Hi to all,

My mum's place has a bit of a damp problem in the rear wall. a major part of the problem seem's to be the paprapet wall on the first floor, rear balcony.

My plan was to remove any failed pointing, plant's, roots, etc. Then remove some of the top stonework leveling the wall and fit new coping, repoint and make sure the guttering is clear.

The two flat roofs were worked on fairly recently, so should be doing their job, it's just the top of this wall that seem's to be the problem.

Firstly, does that sound sufficient/sensible, and also, do I need to add anything at the point where the coping meets the exterior wall(right hand side of the picture)?

Any help much appreciated,

Marc

Hi Jello,

Remove roots, re-point yes, why add a coping? You'll ruin the character of the wall!

And clean out the guttering, check the stop end is in place, looks like the guttering causing the damp problem!

SSM

_________________
Measure twice, cut once!

It's a fair point, especially given the way it mimics the roof behind.

So would re-concreting be sufficient?

The wall forms the back of the kitchen, so it does need proper attention.

Also, having spoken to my mum some more, the gutter has no down pipe! It just collects water, nothing else! The guy she bought the place from is an idiot.

I'll correct that first.

Also, What sort of mortor is best for this kind of job?

I'm not totaly useless but laying stone isn't my thing. :)

Hi Jello,

You will need a downpipe to take away rainwater from the gutter and it should be taken into either a combined underground / rainwater underground drainage system OR alternatively to a soakaway to meet best practice. The coping should be twice weathered and double throated with at least 50mms overhang over the wall both sides to stop rainwater washing down the wall. You could place a DPC under the coping but this would be awkward and tends to create a slip plane (ie: the plastic/rubber of the dpc material does not allow the coping to fully bond to the wall beneath).

In respect of mortar to repair the wall, the rule is the mortar should be weaker than the stone otherwise the stone will erode more quickly than the mortar, although dependant on the stone this will tend to breakdown anyway.

I think ultimately if you stop the rainwater problem from the gutter your most of the way to resolving, adding a coping with overhangs will ruin the character of the wall in the quest of meeting best practice, unless you can get some accompanying stonework that can be tooled into copings as a feature to compliment the wall.

Hi Mate,
4:1 mix, need to find a runaway for the gutter. No need to lay anything!

SSM

_________________
Measure twice, cut once!

Hi,

I agree with Simon, your problem lies with the guttering, it would be pointless to do anything until the guttering issue is fixed

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If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments..

4:1 mix may be too strong for stonework. There is a British Standard for mortar mixes, you will ned to identify the stone first then the tables in the document will give you the correct ratio.

Thanks for all the help with this. Think I'll leave the coping off. just focus on the rest.

Marc

Yes best leave the coping off, dampness is very rare and generally down to an easily rectified cause, ie your gutter.../