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Hi all,
We pulled up the laminate flooring in our dining room and found carpet and underlay underneath, then a layer of ply that had definitely seen better days. Since the floor was up, I thought I’d take a peek under a couple of the floorboards where they were easy to lift. What I found was a load of rubble and old bits of wood.
That got me wondering about the air brick on the outside wall. When I poked a skewer into the holes, I hit resistance. So I lifted more boards nearby to investigate further.
Turns out the air brick was completely blocked with soil. The cavity had filled up with it, and there was about 8 cm of soil sitting right on top of the wall plate. It had even filled the small gap behind the wall plate as well.
Since I cleared all that soil out, the wall plate does look a bit damp in places, mainly along the bottom. The joists though are totally fine — not damp at all and still sitting nice and level. There’s also one bit of wall plate that’s been chopped out near the last joist and replaced with a cemented wood block.
So my question is: now that I’ve got ventilation back (and I’m also clearing out the rest of the rubble), do you think the wall plate will be alright if I just let it dry? I’ve got fans and a dehumidifier running, and I could treat it with fungicide and wood hardener. Or do I really need to cut out and replace the sections that look a bit decayed?
Also any ideas what the pipe is for?
For context, it’s been like this for at least 18 years and seems to have held up pretty well. It’s an old Victorian terrace (1884), so there’s no DPC under the wall plate, which makes me think damp might also be rising from the brick pier.
Not sure how the soil got there, but there’s a concrete patio outside that was put in by the people who owned the house before the people we bought it form. I suspect soil was piled against the air brick at some point and eventually found its way inside. The concrete slopes away from the house.
We’ve lived here for a year now and haven’t noticed any signs of damp above the floorboards.
Any thoughts on whether it’s worth replacing sections of wall plate, or if drying and treating will do the job?
Cheers!
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We pulled up the laminate flooring in our dining room and found carpet and underlay underneath, then a layer of ply that had definitely seen better days. Since the floor was up, I thought I’d take a peek under a couple of the floorboards where they were easy to lift. What I found was a load of rubble and old bits of wood.
That got me wondering about the air brick on the outside wall. When I poked a skewer into the holes, I hit resistance. So I lifted more boards nearby to investigate further.
Turns out the air brick was completely blocked with soil. The cavity had filled up with it, and there was about 8 cm of soil sitting right on top of the wall plate. It had even filled the small gap behind the wall plate as well.
Since I cleared all that soil out, the wall plate does look a bit damp in places, mainly along the bottom. The joists though are totally fine — not damp at all and still sitting nice and level. There’s also one bit of wall plate that’s been chopped out near the last joist and replaced with a cemented wood block.
So my question is: now that I’ve got ventilation back (and I’m also clearing out the rest of the rubble), do you think the wall plate will be alright if I just let it dry? I’ve got fans and a dehumidifier running, and I could treat it with fungicide and wood hardener. Or do I really need to cut out and replace the sections that look a bit decayed?
Also any ideas what the pipe is for?
For context, it’s been like this for at least 18 years and seems to have held up pretty well. It’s an old Victorian terrace (1884), so there’s no DPC under the wall plate, which makes me think damp might also be rising from the brick pier.
Not sure how the soil got there, but there’s a concrete patio outside that was put in by the people who owned the house before the people we bought it form. I suspect soil was piled against the air brick at some point and eventually found its way inside. The concrete slopes away from the house.
We’ve lived here for a year now and haven’t noticed any signs of damp above the floorboards.
Any thoughts on whether it’s worth replacing sections of wall plate, or if drying and treating will do the job?
Cheers!
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