Measures working, but still more to do

Last year we spent a lot of time getting the walls of our home sorted. I dug a trench around the house and installed drainage to make sure that rainwater was taken away from the plot as quickly as possible. The walls were also stripped of their cement render and a lovely new render from Welsh Lime Works was applied.

So where are we now?

Out of the red and into the green

Well I went around the house yesterday to check moisture readings in the external walls and I am happy to announce that the levels are down from the mid 20% to around 10-13%.

So the external walls are drying out even now, despite have amount of water that was allowed into them after the cement render was removed and then the application process associated with the lime render. So great news!

However, the internal walls where concrete replacement floors have been installed are still wet. The lower part of the wall, where the waterproof render and plaster has been fitted is around 10%, but above the 1m mark where the original lime plaster is still intact is wet through (mid 20%s). I have been hoping that the silicon treatment that I installed would have had an effect by now, but it seems as if there is still water being sucked up by capillary action between the waterproofed render on the walls.

I think that I will have to inject more silicon cream into the mortar at the base of the walls to see if I can reduce the amount of water being drawn up. The water pressure that is created by replacement floors is amazing, but I have little choice as to the action I can take, bar cutting out the mortar and installing a physical DPC - lots of dust that the rest of the family might not appreciate!

So, good news on the main piece of work on the house, but still a little more to do to remove the issues created by blindly following the conventional damp industry and mortgage providers.