Why Important
What to look for
When to look
How to fix
The construction — two skins of stonework with a rubble core — makes it impracticable, if not impossible, to insert a traditional felt or lead dpc into external walls.
There are proprietary methods that claim to alleviate rising damp either by;
- Chemical injection
- Electro-Osmosis – neutralising or reversing the positive potential of the wall relative to the earth using an electric charge
- High capillary ceramic tubes, but this is unsuitable for drying out basement walls. While techniques are continually being developed and studied, it is wise to obtain impartial advice before specifying any one proprietary system of damp-proofing.
Avoiding creating problems
Neither Chemical Injection or Electro-Osmosis methods can be recommended without reservation; it may not be possible to ensure full penetration by chemical injection into rubble walls of composite construction containing voids, and the claims for electro-osmotic systems have yet to be proven.