On 22 Jun 2004 00:56:54 -0700, (Meoww) wrote:

Phil Addison wrote in message . ..
On 21 Jun 2004 09:05:57 -0700, (Meoww) wrote:

Phil Addison wrote in message . ..
My daughter's house has had a patch of damp appearing under the upstairs
windows since she bought the house 5 years ago from a builder (I did
warn her!)

big snip

It sounds like you're on the right track if you've sealed the cill.
The chances of it being porous are quite remote and if it is, you
could probably cure this with a water repellant.

Not sure about 'sealed', but I hope so. I sprayed them twice with stuff
sold for treating penetration problems in walls. Can't recall the name
at the moment.

It's difficult to envisage exactly what you've got but if you've
removed the plasterwork from the inside, you should be able to see if
there's a dpc there or not. However, if you can't see it, it could be
quite a major job to put one in and you're probably better going along
the sealing it all route.

Can't see it so far.

Make sure water can't blow in from underneath and from the sides and
that's about all you can do. I presume you're making good these seals
with mastic?

That is possible. I didn't put a bead under the sill or at the vertical
edge. Perhaps that would be a good idea. I used Unibond silicone from
B&Q, about £7 a tube.

From your description of where the wall is wet it certainly looks like
the culprit is the cill and not the wall.

Just don't re-plaster internally with a waterproof mix. Browning and
skim will do quite nicely for inside. If you haven't cured the problem
at least you'll be able to see its manifestations and not run the risk
of wet/dry rot further down! You may get effloresence until it all
dries out but wiping this off is easy and it'll stop when the
brickwork is dry.

I like the 'when' :-)

Don't suppose you can post a photograph?

Hi everyone. Hope these photos are useful. I took them yesterday.

This is the inside wall
http://www.pando.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Damp/Wall.htm
and these are some shots of the sill taken with camera poked through the
upper opener, and through the glass
http://www.pando.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Damp/Sill.htm

You can see the wall construction is a bit odd (in the tall edge-on
photo). The top 3 courses are not flush with the rest and protrude about
1/2" into the room. The 4th course from the top protrudes about 1/4".
That, and the different colour of the top 3 courses makes me suspect the
original sash went lower that the recent uPVC frame. The darker brick at
the top are also the dampest, but I think they might be getting slightly
drier now they have been exposed a few days. Heavy rain tonight should
be interesting but I don't expect to be able to get round there again
before the weekend.

Phil
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