Damp Proofing Brickwork.

[ozwinner]

Hi
When we bought this house 9 years ago, I noticed that it had rising damp.
Even in the middle of summer the wall would look wet half a metre up.
So I did a Google search, and come up with www.techdry.com.au
They sell a silicon damp proofing liquid, which is inserted into the brick via the hole you drill.
When the silicon dries a wax is left in the brick, making it water proof.
And it works too; it cost around $600 to do the whole house.
I think the original house had a chemical damp course, which has since failed.
Not too good for a house that is only28 years old, I would have expected longer.

Cheers, Allan

[silentC]

Looks great Allan, are you going to paint them the same colour as the wall, or go for something different?

:D

[Sturdee]

Allan, it would have been easier to paint them before putting them in the wall. I would go for a contrasting colour.:D

Peter.

[ozwinner]

I was thinking bright yellow!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek:

[journeyman Mick]

"I think the original house had a chemical damp course, which has since failed. "


Allan,
Why on earth would anyone use a "chemical" dampcourse? Normal DPC is hardly expensive or difficult to fit. Must be those bloody brickies being lazy again! :D Seriously though I have only ever heard of chemical dampcourse in relation to remedial work, what form does it take and how is it applied to a new structure? Just trying to satisfy my curiosity.

Mick

[ozwinner]

Hi Mick
Years ago bodgy builders used to give the brickies a liquid damp course to mix with the mud.
I used to use it, but I was always of the mind that if you mix it with water, how the hell can it be water proof.
Someone explained it to me that once the water evaperates off, it leaves some sort of pollimer???
I still dont get it.
All you did was put it in the mud as you would water, it went into the first couple of courses, or should have.
Problem was, did the labourer put it in, if so at what ratio? ( a small glug or a big glug ?)
I got into the habit of smelling the mud just to check if it was put in, yeah I know, A mud sniffer.
The stuff was clear.
These days we get plastic flashing to put in, as you say, its not expensive.
So, I think I got the Friday arvo house, or the end of the month house when there was no liquid DPC left. :(


Cheers, Allan

[bitingmidge]

Mick,

Allan is spot on. I was a supervisor for a house building company in the early 70's when you could either get alcor, lead or nothing, and lots of humpy builders were using the stuff. I doubt that it worked from day one, certainly not in the manner it was intended.

Brickies used to love it, particularly if they were responsible for supplying it, because it rarely cost a cent! Just a half empty drum on the job and who'd know any better!

I have even seen "flashings" formed out of solid mud (shudder). Didn't happen on our jobs of course :rolleyes: ......one of the reasons I have a healthy distrust of anything new and unproven.

But then I had a healthy distrust of brickies as well....had more than one wall demolished after walking on site with a metal detector to see if there really was any reo in the wall. Miserable Pr#ck that I was......not like the "supervisors" today eh!:D :D :D

Cheers,

P

[fiona]

Am looking at buying a house that needs to be damp proofed, was the diy damp proofing that you used easy to do ? Would appreciate any advice you could give me. The house is only about 13sqrs. ta, fiona

[ozwinner]

Hi.

If you can drill a hole, you can use this damp proof system.

Al :)

[jackiew]

I've used this kind of stuff in the uk. its not difficult - you might have to hire a better drill rather than trash your own, and buy some decent drill bits.

I know people who've had this type of work done "professionally" - a requirement of the bank for the mortgage - and then it has failed and the 25 year warranty hasn't been worth the paper it was written on as the company has changed names and moved on. If you do it yourself you will use the right quantities and take your time.

If you pay someone else to do it then you are dependent upon them not showing you the empty drum when all they are injecting is water ( or injecting nothing ... as mentioned in an earlier thread where the borer sprayers didn't actually spray :eek: ).

One thing to be aware of with this is that it only works for rising damp ... if the damp is being caused by leaking gutters or plumbing or soil built up on the outside of the house then you are wasting your time so be sure you're fixing the right problem.

[fiona]

Hey guys, Thanks heaps for the feedback. From all accounts it seems fairly simple and heaps cheaper than getting professionals to do it. I will have to double check that the issue is rising damp and not leaking gutters etc, but i am assuming it is as it is the entire way around the house, the house was built in 70s ( probly one of the dodgy damp proof jobs mentioned earlier :) and it is clay soil, and quite wet under the house.

Anyway, cheers for the help, will get on to it asap. fiona

[kiwigeo]

Mick,

Miserable Pr#ck that I was......not like the "supervisors" today eh!:D :D :D


P
Give me your phone number so I can hire you for my next renovation job.

Was looking hard at the last bit of work my builders did on my place...floor frame for new front entrance has been bolted to brickwall below dampcourse level of house brickwork with no damproof between brickwork and timber. Not good...not happy. Hired a supervisor for the first lot of extensions but took a gamble with the second lot (same builders, did a good job first time around).

[jackiew]

Hired a supervisor for the first lot of extensions but took a gamble with the second lot (same builders, did a good job first time around).

The one thing that has been drummed into me since I started attending trade based courses aimed at the home-owner is that you have to be absolutely wide-awake if you get someone else to do work for you. Don't assume that they will do the right thing. Don't assume that they even know what the right thing is. Don't assume that your Building Surveyor will pick it up either.

little gems that I've been told about in recent weeks have included the bricklayer who turns up with full bags of cement on the back of his ute as the homeowner goes off to work. The homeowner returns to see a pile of empty cement bags. These were in fact already in the ute behind the full bags which are now sat in the bricklayer's garage.

the trench digger who was told by the building surveyor to double the depth of the trench. The surveyor returned next day to see the pile of earth by the trench had increased dramatically in size and didn't bother to cross the building site to look in the trench. The earth had actually been barrowed from elsewhere in the site.

[ozwinner]

The one thing that has been drummed into me since I started attending trade based courses aimed at the home-owner is that you have to be absolutely wide-awake if you get someone else to do work for you. Don't assume that they will do the right thing. Don't assume that they even know what the right thing is. Don't assume that your Building Surveyor will pick it up either. ..Dont you think the lectures work on the scare tactics, just to keep the numnuts enroling in these courses?




little gems that I've been told about in recent weeks have included the bricklayer who turns up with full bags of cement on the back of his ute as the homeowner goes off to work. The homeowner returns to see a pile of empty cement bags. These were in fact already in the ute behind the full bags which are now sat in the bricklayer's garage..Crap
So just where do you buy empty bags from?




the trench digger who was told by the building surveyor to double the depth of the trench. The surveyor returned next day to see the pile of earth by the trench had increased dramatically in size and didn't bother to cross the building site to look in the trench. The earth had actually been barrowed from elsewhere in the site.Double crap
If the inspector didnt look in the trench, how does he know it wasnt deepened?
I've heard all these urban myths for the last 30 years that Ive spent in the building trade, and have yet to come across anything that even resembles these stories.

If any of them where even half true, every built thing would be in a heap on the ground.
I cant even believe that intelligent people believe these stories.

Al :confused:

[silentC]

So just where do you buy empty bags from?
Don't you sell them in the crapatorium? :D:D:D

[jackiew]

Al, not everyone who does tradework is honest ... just as there are plenty of householders who are happy to pay cash no receipt to shonky workmen who get the work at the expense of those who would do a good job but rightly expect to be paid for it.

So far of the 4 jobs I've had done on my house here I've had three bodgy jobs done and only one that I consider to be adequate. And no I don't go for the lowest quote.

It wasn't my imagination that the borer sprayer did abslolutely squat other than take the morning off when he should have been treating the underside of my house - he did however remember to put the bill in my mail box. And just to be fair I've also had shonky work done in the UK.

The guy who told me about the cement bags was working for the brickie as a labourer at the time. I don't disbelieve the story about the surveryor .... there are slack buggers in every line of work.

I've spoken to restumpers who reckon there are surveyors who won't crawl on their hands and knees under a house to inspect their work.

I've personally had an annual roadworthy done on a motorbike which consisted of the tester riding it round the block - his attitude was that if it felt safe to ride then he passed it.

I've had a car fail a roadworthy with complete crap as a reason with the assumption that I wouldn't know that they were talking rubbish. I've every reason to believe that if I'd asked the garage to do the work that they wouldn't really have replaced the shock absorbers on the left hand side of the car only as they wanted to ( rather than in pairs across the car ) but would just have billed me megabucks for storing my car in their garage for the day.

I'm doing these courses not necessarily so that I can do the work myself but so I have some idea what good practice is and what I should be looking for.

.... and where do you get your empty cement bags from. They were probably left over from the brick wall that the brickie built round his mum's garden ....

[kiwigeo]

[QUOTE=jackiew].... there are slack buggers in every line of work.

[QUOTE]

And people like me make a comfortable living out of it. 90% of my time is spent doing QC work on data from third party contractors. If they did the QC theyre supposed to do I'd fast be out of work. For this reason I actively encourage them to do a bad job.

[ozwinner]

.... and where do you get your empty cement bags from. They were probably left over from the brick wall that the brickie built round his mum's garden ....
Give me break, do you actualy beleive that??

Al :confused:

[jackiew]

Like I said Al, there are cowboys and superheroes in every trade and business ( and that includes the one I work in).

I've worked with software engineers who've professed knowledge that they haven't had and pretended they've done work they haven't and left me to pick up the pieces after they've swanned off to the next contract. There really isn't a great deal of difference between saying you've run tests on software that you haven't actually run and skimping on materials when you're building a house. Most times the structure will stand up to cursory inspection ... and the defect may go unnoticed for years .... until an irate call from a customer reveals the nasty truth. :(