"stuart noble" wrote in message
...

Colin Swan wrote in message ...
Although you can get interior damp-proofing treatments (or gloss
paint) that stop residual dampness affecting decoration, if the source
of the damp has not been fixed, then you will just seal the problem
into the plaster, which could make it worse.
SBR latex polymer is probably a more efficient sealer than gloss paint.
Unless the water is entering at one specific point I reckon it can get out
the way it came in, throiugh the masonry. In my case I think the mortar
and
plaster are acting as a wick, and lining paper is just an extension of
that.
Shorten the wick and, hopefully, you reduce the amount of water. Sealing
the
inside is always a bit of a gamble but attending to it from the outside
may
not be possible.
I'm doing some experiments on my gable end wall at the moment so we'll see
how the latex stands up to the next lot of driving rain.

From what I can see, there's no obvious problem with the plaster etc (its a
little crazed/cracked - but then is most of the plaster in that room and its
very old plaster!) and the only sign I had that there may be a 'damp'
problem is just that the wallpaper had peeled away in places (especially
behind the radiator). Can't see any other sign of damp on the bay.

I'll be keeping an eye on it over the wet months, and possibly putting a
resistance meter onto that wall and see if its damp. Any idea of the normal
resistance one would expect? I tried it this morning on a few plaster walls
and they all were infinite resistance (well, my meter showed nothing!).

If I used a something like this "SBR latex polymer" - would wallpaper paste
have any difficulty in sticking to it? I tried wall-papering onto a
semi-glossy (more of a sheen) painted wall before and it was a pain to get
it to stick. Could this also have a similar effect? Incidentally, where
would I locate some of this wonder-stuff?

Thanks

D