Need help with water under the house problem please.
Discussion
We have rising damp in our sitting room and its not hard to see why. Looking into the foundations two feet below the floor, there is a substantial lake some two to three inches deep. I know its been very wet but FFS.
The house is a typical 30's semi with suspended floors. We are on a hill and the attached semi is about two feet lower than us. The room in question has already been tanked below floor level, as has the adjoining semi. Why is a bit of a mystery. It is the damp course which has failed.
We have an extension across the entire back of the house, which has a concrete floor and was built with deep foundations to allow further work if required. We have block paved the front of the house but it is not lined so water soaks into the ground as before. We have a patio at the back but this is pretty porous too. We have a soakaway in the garden to take he water off the extension.
The ground is clay and is saturated now but is always pretty moist a couple of feet down. When it rains the water under the sitting room - now in the middle of the house remember - appears quite quickly and takes ages to go away again. We are pretty confident that there are no burst pipes or leaking drains and the front of the house is dry. Obviously, the clay soil and rain, coupled with a being on a hill all contribute to the problem, and we know that this area - Bromley - does have drainage issues as well as hidden springs and wells.
We have a damp specialist ready to deal with the failed damp course and resulting damage, and they are also going to spray the timbers in the sitting room but will not guarantee that part of the work as water will still be sitting under the floor, ultimately condensing all over the timber and rotting it.
The question is, how do we establish where the water is getting in, and why, how the hell do we stop it? We need to sort this out as it is unlikely to get better on it's own and is obviously going to cause problems in the future. Land drains have been suggested, running into next door's garden to take water off our's, and there were drains in the garden at some point but these were all blocked and broken by the time we did the extension. Doing away (illegally) with the soakaway and running that into the sewer has also been suggested. Could we build a concrete wall round the foundations to keep the water out?
All suggestions gratefully received and there's a job here for somebody too.
Thanks
The house is a typical 30's semi with suspended floors. We are on a hill and the attached semi is about two feet lower than us. The room in question has already been tanked below floor level, as has the adjoining semi. Why is a bit of a mystery. It is the damp course which has failed.
We have an extension across the entire back of the house, which has a concrete floor and was built with deep foundations to allow further work if required. We have block paved the front of the house but it is not lined so water soaks into the ground as before. We have a patio at the back but this is pretty porous too. We have a soakaway in the garden to take he water off the extension.
The ground is clay and is saturated now but is always pretty moist a couple of feet down. When it rains the water under the sitting room - now in the middle of the house remember - appears quite quickly and takes ages to go away again. We are pretty confident that there are no burst pipes or leaking drains and the front of the house is dry. Obviously, the clay soil and rain, coupled with a being on a hill all contribute to the problem, and we know that this area - Bromley - does have drainage issues as well as hidden springs and wells.
We have a damp specialist ready to deal with the failed damp course and resulting damage, and they are also going to spray the timbers in the sitting room but will not guarantee that part of the work as water will still be sitting under the floor, ultimately condensing all over the timber and rotting it.
The question is, how do we establish where the water is getting in, and why, how the hell do we stop it? We need to sort this out as it is unlikely to get better on it's own and is obviously going to cause problems in the future. Land drains have been suggested, running into next door's garden to take water off our's, and there were drains in the garden at some point but these were all blocked and broken by the time we did the extension. Doing away (illegally) with the soakaway and running that into the sewer has also been suggested. Could we build a concrete wall round the foundations to keep the water out?
All suggestions gratefully received and there's a job here for somebody too.
Thanks
B17NNS said:
Could you install a sump pump?
If you have an effective damp course this would not however result in rising damp (assuming the water level stayed below the course)
http://www.safeguardeurope.com/products/basement-s...
It has been suggested but still leaves the original problem which I would like to deal with if at all possible. However, a pump cannot be ruled out. Just a thought - where do these things discharge? If you have an effective damp course this would not however result in rising damp (assuming the water level stayed below the course)
http://www.safeguardeurope.com/products/basement-s...
Thanks for your comments and I will get some pics taken later on today.
It has been mentioned that the subfloor appears to be concrete, possibly with a polythene liner under it. Our neighbours recall a serious flooding event being discussed but don't know much more than that, or why they and us have been tanked. It certainly would seem that we have the potential for a swimming pool if we add a few tiles...
The house is typical 30's - brick, rendered at first floor level to the front and all the way round elsewhere. The front shows high levels of damp too, both in the wall at skirting level and in the floor timbers but there is no standing water; it is very dusty in fact. The subloor slopes down towards our adjoining semi and in the middle of the house - by the stairs - is only about a foot down.
Looking at the garden from the back of the house, it slopes from left to right (where we are joined) and from the far end towards the house. The top of the path is a puddle, as was the house end on Monday during the heavy rain.
Significantly, when the extension was built there were small drainage pipes running off the garden, presumably into a much larger pipe running from left to right, effectively down the hill. All of the minor pipes were broken and clogged up. The major pipe, around two foot diameter, had a tree root in it (which was bridged by the foundations) and was also broken and very clogged. Unfortunately, this is now almost lost under the house, although there is a cover under the tiled floor in the kitchen.
I will get some pics done over the next 24 hours ad post them up.
It has been mentioned that the subfloor appears to be concrete, possibly with a polythene liner under it. Our neighbours recall a serious flooding event being discussed but don't know much more than that, or why they and us have been tanked. It certainly would seem that we have the potential for a swimming pool if we add a few tiles...
The house is typical 30's - brick, rendered at first floor level to the front and all the way round elsewhere. The front shows high levels of damp too, both in the wall at skirting level and in the floor timbers but there is no standing water; it is very dusty in fact. The subloor slopes down towards our adjoining semi and in the middle of the house - by the stairs - is only about a foot down.
Looking at the garden from the back of the house, it slopes from left to right (where we are joined) and from the far end towards the house. The top of the path is a puddle, as was the house end on Monday during the heavy rain.
Significantly, when the extension was built there were small drainage pipes running off the garden, presumably into a much larger pipe running from left to right, effectively down the hill. All of the minor pipes were broken and clogged up. The major pipe, around two foot diameter, had a tree root in it (which was bridged by the foundations) and was also broken and very clogged. Unfortunately, this is now almost lost under the house, although there is a cover under the tiled floor in the kitchen.
I will get some pics done over the next 24 hours ad post them up.
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