Hi All,

I am going to tank my cellar/basement next week. Hopefully I will make it into a 3rd bedroom for my wee bro.

I wanted suggestions or tips to see if I am doing the whole process correctly, I have done a bit of research and asked around but I know getting the details right is important, please see below of my diy thought process.

1) PVA the walls and put new sand and cement render on the walls and screed floor.
- I was told that pva isnt good for tanking and people use other products, is that true for rendering.
2) once I have got a level render mix I am going to use a basement slurry and paintbrush the below product onto the walls and floor
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tanking-Slurr ... 2c5e21eca4
3) skim finish the walls (and not use pva).

OR

1) not use sand and cement render all over the wall, just parts where I need to make good
2) paint brush the basement slurry onto the wall (above ebay link)
3) dob and dab the plasterboard onto the wall with a tile adhesive (a guy suggested tile adhesive or a cement based adhesive as apposed to normal plasterboard adhesive).
4) put trickle vents on the top and bottom of each plasterboard.

I would like to know if the above makes sense and if I'm on the right track

cheers

What state are the walls in now? I know they're damp of course but you say "just render the bits needed to make good" which makes me think there is already a render that is failing.

Tanking slurrys are only as good as the substrate they are applied to, if the substrate fails, then so does the tanking.

I've never used the product you have linked to as i've always used 'Vandex' but that it quite a bit more expensive. The makers of the slurry you linked make some bold claims, I would ask them if the will guarantee their product. If so then that's a good price

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Professional Kitchen & Bathroom Fitters | Master Painters and Decorators | Brighton & Hove

Hi

The walls seem straight and their is no render on the walls what so ever. I was thinking in terms of making good when we hacked off the render from before we went into the brick work of some areas, so I was thinking of making good on those areas by rendering those parts. Should I render or just dob and dab over the slurry mix if the walls are straight?

I shall look into that vandex

cheers

as an aside it cant be an official bedroom if there is no natural light
and may require a fire escape

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we are all ------------------still learning

It has a means of fire escape. The requirements for getting out (window size) is 750mm high and 450mm wide. I then dug down to basement 1.1m and put a ledge outside the window so someone can climb out (as per building regs).

great glad you have done your home work many dont do there homework so dont realise whats involved

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we are all ------------------still learning