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fitzroy_boy · Joined: 13 Nov 2006 Posts: 1 Location: london

Hello there all! Have just brought a house with bad damp which i think is coming from bad guttering. I've been up in the attic and the roof seems ok from inside and on the outside. the house is a 3 storey house, on the top floor the bedrom is not 2 bad but on the floor below the plaster has blown and is coming off the wall in big lumps. Also has mould and what have you. I'm going to renew the guttering this weekend and take the plaster off and allow brick work to dry, the outside wall is rendered and i take it i will have to take that off also. Does this sound like the right course of action? The render at other points has cracks appearing, the building does not have subsidance, but is victorian so i know there is of course going to be so movement. does the place need rerendering or just touching up?Any other tips? Thank you for taking the time to read all!

thescruff · Moderator Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 4418 Location: Bath

You can buy a colourless liquid to paint on the outside to seal the wall.

Looks and smells much like parafin,

Jen27 · Joined: 01 Jun 2007 Posts: 3 Location: Oxon

We've just moved house and are having a similar prob.

Had a builder out. It may be worth checking what type of render it is. If the property is old, it really needs to be lime rendered. Ours is cement, which means the walls can't breathe and the only way for moisture to get out of the wall is to ingress.

We're having the cement render taken off and replaced with hydraulic lime - should sort the problem. Don't know cost yet though Confused

Sealing the render may only make the problem worse?