Plastering Malvern Worcestershire Rising Damp before and after

Buying a house is always a challenge. You can almost predict that there will be many surprises waiting for you there. You can be sure that, some unpredictable extra work will occur at some point of renovation.

I was asked to give a quote for painting/ redecorating the entire house. Unfortunately, after closer inspection it turned out that, it will not be just redecorating I have to worry about, but serious renovation of rising damp or the whole of the ground floor.

There were signs of rising damp: blown plaster in the lower area, damp skirting boards and flooring. Visible wet sections of walls, variable from 40 to 100 cm in some places.

Rising damp problems often occur as a result of not having a Damp Proof Course installed or having a Damp Proof Course that is faulty due to age or bad installation. All skirting boards and the plaster had to be removed up to 120 cm high on about 30 linear metre around the grand floor area, two days of hard and dirty work. The next step we drill holes 12mm diameter into brick wall, 6 inches above the level of your outside ground and at the same level on your inside walls.

After that, inject the DPC liquid gel, using the gun inside the holes. Over a few months the chemicals in the solution will travel through the damp wall to form a water repellent layer. Because the barrier prevents any more water from rising above it, this allows your wall above the DPC to dry out and remain solid.

Now we need to cover all the holes made in walls with a mortar into, which is mixed with a waterproofed – this adds an extra layer of waterproofing (a waterproof scratch layer) and means that the wall’s finish is returned to how it looked before the holes were created.

Once done we need to wait at least a week to be sure its dry out properly before we can re plaster.