Fwom:Mike )
"N. Thornton" wrote in message
om...
Mike:


Oh I just wish our cellar/pantry did, even in summer. It is
buried into the
side of a wet hill and is permanently cold and damp so we've
blocked it off
and left unused for now. But would like to at least keep the damp
there
under some sort of control.

you cant ventilate it at all? WOuld help a lot if you could.

Oh continually. Must have several air changes a day though the wall
fan we
put in but that's why it's so cold in there :-(

You can see water actually trickling in though the wall on bad days
so it's
isn't really damp, more like running water :-) It used to be the
local
abattoir so I assume the cold was useful back then. The hooks for
hanging
carcases are still in the ceiling with a drain in the middle of the
room
indirectly feeding into the water supply to the local village.


Oh I see If its that bad I'd be wanting to check the floor joists
above for rot, and I'd get one of the bigger model dehumidifiers that
can extract more per day. Their quoted extraction rates are,
predictably, under somewhat unrealistic optimistic conditions.
IMlimitedE the real world extraction rates arent even vaguely
comparable to the claims.

Sounds like a better approach would be to dig down beside the house
outside and put a barrier in, but that doesnt come cheap, and would
need a struc eng to check on how it could be done. Money tends to rule
of course.

Have you spoken with the period property people? I'm wondering if
gravel plus drain might even do you some good - impossible to know
without enough details though. It almost sounds as if your cellar is
below the water table!

Or maybe you could just plug the drain and have an indoor swimming
pool?


NT

"N. Thornton" wrote in message
om...
Oh I just wish our cellar/pantry did, even in summer. It is
buried into the
side of a wet hill and is permanently cold and damp so we've
blocked it off
and left unused for now. But would like to at least keep the damp
there
under some sort of control.

you cant ventilate it at all? WOuld help a lot if you could.

Oh continually. Must have several air changes a day though the wall
fan we
put in but that's why it's so cold in there :-(

You can see water actually trickling in though the wall on bad days
so it's
isn't really damp, more like running water :-) It used to be the
local
abattoir so I assume the cold was useful back then. The hooks for
hanging
carcases are still in the ceiling with a drain in the middle of the
room
indirectly feeding into the water supply to the local village.


Oh I see If its that bad I'd be wanting to check the floor joists
above for rot,

Did that a while back. They were rotten :-(

Currently the end of the house is an open two storey unused space. Need to
preserve it whilst we get the rest of the house restored, then thinking of
building a two storey self contained metal structure (including stairs, etc)
within this space so that damp can be drained away around the outside.


and I'd get one of the bigger model dehumidifiers that
can extract more per day. Their quoted extraction rates are,
predictably, under somewhat unrealistic optimistic conditions.

We tried one of the compressor ones a while back and took it back as it did
nothing. We now understand this was because the lowest working temperature
of these appears to be higher than this area reaches on the hottest summer
day. The ones mentioned earlier in this post claim to work down to 5 deg C
which is more realistic.


Sounds like a better approach would be to dig down beside the house
outside and put a barrier in, but that doesnt come cheap, and would
need a struc eng to check on how it could be done. Money tends to rule
of course.

And the local council might have something to say about me removing one of
their unnumbered roads


Have you spoken with the period property people?

Had a long conversation with some of the real experts on there two years ago
(Chris Turner, GreenMan, etc) and have been working through them since then.


I'm wondering if
gravel plus drain might even do you some good - impossible to know
without enough details though.
That's what Chris suggested and has been done where HM's highway doesn't get
in the way. Definitely helped but you wouldn't believe how bad it was when
we started. At least it no longer smells damp.


It almost sounds as if your cellar is below the water table!

My whole house is below the water table !! We are on the side of a typical
Peak District hill - i.e. saturated. Currently our field has standing water
on it everywhere. The sheep are asking for wellington boots :-)

Thanks

Mike