Damp inside the cavity

jon200 · Post by **jon200** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 8:43 pm

Hi people,

I have been doing my house up for 18 months now. i just notice some staining on the inside wayy juat above the floor. i decided to remove the terrible render on the bottom half of the house as i thought it may have been keeping the damp in the wall. i found loads of blown brick faces :( some of them i have replaced and i am now getting down to the bottom 2 foot of the house. been repointing as i went. I took a brick out to be greeted by loads of black mortar about 1-2 bricks above the damp course.

My question is, Whats the best way to remove it all and will this be my problems solved.

Also what is the best paint to put on the brickwork to prevent the damp getting in again?

TIA

Jon

stuart45 · Post by **stuart45** » Sat Oct 31, 2009 11:51 pm

The mortar droppings in the cavity could well be causing the damp. The infill used to be 150mm below DPC, although now it should be 225mm.
The only way to remove it is by taking out some brickwork and cleaning out the cavity. I don't usually recommend painting brickwork as this can trap moisture, but if you must use a micro porous paint to allow the walls to breathe.
BTW what does the facework look like with the render hacked off?

jon200 · Post by **jon200** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:15 pm

cheers for the reply

my damp course is 1 brick off the floor, is that correct? I have removed a few bricks and cleaned out 1 brick below the damp course, can't seem to get lower than that.

The faces of the bricks are not too bad but some neededreplacing. it had been painted with some pink textured paint before, the red=nder looks like it had been done by a 5 yr old and came off in great chunks.