We will complete the purchase of a house in the next few weeks. There are some damp problems caused mainly by water ingress from faulty flashings, leakings gutters and an outside ground level that is a bit high. Our first plan of action is re-roofing and to lower the ground level. There are some extremely damp sections of some internal walls due to the aforesaid problems. Our surveyor recommended to have the plaster there removed back to the brick, then replaster. Can this be done as soon as the roof/gutters/groundlevel are fixed or do we need to wait until the walls dry out ? If so, how long might that take ? The house has been vacant for 4 months and all the walls feel damp, though the surveyor said that they were all OK (just damp on the surface due to condensation) except for the areas mentioned above.

Hi LR,

Once the plaster is hacked off, get a couple of dehumidifiers in and dry the brickwork before plastering, it depends how wet they are, also ventilate the property and if possible heat it too.

S

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Measure twice, cut once!

Hi Simon

Thanks for that. Is there any rule of thumb as to how dry the walls need to be before plastering. What I'm getting at is how will we know when we can replaster ?

Will dehumidifiers be effective in low temperatures ? Should we only run them with the heating on ?

And should we use bonding or browning plaster on the brickwork ?

Best wishes
LR