrete with a polythene dpm.

 

Way a little over my head here so any help is appreciated. Someone has mentioned that the room seems to have been a converted garage which is contributing to damp?

 

Dehumidfers are on round the clock for around 2 months but no luck, any ideas?

 

Ive uploaded the images to help visualise

 

https://ibb.co/album/tLDJwR

[SteamyTea]

What level is the ground outside?

If higher that the concrete floor then it won't be helping.

I am not sure when DPCs started to be used on a regular basis, but the 3 Victorian places I have had never had any.

 

[saveasteading]

That age of house was damp by default, with fires and draughts  keeping it in some order.

 

I've seen several cases where people have poured a new-fangled concrete floor, making it much worse long term.

 

I don't download on here. But can imagine?

Do you break out the floor and start again? A big job and never quite right.

I think maybe dpm over the concrete then a new floor on top, screed or floating.

[Hash]

8 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

What level is the ground outside?

If higher that the concrete floor then it won't be helping.

I am not sure when DPCs started to be used on a regular basis, but the 3 Victorian places I have had never had any.

 

 

The floor outside is maybe a few cm lower than the concrete inside at present

[Hash]

If not concret floor that the old way of air bricks and floating wood beams with an air cavity under to allow for air to pass through?

Edited July 19 by Hash

[lineweight]

On 17/07/2024 at 19:57, Hash said:

the ends of wooden timbers under the chipboard was rotting black and mushy. The beams were sitting on an uneven concrete floor.

Looking at the photos I don't quite understand this bit. The photos seem to show a concrete floor, but the top of the concrete appears to be only a little lower that the finished floor level. Where did the "timber beams" go?

[saveasteading]

1 hour ago, lineweight said:

Where did the "timber beams" go?

Permission to worry you?

 

This old house has concrete floors but were once timber.  One area was damp and we found that under the screed were rotten timbers with concrete filled between. 

I've not worked out the original construction but it looks like it might have been hardcore, then joists on tiny or zero packing, then boarding. When that rotted they just threw away the boards and poured in concrete.

 

moral: don't assume builders were better in the past or that there is much logic to what you have there.