[Clarebelle]

Hi all,

I have just moved to my smallholding. We have a long line of single story outbuildings which consist of a partially renovated two room holiday let and what was being used as a shop but could be a studio/holiday let etc. Right in the middle of these buildings is my greenhouse. It is a traditionally built stone building, the same as the other two buildings but has a perspex roof and one wall made of glass to let the light in.

The beds inside the green house incorporate the stone walls which adjoin the other buildings. My father in law raised the question of whether having all that damp soil up against the stone walls might cause damp in the other two buildings.

There is currently no evidence of damp in the buildings but then the greenhouse hasn't exactly been used a great deal. The stone walls are about 2 foot thick I guess. Is there a possibilty that damp could be a problem once i start using the greenhouse regularly? I know for a fact that the partially renovated building has a damp proof membrane but i don't know about the other one.

I am in Orkney and so we have a lot of rain so the buildings are no strangers to the wet.

[shygirl]

i dont know about damp proof membranes but we have a bothy with a solid granite exposed wall and damp does come through when its wet from the other side - it is 2ft thick, it also rises up from ground level.
never actually caused a problem for us, but rock is porous.
do you have any drainage for when the plants need watering?
we did use our fully tiled porch as a full on greenhouse once, and that never caused any problems to the rest of the house.

[Clarebelle]

The floor of the greenhouse is flagged but it seems to have been constructed so that excess water runs out of the door.