I know that we are at the start of summer here in Wales (not that you can tell on a day like today) but I thought that it was worth sharing an update on the house.
Two years ago the lime rendering was completed on the house and I had hoped that this would be sufficient time for the render to have worked its magic, so I took the damp meter home last week.
The inside of the external walls had been covered in mould in localised areas and they were reading between 20 and 25% wood moisture equivalent. The same areas where tested again and they are down to around 12%. So I can report that the external walls have indeed dried out and the house is much drier.
So why do we still have a slight smell of mould when we come back after a weekend away?
Well the internal walls are still wet. The fools who replaced the wooden suspended floor with new concrete ones are still causing me problems. The moisture is being forced up from the foundations and into the walls due to the Damp Proof Membrane (DPM) under these floors. I have installed a chemical DPC into the walls, but it is not working well enough, so I feel that I will have to try again, or bite the bullet and install a physical DPC.
I have injected into the mortar of the wall, but I will also do the bricks this time if they are really damp. So it will be off with the skirting boards and in with the Dryzone.
So 3/4 of a victory so far, just the final furlong to go. Just goes to show that you can rely on the old technology, but the newer stuff can be temperamental!
