"Andrew Collins" wrote in message
...
I have a Victorian townhouse, it appears to have been built without a
DPC at all, there isn't even a slate one I can find.

The problem I have is that the previous owners have had a chemical
damp proof course installed over much of the house and it hasn't
entirely worked. Some areas that have no DPC have no damp problem at
all... Most of the house is fine, but there are two areas (both
internal), one of plain wall and one around a hearth where there is
damp and chemical DPC.


Hi Andrew. There are loads of possible causes of damp. The fashion
nowadays is to believe in one approach that will wham bam cure the
lot, but really this is usually not the solution with these old
houses. More often it seems to be a case of going round and looking
for all the assorted sources of dampness and dealing with them all.
Then the place will dry up in almost every case.

An open chimney is obviously going to let quite a bit of water come
in, I'd look into the possibility of one of those rain shedding cowls.

Even if it turned out you have another damp problem, that will still
help or often even cure the other problem. Why? Victorian houses are
basically like sieves, water comes in, ventilation goes through, damp
is evaporated out. So if you halve your water input, your level of
dampness drops to the point of being normal, and your otherwise damp
spots dry out well enough not to cause any further problem.


Regards, NT