Sealing/waterproofing old external walls, options?

gino2010

Hi guys,

Just my second post so hopefully I've got this in the right section...

I am looking for any advice/information anyone might be able to give with regards to my options here. My mum lives in a 2 story farmhouse built in the late 20's or early 30's. The walls are cast, although not very well, basically loads of stones and rocks used with poor quality concrete (apparently a lot of lime in the sand they used or something like that), about 18'' thick, and the external surfaces were plastered. The house has always had cracks on the surface of the plaster as long as I remember, two of the walls got so bad in the 80's that they were re-plastered but the cracks eventually came back, we used to just try to seal them up with silicon before every new paint job. In the last couple of years, water has been seeping through into the house in a few places, very noticeable after a few days of rain, plasterboard inside gets wet and wall paper peals off etc..
What could be done to provide a reasonably cheap solution to this? I understand external insulation would probably be the best solution, but the money is just not there. I was wondering about Evertex or something like that, but I have read some very negative reviews. Some kind of spray on sealer? I really don't know, any advice is greatly appreciated.

BryanF

Hi & welcome,
What you describe, is a rouble stone wall Typical of Ireland Pre mainstream concrete. If you search for threads with lime rendering, you'll be the right track. Trying to seal up the walls as you describe may infact cause things such as internal damp/ mould. The type of paint and plaster may contribute this but there is also the question of external detailing around chimney eaves, windows and ground level. IMO you need a good plasterer who is familiar with lime.
Next question is what's the ventilation and insulation of your home like?

gino2010

Cheers for the reply Bryan.
Rouble stone walls may be too good a name for it, rubble walls more like it when I compare with google images! Almost sure they were not hand build, there was wooden castings for the walls made (forget the proper term?) and that was filled with whatever they could get there hands on basically..
Regarding insulation, I put insulation in the attic last year for the first time ever, just the rolls between the joists, then crossways across the top again. There was some sort of attempt at dry-lining the external walls about 25 years ago which is basically dry-lining boards fixed to the walls via 1/2'' battons, no insulation in between. New windows were fitted about 5 years ago which have vents in the frame, no vents built into the walls or anything. The eves in the attic are open to allow air circulation.

Territo

Hi,
In relation to your problem with dampness,cold etc I have a typical 20's farmhouse (in Tipp)which I got treated with Evertex in or around 6yrs ago.
It took about 6 months to dry out the house but once dry it never came back and as it is breathable I had no issues with black spotting etc.My house is also an awful lot warmer now......hope this helps but pity I didn't see this post a year ago

gino2010

Hi, thanks for the reply, we have had an engineer out since and decided the best way forward was to go with external insulation, costly but hopefully worth it!

Territo

Hi, like everything out there it has pros and cons.
I could have gone with external but I did not want to deface my Farmhouse and modernise it,I just dont like the system for my own reasons but thats my personal choice.
Hope all goes well with your project.