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To get a better understanding about rising damp you could read "the warm dry home" by Pete Ward which talks about the myth of rising damp and how modern damp proofing methods don't work on period property.
Is that a step down into your building from the pavement ? Water will be trapped under the pavement with very little chance of drying out. The wet soil will trasfer damp into the the wall,. So it's 'penetrative damp' rather than rising damp. If you could take the front pavement away it would likely dry out.
Is that a step down into your building from the pavement ? Water will be trapped under the pavement with very little chance of drying out. The wet soil will trasfer damp into the the wall,. So it's 'penetrative damp' rather than rising damp. If you could take the front pavement away it would likely dry out.
Cubist
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I'm among the 'Not convinced' group regarding that assertion from Mr Ward. I've never bothered buying his book and so have not studied his reasoning but my own observations of the commonly used construction materials suggest that damp can defy gravity at times, admittedly with a little help from the daily and differential warming and cooling cycles those materials are exposed to.
stuart45
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Worth reading the disciplinary meeting between RICS and Peter Ward.
Cubist
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Cheers Stuart, I was aware he'd courted some controversy, he was/is an abrasive character after all, but I was not aware he had stirred up such a hornets nest and compromised his own reputation so badly.
Yes he's a bit of a maverick but so what
It's not just Mr Ward that thinks this way
Ian Rock MRICS ( of the Haynes period property manuals fame) says:
"True ‘rising damp’ due to a defective or missing DPC is extremely rare. The two main sources of moisture to lower walls are high external ground levels or excessively wet ground. Earth banked up against a wall or a raised concrete path can force moisture into the wall. Marshy ground can result from a variety of causes such as persistent gutter leaks, a low-lying site, high water table or defective underground branch drains allowing water to seep into the ground, causing low-level dampness to persist unseen under suspended floors."
It's not just Mr Ward that thinks this way
Ian Rock MRICS ( of the Haynes period property manuals fame) says:
"True ‘rising damp’ due to a defective or missing DPC is extremely rare. The two main sources of moisture to lower walls are high external ground levels or excessively wet ground. Earth banked up against a wall or a raised concrete path can force moisture into the wall. Marshy ground can result from a variety of causes such as persistent gutter leaks, a low-lying site, high water table or defective underground branch drains allowing water to seep into the ground, causing low-level dampness to persist unseen under suspended floors."
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Stevers
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There's also the effect of salts cumulatively from the ground and from combustion in chimneys, especially in any building that once housed animals.
stuart45
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One of the causes of damp at the base of walls on new builds back in the 70's was cutting the DPM flush with the slab, instead of lapping in over the inner skin under the DPC. It took quite a few years for the damp to show itself. At first BRE recommended that the firms got a labourer to go around the ground floor with 3 coats of Synthaprufe at the floor/wall junction, until gradually we started lapping the DPM in properly.
stuart45
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I've just remembered I've got a photo of a job I was on years ago with damp issues on an internal wall. They couldn't work out why the dot and dabs were attracting condensation at first, until they found out that animal waste had been piled up against the other side of the wall, and the salts has soaked through into the plasterboard.
