On 1 Jul 2004 05:44:05 -0700, (N. Thornton) wrote:

Phil Addison wrote in message . ..
On 30 Jun 2004 09:44:26 -0700, (N. Thornton) wrote:

Oh well, it's done now with just one coat of 1:1:6. At least I aimed for
1:1:6 but the finished surface looks quite brown so I hope I haven't got
too much sand in it. It went on ok though, and stuck ok, so hopefully it
is ok.

should be fine in that respect.

Yes, it dried out hard enough (and didn't fall off overnight - hooray!),
but the surface had lots of loose sand from the scratches, which I
brushed off before skimming. I had a 'test sample' of mix left over and
that seems hard enough to do the job though you can dig into it with a
screwdriver blade.

Oh, I'd assumed you'd let it dry first. I'm unclear how its going to
dry out.

Can't wait for it to dry out any more - pregnant daughter needs the room
decorated as a nursery. My hope is that the remaining dampness in the
wall will dry through the non-waterproofed render and the skim. If it
all goes pear-shaped, at least this render is very weak and will hack
off easier that the rock hard stuff that was on before.

However my window sill has droplets on it from light rain
so I reckon that is reasonably silicone proofed, and I am hoping the
squawk from the detector is due to residual salts in the bricks, along
with some moisture.

Those compounds get rid of the surface tension, hence the droplet
formation, but that does not block the pores. It makes less water soak
through rather than none. The thing needs proper waterproofing.

I hear what you say and intend to apply some Pliolite type paint as belt
and braces when I can find my round tuits. However, my understanding is
that Solignum works by coating the inside of each pore such that the
capillary attraction required for porosity is negated. As I said
earlier, their lab told me it is not intended to block the pores, and I
suspect that would be impossible to achieve in practice. The evidence of
my eyes in seeing perfectly spherical raindrops sitting on the treated
sill tells me that those drops are not penetrating it. I'm not saying
this is how it works, it's just what they told me, but I am inclined to
believe it.

At this point I have some reservations.

Err.. ?

Phil
The uk.d-i-y FAQ is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/
Remove NOSPAM from address to email me