The Damp

The good news is that we don't have rising damp.  We don't have wood worm or rot! But we do have regular damp in the kitchen; the entire kitchen.


Before we commence the plastering in the kitchen, we invited a damp inspector round from Kenwood Plc. (http://www.kenwoodplc.co.uk//index.php)  We suspected there was damp as we knew water was getting trapped in between the brick and the outside rendering before we pulled it off.  This may have been there for many, many years before we removed the rendering.  

Rear wall with damp showing through the brick

Today the engineers arrived with drills and lots of chemicals.  First they drilled holes around the three kitchen walls from the inside and the outside about 6 inches apart. Each hole was filled with a damp proof course and injected with a chemical that makes the walls waterproof.  Around the bottom 6 inches of the wall from the floor up, a grey gel was pasted on.  This is a technique called Tanking. We had to have this done as the ground outside of the house is too high so we need to take extra precaution against damp.


Once this damp treatment dries, we will have 1 metre high of rendering plastered on the walls before we can dry line the walls.

Right side of kitchen with grey layer of Tanking