The cellar of my old Victorian house is very damp.

I won't get round to any sort of tanking for a good while yet, so I am
thinking about cheap stop gap solutions to tide us over and make it a
more pleasant experience when having to go in the cellar to fetch some
tools.

I am thinking my two main prongs of attack should be ventilation and
heating.

I have the windows open, so it is nice and breezy down there, though I
did fix some mesh over the windows to prevent a vermin invasion.

I dont want to do any plumbing for radiators/gas. What options are there
for cheap effective heating, just enough to get the damp shifted, or am
I very much mistaken in seeing this as a remedy.


Saeed

It should be obvious what to leave out from the address to email me.

ng_786

Saeed wrote:
The cellar of my old Victorian house is very damp.

I won't get round to any sort of tanking for a good while yet, so I am
thinking about cheap stop gap solutions to tide us over and make it a
more pleasant experience when having to go in the cellar to fetch some
tools.

I am thinking my two main prongs of attack should be ventilation and
heating.

I have the windows open, so it is nice and breezy down there, though I
did fix some mesh over the windows to prevent a vermin invasion.

I dont want to do any plumbing for radiators/gas. What options are there
for cheap effective heating, just enough to get the damp shifted, or am
I very much mistaken in seeing this as a remedy.

Tanking doesn't have to be very expensive.
Covering the walls in thin polythene dust-sheets will stop the water
evaporating into the room.
I'd personally go with something like making a very simple frame to hold
the dustsheets a couple of inches off the wall, and a fan to blow air
from the room through this space out a vent.

Just covering the walls and doing nothing else may be enough, if it's just
damp, and not water seeping in.

Tanking doesn't have to be very expensive.

I don't think thats true though

Covering the walls in thin polythene dust-sheets will stop the water
evaporating into the room.
I'd personally go with something like making a very simple frame to hold
the dustsheets a couple of inches off the wall, and a fan to blow air
from the room through this space out a vent.
Just covering the walls and doing nothing else may be enough, if it's just
damp, and not water seeping in.

Trouble is that by doing this you are keeping the bricks wet whereas
at the moment they evaporate moisture into the room. Eventually the
bricks will fail and either the house will be knocked down or it will
have to be partly rebuilt - both expensive options

But you might decide that by the time this happens you will be long
gone and meanwhile you can get more house room in which case ignore me

I would just limewash the walls

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England
|""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs
/ ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc
|____| www.kettlenet.co.uk 01359 230642

This is one situation where a dehumidifier is useful. Put on a low setting,
the water will need emptying every 2 or 3 days, but it will slowly dry out
the cellar.

_________
www.wych.com

Saeed wrote in message ...
The cellar of my old Victorian house is very damp.

I won't get round to any sort of tanking for a good while yet, so I am
thinking about cheap stop gap solutions to tide us over and make it a
more pleasant experience when having to go in the cellar to fetch some
tools.

I am thinking my two main prongs of attack should be ventilation and
heating.

ventilation yes, heating is a pricey way of only partially doing it.

I have the windows open, so it is nice and breezy down there, though I
did fix some mesh over the windows to prevent a vermin invasion.

I dont want to do any plumbing for radiators/gas. What options are there
for cheap effective heating, just enough to get the damp shifted, or am
I very much mistaken in seeing this as a remedy.

ventilation
remove non-porous paints from bricwork, eg gloss and emulsion.
dehumidifier

dont put membranes on walls, or youll get black mould

NT

Anna Kettle wrote:
Tanking doesn't have to be very expensive.

I don't think thats true though

Covering the walls in thin polythene dust-sheets will stop the water
evaporating into the room.
I'd personally go with something like making a very simple frame to hold
the dustsheets a couple of inches off the wall, and a fan to blow air
from the room through this space out a vent.
snip
I would just limewash the walls

What would this do?
I thought limewash was basically just a porous white 'paint'.

Is this not so?

On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 21:25:07 GMT, (Anna Kettle)
wrote:

Trouble is that by doing this you are keeping the bricks wet whereas
at the moment they evaporate moisture into the room. Eventually the
bricks will fail and either the house will be knocked down or it will
have to be partly rebuilt - both expensive options

But you might decide that by the time this happens you will be long
gone and meanwhile you can get more house room in which case ignore me

Really? The Victorians built their underground reservoirs with
brick...

http://www.papplewickpumpingstation.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/news/032001/21/underground_wed.shtml

cheers,
Pete.

In article , Pete C wrote:
On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 21:25:07 GMT, (Anna Kettle)
wrote:

Trouble is that by doing this you are keeping the bricks wet whereas
at the moment they evaporate moisture into the room. Eventually the
bricks will fail and either the house will be knocked down or it will
have to be partly rebuilt - both expensive options

But you might decide that by the time this happens you will be long
gone and meanwhile you can get more house room in which case ignore me

Really? The Victorians built their underground reservoirs with
brick...

That would be impervious engineering brick - a bit expensive for general
housebuilding

--
Jan

On 29 Sep 2004 14:50:23 -0700, Jan Wysocki wrote:

In article , Pete C wrote:
On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 21:25:07 GMT, (Anna Kettle)
wrote:

Trouble is that by doing this you are keeping the bricks wet whereas
at the moment they evaporate moisture into the room. Eventually the
bricks will fail and either the house will be knocked down or it will
have to be partly rebuilt - both expensive options

But you might decide that by the time this happens you will be long
gone and meanwhile you can get more house room in which case ignore me

Really? The Victorians built their underground reservoirs with
brick...

That would be impervious engineering brick - a bit expensive for general
housebuilding

Oops, I stand corrected:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...shire+blues%22
http://www.bricksandbrass.co.uk/dese...all/bricks.htm

cheers,
Pete.

I thought limewash was basically just a porous white 'paint'.

Is this not so?

It is indeed, so it makes the room look bright and clean without
trapping moisture

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England
|""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs
/ ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc
|____| www.kettlenet.co.uk 01359 230642

In message , Anna Kettle
writes
I thought limewash was basically just a porous white 'paint'.

Is this not so?

It is indeed, so it makes the room look bright and clean without
trapping moisture

Anna

What about mould - would limewash resist it ?


Saeed Rana


ng_786

What about mould - would limewash resist it ?

Yes its quite a strong alkali which moulds don't like

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England
|""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs
/ ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc
|____| www.kettlenet.co.uk 01359 230642

Saeed wrote:
In message , Anna Kettle
writes
I thought limewash was basically just a porous white 'paint'.

Is this not so?

It is indeed, so it makes the room look bright and clean without
trapping moisture

Anna

What about mould - would limewash resist it ?

I think it does.
As the original concern was to stop things going mouldy, it's only
going to mean that you can see the mould easier

A collection of rawl-plugs, some string, to make a framework 5cm off the
walls and ceiling, combined with a 1cm gap at the base, and a fan to
suck air through this and blow it out a window would be my solution.
30-40 quid or so, and a few hours work.

The floor will probably need painting with some sort of vapour barrier too.

A large enough dehumidifier will work, but will be expensive to run over
the long term.
Ventilation will help a bit.

Anna Kettle wrote in message ...
What about mould - would limewash resist it ?

Yes its quite a strong alkali which moulds don't like

And yet an acid ph is used to stop mould developing in water.....

stuart noble wrote:

Anna Kettle wrote in message ...
What about mould - would limewash resist it ?

Yes its quite a strong alkali which moulds don't like

And yet an acid ph is used to stop mould developing in water.....

All living stuff will only live in a range of PH.
Both low and high will stop it thriving.

In message , stuart noble
writes

Anna Kettle wrote in message ...
What about mould - would limewash resist it ?

Yes its quite a strong alkali which moulds don't like

And yet an acid ph is used to stop mould developing in water.....

Anything outside the narrow range around 7, acid or alkali would make
life extremely uncomfortable for most moulds

--
geoff