I now have a vast number of outside sheds, brick or breezeblock built,
of varying ages. A small example is below:

http://codesmiths.com/dingbat/lj/200...r_yard_1688%20
(Medium).JPG

Mostly these are rendered with some sort of roughcast, which goes all
the way down to ground level. As this ground is poorly drained flat
concrete and I'm in Wales, that's a recipe for damp inside and out.
The guttering is sparse, so rain tends to shed straight onto the shed
walls. There's no bellcast.

One of the sheds even has a bizarre "boot" of concrete(?) around the
bottom edge, a brick-sized square wrapper around the outside foot of
the wall. This isn't a plinth or a socle, as it's alongside (and
outside) the wall, not beneath it. As a result, and because of it
cracking away by age and movement, it actually traps water rather than
shedding it!

So what's to be done?

A possible course would be to hack off the bottom few inches of render
back to the brick, leaving a neat sharp edge as a partial bellcast.
Below this, treat the bricks with bitumastic paint. Obviously any
moss disappears too. I doubt thhat re-rendering to a full bellcast is
worth it.

The boot goes too.

Any better ideas? Any favoured products for stopping minor
penetrating damp in old refurbs, either inside or out?

Thanks

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
I now have a vast number of outside sheds, brick or breezeblock built,
of varying ages. A small example is below:

http://codesmiths.com/dingbat/lj/200...r_yard_1688%20
(Medium).JPG

Mostly these are rendered with some sort of roughcast, which goes all
the way down to ground level. As this ground is poorly drained flat
concrete and I'm in Wales, that's a recipe for damp inside and out.
The guttering is sparse, so rain tends to shed straight onto the shed
walls. There's no bellcast.

One of the sheds even has a bizarre "boot" of concrete(?) around the
bottom edge, a brick-sized square wrapper around the outside foot of
the wall. This isn't a plinth or a socle, as it's alongside (and
outside) the wall, not beneath it. As a result, and because of it
cracking away by age and movement, it actually traps water rather than
shedding it!

So what's to be done?

A possible course would be to hack off the bottom few inches of render
back to the brick, leaving a neat sharp edge as a partial bellcast.
Below this, treat the bricks with bitumastic paint. Obviously any
moss disappears too. I doubt thhat re-rendering to a full bellcast is
worth it.

The boot goes too.

Any better ideas? Any favoured products for stopping minor
penetrating damp in old refurbs, either inside or out?

Thanks


Is it possible to cut 4 or 5 inches off the render and install a bitumen
paint and flashing around the brickwork of the sheds? As long as you gather
a skirt that allows the rain to run away from the bottom of the walls, would
it be possible for it run off to a drain Etc?

In message
,
Andy Dingley writes
I now have a vast number of outside sheds, brick or breezeblock built,
of varying ages. A small example is below:

http://codesmiths.com/dingbat/lj/200...r_yard_1688%20
(Medium).JPG

Mostly these are rendered with some sort of roughcast, which goes all
the way down to ground level. As this ground is poorly drained flat
concrete and I'm in Wales, that's a recipe for damp inside and out.
The guttering is sparse, so rain tends to shed straight onto the shed
walls. There's no bellcast.

One of the sheds even has a bizarre "boot" of concrete(?) around the
bottom edge, a brick-sized square wrapper around the outside foot of
the wall. This isn't a plinth or a socle, as it's alongside (and
outside) the wall, not beneath it. As a result, and because of it
cracking away by age and movement, it actually traps water rather than
shedding it!

How on earth do you get anything longer than 3'6" through those shed
doors?

I was going to suggest creating a French drain along each wall with
shingle back-fill but you are a bit tight for space. I suppose some very
careful diamond saw undercutting might create a drip.

Maybe you should just clear roof it and keep the rain out altogether:-)

regards

--
Tim Lamb

Andy Dingley wrote:
I now have a vast number of outside sheds, brick or breezeblock built,
of varying ages. A small example is below:

http://codesmiths.com/dingbat/lj/200...r_yard_1688%20
(Medium).JPG

Mostly these are rendered with some sort of roughcast, which goes all
the way down to ground level. As this ground is poorly drained flat
concrete and I'm in Wales, that's a recipe for damp inside and out.
The guttering is sparse, so rain tends to shed straight onto the shed
walls. There's no bellcast.

One of the sheds even has a bizarre "boot" of concrete(?) around the
bottom edge, a brick-sized square wrapper around the outside foot of
the wall. This isn't a plinth or a socle, as it's alongside (and
outside) the wall, not beneath it. As a result, and because of it
cracking away by age and movement, it actually traps water rather than
shedding it!

So what's to be done?

A possible course would be to hack off the bottom few inches of render
back to the brick, leaving a neat sharp edge as a partial bellcast.
Below this, treat the bricks with bitumastic paint. Obviously any
moss disappears too. I doubt thhat re-rendering to a full bellcast is
worth it.

The boot goes too.

Any better ideas? Any favoured products for stopping minor
penetrating damp in old refurbs, either inside or out?

Thanks

The bare bottom section of brick should be left bare. Waterproofing it
only makes things worse. The aim is not to slow down the speed at
which interior RH reaches equilibrium, but rather to shift the
equilibrium point. A lot of people make that mistake.


NT

http://codesmiths.com/dingbat/lj/200...20(Medium).JPG

On 14 Nov, 21:37, Tim Lamb wrote:

How on earth do you get anything longer than 3'6" through those shed
doors?

That's just the outside loo and the wine cellar

The real sheds are over he

http://codesmiths.com/dingbat/lj/200...20(Medium).JPG


I was going to suggest creating a French drain along each wall with
shingle back-fill

How shallow can you make a workable French drain?

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On 14 Nov, 21:37, Tim Lamb wrote:

How on earth do you get anything longer than 3'6" through those shed
doors?

That's just the outside loo and the wine cellar

The real sheds are over he

http://codesmiths.com/dingbat/lj/200...20(Medium).JPG


I was going to suggest creating a French drain along each wall with
shingle back-fill

How shallow can you make a workable French drain?


Anything below the damp proof course in the wall is enough. Preferably
below the footing, but as low as you can go should work. It's only to stop
standing water lying directly against the walls.

In message
, Andy
Dingley writes
On 14 Nov, 21:37, Tim Lamb wrote:

How on earth do you get anything longer than 3'6" through those shed
doors?

That's just the outside loo and the wine cellar

The real sheds are over he

More asbestos there than my entire farm:-)

http://codesmiths.com/dingbat/lj/200...20(Medium).JPG


I was going to suggest creating a French drain along each wall with
shingle back-fill

How shallow can you make a workable French drain?

I'm no expert.

When the farmhouse was *done up*, the exterior was re-rendered over 25mm
of insulation. The plasterers used expanding metal edging and formed a
drip so I don't have water trickling down the brick. However, yard and
soil levels had been made up over the years and are well above the
existing slate damp course. I wanted to create a large patio and decided
to build this at dpc level. To avoid bridging problems I laid 6"
concrete edging between the house wall and the patio and then filled the
gap with shingle. It is roughly 6" deep x 12" wide, on free draining
soil and goes all the way round the old part of the house. The rising
damp problems my mother endured over 50 years have gone:-)

regards


--
Tim Lamb

On 16 Nov, 01:41, "BigWallop" wrote:

How shallow can you make a workable French drain?

Anything below the damp proof course in the wall is enough. *

The what? 8-) This place was built in the 1880s and the further
shedlet here is some nasty jerry-built (and I mean that relative to
the general nastiness of shed bodges) add-on in the '20s. We're pretty
poorly served for "damp proof" anythings.


Preferably below the footing, but as low as you can go should work. *
It's only to stop
standing water lying directly against the walls.

Thanks, that's an interesting idea. I don't think I'm going to go
with it here on the narrow bit, owing to future planning around dog
crap-related issues, but it's a neat idea for the bigger open spaces
around the big sheds.

Presumably a french drain is going to involve digging a rock-filled
pit for a soakaway too? I'm restricted on where else I can send the
runoff to, as there doesn't seem to be any drainage provided (the few
gutters have downspouts that just empty onto the ground).

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On 16 Nov, 01:41, "BigWallop" wrote:

How shallow can you make a workable French drain?

Anything below the damp proof course in the wall is enough.

The what? 8-) This place was built in the 1880s and the further
shedlet here is some nasty jerry-built (and I mean that relative to
the general nastiness of shed bodges) add-on in the '20s. We're pretty
poorly served for "damp proof" anythings.


Even in the 14th Century they had slate damp stoppers in the bottom of
walls. Make sure there is no damp course in the wall, or even a slate
flooring slab in the footings, and that the soil around the buildings has
not been built up passed it over the years.


Preferably below the footing, but as low as you can go should work.
It's only to stop
standing water lying directly against the walls.

Thanks, that's an interesting idea. I don't think I'm going to go
with it here on the narrow bit, owing to future planning around dog
crap-related issues, but it's a neat idea for the bigger open spaces
around the big sheds.

Presumably a french drain is going to involve digging a rock-filled
pit for a soakaway too? I'm restricted on where else I can send the
runoff to, as there doesn't seem to be any drainage provided (the few
gutters have downspouts that just empty onto the ground).


Some were actually just a deep pit, like a moat, to stop water lying in hard
packed soil against the outside of the walls. Because the pit is filled
with larger stones and rubble, the water soaked down easily and either
soaked through the surrounding soil naturally, and the outer side of the pit
was kept lower than floor level to stop flooding into the house as well.
That's about the length and width of a colonial drain (French Drain, Moat
Drain, Chinese Pit Etc. Etc. Etc.) :-)

In message , BigWallop
writes

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On 16 Nov, 01:41, "BigWallop" wrote:

How shallow can you make a workable French drain?

Anything below the damp proof course in the wall is enough.

The what? 8-) This place was built in the 1880s and the further
shedlet here is some nasty jerry-built (and I mean that relative to
the general nastiness of shed bodges) add-on in the '20s. We're pretty
poorly served for "damp proof" anythings.


Even in the 14th Century they had slate damp stoppers in the bottom of
walls. Make sure there is no damp course in the wall, or even a slate
flooring slab in the footings, and that the soil around the buildings has
not been built up passed it over the years.


Preferably below the footing, but as low as you can go should work.
It's only to stop
standing water lying directly against the walls.

Thanks, that's an interesting idea. I don't think I'm going to go
with it here on the narrow bit, owing to future planning around dog
crap-related issues, but it's a neat idea for the bigger open spaces
around the big sheds.

Presumably a french drain is going to involve digging a rock-filled
pit for a soakaway too? I'm restricted on where else I can send the
runoff to, as there doesn't seem to be any drainage provided (the few
gutters have downspouts that just empty onto the ground).


Some were actually just a deep pit, like a moat, to stop water lying in hard
packed soil against the outside of the walls. Because the pit is filled
with larger stones and rubble, the water soaked down easily and either
soaked through the surrounding soil naturally, and the outer side of the pit
was kept lower than floor level to stop flooding into the house as well.
That's about the length and width of a colonial drain (French Drain, Moat
Drain, Chinese Pit Etc. Etc. Etc.) :-)

Having looked again at picture 2 it is more of a shed than a garden:-)

The guttered bits appear to be collecting and dumping the water back
into the slot. Elsewhere you have barrels/butts but no obvious gutter.

My thought for the day is to route the collected water to butts (in the
wide bit) and use some 1/2" hose to drain the butts to a soakaway dug in
your *lawn* as far as possible from the buildings. The soak does not
have to store much as that is the purpose of the butts.

You can route the hoses through those shallow French drains you were
going to install. Their secondary purpose is to stop rain splashing onto
the walls.

regards



--
Tim Lamb

On 17 Nov, 15:06, "BigWallop" wrote:

Even in the 14th Century they had slate damp stoppers in the bottom of
walls. *

All I appear to have is a single course of blue engineering brick,
laid badly with substantial mortar gaps to bridge the DPC. Oddly
these bricks seem to have been laid at 45° (flat, but wider when
viewed from above) so as to provide a wider foundation for the single
skin wall. This then provides a further "rain catcher" step above the
DPC!

The later outbuildings don't have anything visible, but then they're
just very shoddily built.