Renovating an old farmhouse

[AE-NMidlands]

In his first post Beau did mention there is no DPC. Is the floor level the same as the outside ground level, I ask as several of the farm houses in the Yorkshire and Durham dales I have been in have that feature. The stone flags for the floor also laid diectly on the earth with no dpm and no dpc in the walls, lime mortar used throughout originally.

That's what I was envisaging, hence my query about making some sort of underfloor space - with a sump if poss. Obviously not worth the trouble if there is granite directly underneath, but something might be do-able.
Might need to cast a concrete ring-beam around the inside to avoid destabilising the walls? also consider what they are actually sitting on?

[Thebeeman]

He's said up-thread that they are on Shillet not granite, still hard digging as you get deeper but not boulders like granite.

[Beau]

Oh wow lots of chat on this

I am no good at multiple quotes but a few answers. Also I'm dyslexic so I will apologise in advance for poor spelling and punctuation.

The water table is basically ground level for months on end in a winter like this last one. I installed French drains outside on 3 sides of the house some years ago but I can't easily do this on the east side. our barn is just across the yard to the east and the other side of that we have another french drain so the buildings are nearly surrounded by some sort of drainage.

Two rooms are at 'ground' level and have had what looks like a tar covering over what I think is a skim of concrete on earth. This does appear to stop water from wicking up through the floor directly but nothing to stop it in the adjoining walls. The walls are granite and shillet faced with rubble infill. One room has had all the render stripped back, lime pointed, and a sort of tanked render skirting. This room doesn't have any obvious damp issues but the adjoining room does. This room has got render or plaster with lots of cracks around a meter up. I think there may be some sort of damp-proof panel behind to this height but it was too long ago for me to remember clearly. Much of the damage is probably historic as the walls and roof used to leak and little has been done to this room for decades

Digging up the floor is doable as that's what I did in the barn but it's one helluva lot of work! Also as I had in the barn I suspect the foundation don't go down far so destabilising walls could be an issue. The rest of the downstairs is on suspended floors on timber joists. Not sure of their condition yet but I suspect some rot where they go into the walls.

My current plan is to leave the walls of the lime-pointed room alone but hopefully put a thin UFH system over the top with 25mm insulation. Not much hight to play with here. The room with the suspected rising damp I was thinking of using a plastic membrane behind to 1m sealed to the tar floor. Then insulated plasterboard over the top to hopefully prevent condensate from the thermal bridging. There is more height to play with here so decent levels of insulation under the UFH is an option

Thanks all for your interest
Beau

[Countrypaul]

If water is wicking up through the wall, the reason the room with the exposed tone and lime pointing appears to have no damp could be due to ease of evaporation. If you then cover such a wall with plaster, the water could be absorbed by the plaster rather than evaporating leading to decay of the plaster. This could be made worse if the walls have been pointed with cement mortar. Coverig these type of walls with plastic (e.g. polyurethane insulation boards could make things fine in the short term but lead to bigger problems long term.

I believe there was some discussions about this sort of thing on the old forum which is once again accessable - might be worth reading up about it if you can locate the appropriate threads.

[Beau]

I Coverig these type of walls with plastic (e.g. polyurethane insulation boards could make things fine in the short term but lead to bigger problems long term.

I believe there was some discussions about this sort of thing on the old forum which is once again accessable - might be worth reading up about it if you can locate the appropriate threads.

Yes, I have often read keeping water trapped in the wall is potentially a problem but never really understood why. I don't mind if the wall itself is damp as long as the surfaces I interact with are dry. We completely tanked the inside of our barn like it was a basement with a plastic membrane. The walls are undoubtedly wet behind but after 18 years no water has got through to the inside. Now on the other hand we were able to do a top job in the barn with the membrane going below the slab and having an underfloor soakaway. In the farmhouse, there would be edges to any damp-proof membranes where I guess water might be worse than if left to evaporate over the whole surface.

We have decided to employ an architect who may have a take on all this

Do you have any links to what's stored of the old place?

[Countrypaul]

I Coverig these type of walls with plastic (e.g. polyurethane insulation boards could make things fine in the short term but lead to bigger problems long term.

I believe there was some discussions about this sort of thing on the old forum which is once again accessable - might be worth reading up about it if you can locate the appropriate threads.

Yes, I have often read keeping water trapped in the wall is potentially a problem but never really understood why. I don't mind if the wall itself is damp as long as the surfaces I interact with are dry. We completely tanked the inside of our barn like it was a basement with a plastic membrane. The walls are undoubtedly wet behind but after 18 years no water has got through to the inside. Now on the other hand we were able to do a top job in the barn with the membrane going below the slab and having an underfloor soakaway. In the farmhouse, there would be edges to any damp-proof membranes where I guess water might be worse than if left to evaporate over the whole surface.

We have decided to employ an architect who may have a take on all this

Do you have any links to what's stored of the old place?

Recently the whole of the old forum (minus picture I believe) has appeared on the web courtesy of Jack from the od place: https://navitron-search-app.cloud/categories

There was a recent thread on here about it: https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... f=9&t=3070

[Beau]

Time for a little update.

The architect walked away when he heard how low our budget to renovate was so we are just going to muddle through on our own.

First the big news is we have a working heating system for the first time ever . An ASHP in conjunction with rads. This I did not do myself and left this to a local firm with a good reputation. Its been in around a month and it is very nice having the whole place warm-able for the first time ever. My siblings childhood memories of the farmhouse is being cold and wet much of the time!

We are also double glazed. Nothing exciting just some decent, sliding sash style PVC

I have nearly finished a utility/bathroom. Its on the only walls that did not get the EWI treatment so I have insulated it inside. The plan is to have this as a nice warm room to dry cloths and hang wet coats. It has the new hot tank, a decentralised in wall MVHR unit and hopefully excessive insulation to keep it toasty. Had to take all the render and plaster off the walls as it was just shelling off when I tried to fix to it.

The build up of the walls

25x50mm battens mounted to the wall so they are vertical
25mm PIR between them
50mm PIR over the top and carful foam filing of gaps with foil taping to work as a moisture barrier.

The ceiling is 100mm PIR between the joists and another 50mm underneath.
All dry lined as I couldn't get hold of a plasterer at the time

The floor has got 50mm of XBS Jakoboard which you can tile straight onto

Still needing to make a door and a worktop. I milled some ash boards for the job back in the summer but they are not yet dry enough so another thing for the "to do" list.

As for potential damp issues I am less certain we have rising damp and it could just be condensate forming on the walls near the floor due to thermal bridging. Not seen any signs since the heating system went in but then its been very dry so time will tell.

A selection of pics

[Fintray]

Insulation looking good and just in time with the heating system!