[rob39]

Hi all
My cottage is around 135 years old typical solid stone + infill with recent modern add ons have been added. The old part of the cottage show signs of damp, but it has plants growing up the outside and dodgy guttering. So plants will be taken out and guttering sorted. Internally they have put battens up and covered with plaster board, externally it looks like its been rendered in gypsum or mortar render, I suspect its not traditional lime render.
So to cure the damp should I take the render off and replace with lime render and take the false walls down internally, lime render and allow the whole lot to breath?? but this will be poor insulation wise.
Or internally re batten fill with insulation and re board. (improves insulation) and re render externally with lime render so to allow some breathability?

[Me]

Can't say without seeing it, we have fixed the gutters, removed a leaking/knackered chimney, dropped the level of the outside of the house (key, it was six inches higher outside than in!) and it is improved... inside of the house is batton with ply over (no fire risk there!). Under floor I dug down and cleared between the timbers as it was solid with earth and put damp course to protect plus insulation.... its helping this winter will be the true test

[hafod]

We are in the same boat as you - dodgy guttering, plants and cement render  . The plan is to sort out the outside, take the render off (not looking forward to that!) and let it dry out then lime render. We are hoping not to have to do anything to the inside but insulation would certainly help!

[rob39]

The problem is if we batten, insulate and board the internals, this will not allow the wall to breath and cause condensation to form on the covered up wall

[bigchicken]

Could I ask if you have wooden floors

[henchard]

Can't comment without seeing the exact situation but the normal way to deal with damp on the inside of solid walls once you have dealt with all the obvious external maters like gutters, downspouts, gullies, pointing, ground levels etc is to strip back to the stone and tank it with a membrane like this

http://www.drywallandfloor.co.uk/membrane_shop.htm#Membrane

with solid floors a channel is usually cut in the slab to allow any water to drain down below the slab. This is then sealed  (on the internal side) with an epoxy sealer.

We used this system on our damp (solid) bathroom wall and it has been very effective.

[Kimbo]

I used to have a 200 yr old cottage built with rubble walls and cement rendered.
I lost count of the thousands of pounds I spent trying to fix the damp but in the end the only successful method was having it tanked. It cost me a fortune but at least it let me sell the house, which by then had acquired the  family name  of "The Money Pit".

[Justin]

2 years ago we bought a 200 year old farmhouse with 2' thick walls that had a dreadful damp problem, due to the rear patio being 2' above interior floor, one side of the house having the garden 5' up against that wall, the interior papered and painted several layers deep and the exterior rendered with cement render.

We removed the render on 2 sides of the house last year, dug out the patio and lowered it to below floor level and dug out around the side of the house so the ground is now 6' from the walls. The difference this has made is huge, the walls have dried out and the whole house feels completely different and takes much less energy to heat.

We've looked at insulating the outside of the house but the costs are around £30-£35k and even lime rendering is very expensive so I'm looking at going on a lime rendering course next year and doing it myself.

There is some very good information on how to deal with old houses at http://www.heritage-house.org/managing-damp-in-old-buildings.html along with examples of people who've done a lot of the work themselves.

[Ghdp]

We tanked  our last house which was problem free  for the 30 years we lived there. We also tanked a similar wall in a holiday home with great success too.
We are about to do the same again here in our new place. Wonder why we keep buying damp houses?!!!

[bazzais]

Dont insulate your house - or involve building regs - it really messes up the building.  Building regs are made for house made of breeze blocks and to fit in with EU regulations made up for building made of plasterboard for a penny.

[bazzais]

Windows open - keep it aired - cold - but not damp - damp but not cold.