I need to tank my cellar on a tight budget. I'm thinking of lining the
walls with damp proof membrane, held on with battons screwed with
stainless screws. The membrane will be left slightly slack between the
vertical battons to allow drainage of water.

I'm thinking of using guttering sunk into pea gravel at the wall/floor
junction, all draining into a sump in the corner. The floor, too will
be covered with membrane, not sure how to allow drainage or bond it to
the wall membrane yet though. The whole lot will then be dry lined
over the battons.

Is this going to go terribly wrong? As long as I can bond the membrane
together to form a watertight seal i can't see any problems.

The commercial studded membrane is way over my budget.

On 1 Jul, 22:08, avocado wrote:
I need to tank my cellar on a tight budget. I'm thinking of lining the
walls with damp proof membrane, held on with battons screwed with
stainless screws. The membrane will be left slightly slack between the
vertical battons to allow drainage of water.

I'm thinking of using guttering sunk into pea gravel at the wall/floor
junction, all draining into a sump in the corner. The floor, too will
be covered with membrane, not sure how to allow drainage or bond it to
the wall membrane yet though. The whole lot will then be dry lined
over the battons.

Is this going to go terribly wrong? As long as I can bond the membrane
together to form a watertight seal i can't see any problems.

The commercial studded membrane is way over my budget.

I can't comment directly on your suggestion - I don't have any
experience of tanking. But are you planning on using the cellar as
habitable space, or just wanting it to be a dry storage area? I use
mine for storage, and I've found that an £80 dehumidifier works fine
for this purpose - cheaper and a lot less work. Luckily my main drain
goes through the cellar, so mine is plumbed in for a plug-in-and-
forget solution.

Cheers!

Martin

avocado wrote:
I need to tank my cellar on a tight budget. I'm thinking of lining the
walls with damp proof membrane, held on with battons screwed with
stainless screws. The membrane will be left slightly slack between the
vertical battons to allow drainage of water.

I'm thinking of using guttering sunk into pea gravel at the wall/floor
junction, all draining into a sump in the corner. The floor, too will
be covered with membrane, not sure how to allow drainage or bond it to
the wall membrane yet though. The whole lot will then be dry lined
over the battons.

Is this going to go terribly wrong? As long as I can bond the membrane
together to form a watertight seal i can't see any problems.

The commercial studded membrane is way over my budget.


You could probably rig something up with battens plastic sheet wire
mesh plaster. A common problem in shop premises so try asking a
plasterer. At least you'll find out what needs doing, and you can decide
whether it's something you want to attempt.

On 1 Jul, 22:08, avocado wrote:
I need to tank my cellar on a tight budget. I'm thinking of lining the
walls with damp proof membrane, held on with battons screwed with
stainless screws. The membrane will be left slightly slack between the
vertical battons to allow drainage of water.

I'm thinking of using guttering sunk into pea gravel at the wall/floor
junction, all draining into a sump in the corner. The floor, too will
be covered with membrane, not sure how to allow drainage or bond it to
the wall membrane yet though. The whole lot will then be dry lined
over the battons.

Is this going to go terribly wrong? As long as I can bond the membrane
together to form a watertight seal i can't see any problems.

The commercial studded membrane is way over my budget.

What is your budget? I did a diy studded membrane plus drainage
recently so can tell you what it really costs. Three other questions:
what is the planned usage? Do you care about building control? Are you
removing the existing floor (relevant to how to drain)?
If you post back answers to these questions I can give you some costed
options.

Fash

avocado wrote:

I need to tank my cellar on a tight budget.

Have a look at Delta membranes. IMO they offer the best
price/performance balance. I've just tanked a couple of rooms using
Delta membrane and I'm very pleased with the end result.

http://www.deltamembranes.com/

On 2 Jul, 20:52, Fash wrote:
On 1 Jul, 22:08, avocado wrote:

I need to tank my cellar on a tight budget. I'm thinking of lining the
walls with damp proof membrane, held on with battons screwed with
stainless screws. The membrane will be left slightly slack between the
vertical battons to allow drainage of water.

I'm thinking of using guttering sunk into pea gravel at the wall/floor
junction, all draining into a sump in the corner. The floor, too will
be covered with membrane, not sure how to allow drainage or bond it to
the wall membrane yet though. The whole lot will then be dry lined
over the battons.

Is this going to go terribly wrong? As long as I can bond the membrane
together to form a watertight seal i can't see any problems.

The commercial studded membrane is way over my budget.

What is your budget? I did a diy studded membrane plus drainage
recently so can tell you what it really costs. Three other questions:
what is the planned usage? Do you care about building control? Are you
removing the existing floor (relevant to how to drain)?
If you post back answers to these questions I can give you some costed
options.

Fash

Fash

My budget is as cheap as possible, no more than 500 UKP for the lot. I
already have a hippo pump and a plastic water tank for the sump. I
don't care about building control, keeping the existing concrete floor
with channel around the outside, then floorboard on top of membrane.

On 2 Jul, 23:36, avocado wrote:
On 2 Jul, 20:52, Fash wrote:



On 1 Jul, 22:08, avocado wrote:

I need to tank my cellar on a tight budget. I'm thinking of lining the
walls with damp proof membrane, held on with battons screwed with
stainless screws. The membrane will be left slightly slack between the
vertical battons to allow drainage of water.

I'm thinking of using guttering sunk into pea gravel at the wall/floor
junction, all draining into a sump in the corner. The floor, too will
be covered with membrane, not sure how to allow drainage or bond it to
the wall membrane yet though. The whole lot will then be dry lined
over the battons.

Is this going to go terribly wrong? As long as I can bond the membrane
together to form a watertight seal i can't see any problems.

The commercial studded membrane is way over my budget.

What is your budget? I did a diy studded membrane plus drainage
recently so can tell you what it really costs. Three other questions:
what is the planned usage? Do you care about building control? Are you
removing the existing floor (relevant to how to drain)?
If you post back answers to these questions I can give you some costed
options.

Fash

Fash

My budget is as cheap as possible, no more than 500 UKP for the lot. I
already have a hippo pump and a plastic water tank for the sump. I
don't care about building control, keeping the existing concrete floor
with channel around the outside, then floorboard on top of membrane.

I used wykamol membrane and it cost 800UKP for a room which is
18'x13'. Bought direct from wykamol contact details on the web
somewhere. I think your biggest problem is the perimeter drainage. I
put a new concrete floor in which actually makes it much easier as
then you can put the drainage under the concrete, you just need access
to the pump (which I've got in an inspection chamber behind the
cellar.

Anyway, in your case the pea shingle is fine, but rather than
guttering get some perforated land drain pipe and use that to carry
the water from the shingle into the sump tank. (Think about using some
geotextile (about £40 for some Terram or similar to make sure it
doesn't end up clogged with soil and stuff.) For details on the joints
then I would look at the commercial membrane sites (safeguard, delta,
newton). I would strongly recommend using the pucker membrane on the
floor and lapped up the bottom foot or so of the walls. I think you
can then get away with dropping a standard polythene membrane down the
walls (just secured at the top like a curtain). Unless you are going
to seal it at the top then there is no real benefit in sealing the
joint between the floor membrane and the wall membrane. If you don't
seal it then any condensation which forms on the inside of the wall
membrane will generally drain behind the joint and into the floor
drainage.
The benefit of the dimpled membrane for the floor is the positive
channel space created, plus the stiffness means it will form an
upstand nicely. Unless the room is massive one roll of the membrane
from wykamol (20m x 2m - something like that) will be sufficient and
then some sealing tape as well. You should be able to get that in on
budget.

Fash