Property is an end terraced stone built victorian era house. The picture shows the outer wall (along the back) and an inner wall that divides the kitchen from the lounge. I have read lots about rising damp and if it exists or not.

The picture shows the problem I have. I got the property just before christmas and have started to renovate it. In the kitchen I noticed some areas of very damp plaster. The plaster suffering from dampness is relativley new, certainly not original lime plaster. In some areas it was like sponge, particularly along with outer wall. I have removed it all now and the dampess appears to be present in the stone walls. I have done a lot of research and i am trying to find a way of resolving this issue.

The outside ground level is lower, so its not penetrating above a bridged dpc.

I have compared the mortar above the damp with that from the damp area, and the two are clearly different. The mortar from above contains hair, the one from the damp area is crumbly and does not contain these fibres leading me to believe that a cementitious render has been applied at some stage.

What do you guys think? Whats the best solution? I was gonna use dry zone and re-render it all, but i'm not 100% this is rising damp, although you'd have to agree it does look like it.

The outside of the property is not rendered - its is exposed stone. I believe sometime in about 1984 some sort of damp proofing was carried out. In the lounge, which can be seen through the doorway on the right, there is a line of newer plaster running around the room at about 1 metre from the floor level. Behind this new plaster is a scrathced coat of hard grey cement type material. There are no signs of damp in the lounge, i.e. the other side of the wall in the right of the picture is dry.

I wonder if the same stuff has been applied in the kithcen area but has failed. When I took it off it lookes like hardwall plaster over some sort of render, in some areas the plaster was an inch or so thick.

I thought that removing the plaster would dry it out, but the wall has been exposed like this for several weeks now and it has not gone any lighter. To the touch it is not too bad, but i'm pretty sure that it is damp. But, I also think that the render that has been used (on the low part of the wall) is darker than the old lime mortar above and thus making the problem seem worse.

What would you guys advise? The stone walls are built pretty much on soil and I doubt there is a DPC. The concrete in the kitchen floor is only 2" think directly onto soil.

The long wall along the back, and hence half the inner wall will have built-in kitchen units running along it (low level). One idea was to re-plaster the walls using hydraulic lime plaster just below the height of the worktops and leave the wall exposed behind them. I would then have vents in the kickboards to allow ventilation behind the units.

What do you guys think?

A builder has come to look at it, he has reccomended Triton Injection mortar into the apparent damp walls and then have them all re-rendered with fresh cement and plastered. Which solution do you think would be the best? I cant afford to pay him to do the work, but i'm more than capable of rendering and plastering - just cant get hold of triton injection mortar.

Another idea was to use Dryzone Chemical DPC and re-plaster with render and skim.

Last but not least, fix battens to the wall, but leave them 1 metre short of ground level and plaster board them. I also intend on having an asphalt floor laid over the concrete before tiling onto that.

To many options - not sure which route is best/most suitable.

Thanks for any replies.

If it was my house i would use a membrane DPC as opposed to chemical.

Something like http://www.newton-membranes.co.uk/produ ... %20Newlath

As far as the floor goes, I would use a good quality liquid DPC that can be applied to floors up to 98% RH (relative humidity) then lay a latex screed over the top.

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I had a similar problem with a terraced house and I had electro osmosis installed. It worked brilliantly and 10 years on there is still no sign of damp.

I had to hack off all the old plaster, have the electro osmosis DPC installed, then left it for a few weeks/months to dry out before rendering with sand and cement with integral waterproofer. Then some walls were plastered and others were dry lined.

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"The plaster suffering from dampness is relativley new, certainly not original lime plaster. In some areas it was like sponge, particularly along with outer wall. I have removed it all now and the dampess appears to be present in the stone walls.....I believe sometime in about 1984 some sort of damp proofing was carried out. "

This is your problem - the 1984 work is doubtless impervious to water and so conflicts with the lime mortar which is breathable. The point is that all too often people treat the symptoms rather than the cause of damp. Anything cement based is going to hold water in; it just moves somewhere else and the wall never dries out (especially with concrete on a wall up to one metre!). If no work had been done before I would suggest that you stick to lime based products and let it dry out naturally, but if they have done a DPC then it makes it much more difficult to say what to do. NB Stone is impervious so if they are suggesting putting a DPC in, that's a waste of money.

If you can, remove anything which is cement based and re-plaster with lime mortar; it will dry out eventually assuming there are no issues with roofs, gutters etc (but it does take a lot longer than a few weeks!).

loose an inch or 2 off the outside wall using 2x1 timber & board n skim!
just a suggestion.

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