Damp Kitchen Floor in 1900 House
Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 11:46 am
Just bought a house built in 1900.
The kitchen is an extension on the back built ~1975. The floor level is below the normal suspended floor probably at ground level.
I stripped back the 1970's vinyl floor and discovered a thin layer of very wet concrete above terracotta tiles in one section, and also a very wet layer of concrete.
First thing I did was to strip the concrete above the tiles and let the whole floor breathe over the weekend with the windows open. The floor dried significantly over this time. Looks like the previous owner had a DPC put into the walls but there is no DPM on this part of the floor.
In the medium term we are planning to have the whole kitchen redone, but I was looking for a short term solution to ensure reasonable performance.
Any suggestions about additional things we ought to be doing? Should I be blasting it with lots of heat, using dehumidifier or just go for keeping it well ventilated?
What I was thinking was to just let the terracotta tiles breathe and put some kind of permeable covering over the concrete bit paint? goretex?
All the best
Mike
The kitchen is an extension on the back built ~1975. The floor level is below the normal suspended floor probably at ground level.
I stripped back the 1970's vinyl floor and discovered a thin layer of very wet concrete above terracotta tiles in one section, and also a very wet layer of concrete.
First thing I did was to strip the concrete above the tiles and let the whole floor breathe over the weekend with the windows open. The floor dried significantly over this time. Looks like the previous owner had a DPC put into the walls but there is no DPM on this part of the floor.
In the medium term we are planning to have the whole kitchen redone, but I was looking for a short term solution to ensure reasonable performance.
Any suggestions about additional things we ought to be doing? Should I be blasting it with lots of heat, using dehumidifier or just go for keeping it well ventilated?
What I was thinking was to just let the terracotta tiles breathe and put some kind of permeable covering over the concrete bit paint? goretex?
All the best
Mike