DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Damp walls down stairs, condensation up stairs behind wardrobes etc, damp floor boards, rotten joists down stairs ... the list goes on!

We had someone in who injected, tanked and asured us this would do the trick ... wrong.

Having handed over a grand to an aproved practitioner we now have puddles under the floor boards ... Yes, they made it worse. We called them back and they now say we need to dig up our floor 2ft deep, then have the plastering, tanking etc re done. We think they are taking the proverbial!

The ground at the back of the house is about 2ft up the wall and we think that unless we put drainage in we don't stand a chance! Can someone who knows what they are talking about please confirm, or are we way off the mark?

PS the floor under the floor boards is concrete and we are fairly sure that this would have a membrane under it.

Cheers

Take a look at any one of our damp projects and ring the phone number for Property Repair Systems. They give free, no obligation advice and we recommend them. They will tell you what you need to do (if anything) and will also be able to supply you with anything you need to do it with but will certainly not try to sell you anything you don't need

My current bungalow had a similar problem, being cut into the hill behind us.
As of recent days the water just pours off the mountain.
My solution was to open a large trench some 25 feet long and around 6 feet deep across the back and carried it forward down both sides of the bungalow for the water to run out into the front garden.
I covered the back of the bungalow with waterproof plastic sheet and refilled the trench with clean stones - turning it into a giant French drain.
I widened the side trenches keeping these walls clear.
This has worked, it took awhile to dry out, but now the water is at foundation level.
Looking back I wish I had left a gap wide enough to walk along, making it easy to record progress but, this would have made using our vegetable garden which is across the back more difficult