Some context: The lower ground floor of the house I bought has damp throughout the 2 bedrooms. I got an independent damp survey done which said most of it is condensation, but there damp rising from ground up in one internal wall & front external wall. External ground level is higher than internal, but from trial pit, can't be lowered due to shallow foundations in clay. The report stated stripping both internal and external - all walls - back to bricks and re-render with lime render and plaster. This of course is a very disruptive, costly and expensive task. A lot of what he wrote was impractical, so taking it with a pinch of salt. The CSSW person (he said needs one to design Type 3 CDM in wetroom) said, one wall already has waterproof render, most walls are dry and stripping only the impacted section of the walls, and put breathable render (but not lime, maybe because they don't do lime). Now my question: What to do with the impacted sections of the walls I do strip - not full walls, rather only sections 1.2M in some, much less in others? They are bedrooms so I have to make it habitable - even when brick's drying? Option 1: Non-lime 'breathable' plaster - applied immediately post strip? 2. If lime plaster, and the rest of it remains cement, how to cover/ insulate (in a breathable manner) that area while the bricks dry? That can be easily removed/ checked periodically to see if bricks dry and re-plaster with lime when they do?
