Damp-proofing a cellar

[loltim]

What's the best way to do this? Can we just put a layer of damp-proof down and pour concrete on top? It's quite an old house, built in 1906 iirc, and it just looks like it's brick on top of soil? they get quite damp!

I'm considering plaster boarding the whole cellar so obviously I'd quite like it to be dry down there.

Would a cheaper option be to just seal the bricks and paint with garage floor paint? Would that even work? Just seems a shame to pour concrete on top of the original brick floor.

 

[Maccapacca]

Not a good idea just to seal it up, they were made to be porous and free flowing usually unless you had a drainage system on the outside say a land drain around the perimeter and the brickwork bitumened.

The proper way is a sump pump and egg crate system providing a cavity for any moisture to drain down to and be pumped away, walls and floors.

Is there moisture there now?

 

[Maccapacca]

http://www.riw.co.uk/Products/DrainedCavitySystems.aspx

One of those depending on the amount of water coming through.

 

[loltim]

It gets damp, it doesn't get wet enough to form a puddle, even in the middle of winter.

 

[Maccapacca]

You need the 2nd one I guess

 

[PapaLazaru]

You'll need to tank it to get it properly dry but it costs about £60 per square metre to get someone to do it.

 

[bitslice]

A relative of mine just painted the lot with bitumen paint, still dry 15 years later

 

[Nightglow]

It gets damp, it doesn't get wet enough to form a puddle, even in the middle of winter.

The way I've done that job in the past is to remove the bricks, dig out the soil a bit, so you retain the headroom & pour a proper concrete floor with a dpm, you could always then relaid the original bricks on the new floor & seal them.

Just relaying the floor would probably solve 99.9% of the dampness, & ventilation the other 0.1% percent.

Did one many years ago, the owner she number every brick, then took photo's before removing a single brick.

Several tons of soil was then removed by hand, I did hire a conveyor, made some of the job easier, to allow for the new subase & concrete.

 

[ANDARIAL]

You'll need to tank it to get it properly dry but it costs about £60 per square metre to get someone to do it.

Seconded you want it tanked
not cheap but better in the long run.What you are thinking of is not a quick cheap option,concrete floor dpm,tanking etc.cost all adds up

 

[Nightglow]

Laid a proper concrete floor with dpm first, give the concrete a few months to dry out,then see if the cellar needs tanking.