Hi all,

Got a bit of a problem with me brickwork / dampcourse(?) which i'm hoping a PF bricky or similar may be able to help me with.

Basically my house has a garage on the side which has been converted to an office and another single garage has been put built on the front (5 years ago). Where they have converted the original garage to the office they have raised the floor up (only 2/3 of the original garage is the office), insulated, concreted, screeded and put a stud wall in between.

Here is the problem!! Since the heavy rain last week I noticed a bit of water coming through the side of the wall, showing just where the floor is raised (original garage) which has gradually got worse, especially after last nights rain. Its covered the garage floor about 3foot x 3foot so a fair amount. Last night i cut a piece out of the laminate flooring in the office and chiselled a chunk of concrete out of that same corner (opposite side to the stud wall where its coming in), gone down past the insulation out to the inside of the brick wall of the garage and its wet there as well :S, not soaking but enough to be concerned. After this went to the far corner of the garage at the back, did the same thing and its also wet, although not as wet as the other one.

Any ideas what I should do next? Obviously I presume I need to go round to the outside of the wall and look around for tell tail signs of water coming in but what if I cant find anything?

Sorry if its a bad description but will do a basic diagram in a mo!!

Cheers
Chris

 

Heres a spastic diagram of what i'm talking about if its any help!!



Chris

 

How strange i have exactly the same problem! My garage is like to single garages inline with each other. Double length but only single width (oh matron!)

The water coming in is only on the two far corners or would be the two sides of your office. I've had a good look round and came to the conclusion that it is socking through the brick and that the wall needs re pointing. The garage wall takes the brunt of any weather and it's all i can think it to be. The roof is fine, i've not dug a hole in the floor but as it's only when it rains heavily or consistantly for a couple of days it must be getting in through the brick's.

I'm no brickie though or DIY friendly person though really

What you can buy is some sort of sealing paint from B&Q and the like and paint over the bricks or, get a large sheet of laminate and cover the wall with it. Really i just think it needs repointing but i've not got round to getting it done. I just leave 2 de-humidifer's on when it rains and it sorts it.

Be interested in a hearing other peoples views

 

when they did the original cover up of the floor, did they put down any plastic membranes?

that would be a start

 

Ah cool so im not the only one with the problem!!!! Also what i've noticed is that on the outside of the garage is next doors side garden path. The concrete path is at a higher level than my garage but there is about a 8" gap in between her path and my garage (my damp course is higher though). Could it be water running off of her path, into the 8" gap and soaking through? I havent investigated on the outside yet as it was pishing down last night but was wondering if I could fill the 8" gap with concrete?! (remember i'm not a brickie!!).

Chris

 

Not sure mate, I dont think its anything to do with the raised floor as its coming through at the original level when the original garage was built back in 1985!

 

i had the same problem with mine, ronseal waterproofing thing like that fella on the advert said, does the job

 

thomsons water seal?

 

My parents had a simlar problem with a west facing wall that gets all the wind and rain on it, but it would only leak after a few days of prolonged rain. They paid out and had it properly repointed as the pointing was looking bad after years of weather errosion but that made no difference, so they then got some of that brick water/weather proof stuff (ronseal or simlar make) and for 2-3 years now the problems cured.