DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

We would be grateful for your advice regarding a problem in our cellar. At that time we bought the house the walls were painted but badly flaking with probably a lime wash type coating. The below ground cellar window was nailed shut, the main out facing wall was cold and damp in some areas. BUT there was no mould or mildew.

Since we have bought it we have scraped all the loose paint of the walls, painted first with a stabilising solution then 2 coat of emulsion. We have also opened the cellar window and left it partially open. We then got mould and mildew. In response we used an anti fungicidal wash and 2 coats of anti mould emulsion. Still the mould returns on the outside cold walls.

We are now trying with the window closed to heat up the cellar, the central heating pipes are effectively on the cellar roof, in a hope that a warmer cellar might stop cold air condensing on the cold walls. Any ideas welcome, tanking we feel is a very expensive option to resolve a problem we did not initially have.

to be honest, tanking is the only way to be sure damp wont enter the basement any other solution might not work, you can try and do the work yourself, there is a product called aquapruff, a buitumin based paint that you can paint on the walls to tank them, then you need to clad the walls with whatever you decide, plasterboard, plastic, whatever

Thanks for your reply