Stuart Noble wrote:
Martin Bonner wrote:
On Nov 1, 12:23 am, wrote:
Be interesting to hear how you determined that the water rose up
the wall, rather than being lateral penetration or condensation.
Because there was no way other than that it could get up what was
essentially a pillar in the middle of the house.
There was no 'outside wall' idiot.
THEY were dry - THEY had been injected. It was only the INTERIOR walls.
I figured the reply would be less than logical. Walls with their feet
in water tend to be colder, and walls are always coldest
at the bottom anyway, so its no surprise when condensation
occurs there.

Boggle! Outside walls tend to be colder still, and injecting a DPC
won't warm the wall up (so it would still get condensation). I think
you are clutching at straws here.

I don't think the Natural Philosopher is suggesting that all dampness
in all houses is due to rising damp - and to do so would be
ridiculous.

It is not ridiculous to ask "Is it possible that no dampness in any
house is caused by rising damp", but there comes a point where it /is/
ridiculous to continue to avoid the evidence that "at least part of at
least one wall is damp because of rising damp" (to misquote the old
joke about black sheep in Scotland).


Condensation can usually be discounted if the damp is the same all year
round.
That just leaves the rising/penetrating discussion. My experience over
the years suggests the latter is invariably the culprit but, as this
involves time-consuming remedial work to the walls, people would rather
think about something else

Actually mostly it doesn't.

Ive had plenty of penetrating damp too - the old cottage was basically
falling to pieces from damp, and had been for years and many bodges had
happened. But some good things still existed like drip boards, to throw
rain off walls. Where they had not rotted away that is..

Put decent overhangs on your eaves, pay attention to guttering and
drain round the house well to avoid splashback, and your walls stay
remarkably dry even in torrential rain. In the final analysis something
nasty like pebbledash will give the house a plastic mac as it were.

Of course its usually just after that has been done that the rising
damp., now locked in, starts to find its way out via the interior
plaster ;-)