We've an old farm house that was renovated with new plaster slabs directly attached to the old interior walls. Over time these have discoloured as moisture has seeped through into the plaster.
We're now thinking of stripping off the plaster to assess the damage and see what can be done. The house has no DPC but rising damp isn't a huge problem, the majority seems to be some sort of weeping / wetness in the walls.
We're thinking of adding central heating to the house and increasing the ventilation (there's currently none) in an effort to combat this damp problem. We're also going to hopefully have someone in it all the time, previously it would be locked up for 3+ months at a time with no heating and no ventilation.
We've been told that a possible solution is to strip the walls of the plaster, seal them with some damp proof sealant (this part I'm unclear of) and then put some kind of floating wall in front of the actual building walls. I'm unsure of the details but the builder said that the new wall never directly touches the old wall and allows a flow of air around it.
I'm wary of not solving the damp problem and somehow sealing in the damp which could later cause us problems. Does the above solution (floating wall idea) sound like anything anyone has heard of before?
The builder stressed that nothing could pierce the sealant on the old wall or the problems would start again. This strikes me as just blocking the problem and not solving it.
Any people familiar with this, is it a good solution for an old farm house with rubble walls and no DPC? Rising damp not very prevelant but still, don't want to do the wrong thing.
Thanks.
We're now thinking of stripping off the plaster to assess the damage and see what can be done. The house has no DPC but rising damp isn't a huge problem, the majority seems to be some sort of weeping / wetness in the walls.
We're thinking of adding central heating to the house and increasing the ventilation (there's currently none) in an effort to combat this damp problem. We're also going to hopefully have someone in it all the time, previously it would be locked up for 3+ months at a time with no heating and no ventilation.
We've been told that a possible solution is to strip the walls of the plaster, seal them with some damp proof sealant (this part I'm unclear of) and then put some kind of floating wall in front of the actual building walls. I'm unsure of the details but the builder said that the new wall never directly touches the old wall and allows a flow of air around it.
I'm wary of not solving the damp problem and somehow sealing in the damp which could later cause us problems. Does the above solution (floating wall idea) sound like anything anyone has heard of before?
The builder stressed that nothing could pierce the sealant on the old wall or the problems would start again. This strikes me as just blocking the problem and not solving it.
Any people familiar with this, is it a good solution for an old farm house with rubble walls and no DPC? Rising damp not very prevelant but still, don't want to do the wrong thing.
Thanks.