Monday 26 January 2009

More bloody water!

In between rants I am occasionally forced to work (boo!) and the pic above shows this weeks project. After fixing the leaking roof I now have to fix a breach in the basement damp proof tanking...such fun hey? The house (Victorian) is surrounded underground by a brick chamber that is designed to keep moisture away from the inner basement wall. For the most part the system still works but 160 years of inaccessible soil build up have taken their tole. The build up of water retaining soil combined with a past mistake in not removing a wooden plug (note to joiners....water just loves wood) caused the waterproof render to fail...hello damp! so its off with the plaster,re point the old brickwork and render away...I'd better get a move on as I feel a rant coming on.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That does not look fun at all...
:(

James Higham said...

I hate damp coursing.

phlegmfatale said...

My buildings are on the National Register of historic blah blah blah, and the largest one has a basement with walls as you describe. They are my ongoing worrywith regard to maintenance. I'm actually paranoid about them crumbling away entirely, and I walk the basement hall routinely watching for any change... *shudder* I won't miss that responsibility.