Basement garage tanking?

[bigdry]

Hi all , not sure if this is in he correct section on the forum so apologies if not.

Has anyone ever "tanked" their basement? I have a basement in an old house in Italy that i have inherited. The house is built into the side of mountain and has no dpc. Its walls are very thick but poorly built form quite sandy cement mixture and lots of old sized stones...(the old farmers way it seems there)
One corner especially gets very damp and has issues with the cement render inside failing and failing off.
I have been removing all loose material so it can dry out as much as possible before applying some corrective measures. Now as i don't live there for 48 weeks of the year or so Im under no illusions that Im going to make some swanky "grand design" trendy basement, and spend a fortune.
But Im sure i can with some small outlay improve it massively. so maybe i can leave a car in there without fear of it disappearing between trips.
Has anyone got experience of water proof renders or water proof membranes in a situation like this ? ideally id like to be able to take all the supplies i need over with me in the van in august and start repairs before next winter. thx all

 

[Daz1968]

I would tank all the walls and then dry line them hopefully this will prevent any damp coming through, you may need to do something with the floor as well.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

We tanked the kitchen in our old house, solid sandstone walls with no DPC.
We hacked the old plaster off back to the stonework, put a weakish sand, lime and cement render on the inside to get the wall flat, then two coats of Synthproof, a bitumen based liquid applied with a brush, the second coat was blinded with sand when tacky. This was then plastered as normal and it worked a treat. No damp right up until we moved which was about 12 years after tanking.

 

[the snooper]

If its very bad it may be worth a little more investigation first to see where the water is coming from, I know of a cellar that was tanked out and it stopped the water so well it built up, softened the land around the foundations and the extension started breaking away so would you need to incorporate a sump and pump to get rid of any water that may build up

 

[Shedendman]

Some stone foundations need to be slightly damp to stay firm,silly i know,if they dry out over time the opposite effect happens they crumble.
I would if possible get a structural engineer to have a look at it,as snooper say if water does build up to much you'll need to have this soaked away somehow

 

[brightspark]

u want it totaly tanked .clean back to bare bricks or blocks re point all the joints near enough with sand and cement. paint the wall with ani sulphat then buy a gallon of sbr bonding agent mix some with water 9 parts water 1 part bonding agent , add portland cement and stir till to a paste , then with a stiff paintbrush coat all the walls and floor . buy a 25kg bag of sovereign tanking slurry mix with sbr 2 parts water 1 part sbr . add tanking slurry to a paste and paint on walls job done it can be plastered with hardwall backing plaster then wall finish or multifinish

it dont get any better than this ive done my house with it and the daughters and i work for a sovereign aproved builder who uses it all the time

 

[Shedendman]

But thats over here,the OP is in Italy and has stone not bricks or blocks,yes you can stop water/moisture getting into the cellar/basement but this will still build up outside the skin you've put inside it'll still need to go somewhere,stone is different and not as porous

 

[brightspark]

But thats over here,the OP is in Italy and has stone not bricks or blocks,yes you can stop water/moisture getting into the cellar/basement but this will still build up outside the skin you've put inside it'll still need to go somewhere,stone is different and not as porous

note hese takin the materials with him and it dont matter what the wall is if its stone boulders bricks whatever u can still tank it

 

[kier]

not the same, but I have a house in the south of france with half meter stone and earth in the middle walls no damp course and is shut up for 11 months and was damp, would grow green mould at the base of the walls, these type of walls have to breath , but for me the solution was in the end simple just put some mesh ventilaters in the back and front of the property and left the internal doors open, problem sorted, maybe you could ask any locals to see what they have done, their walls are different to ours and have to be treated differently

 

[Shedendman]

This might explain what i mean a bit better

http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/damp/damp_cellars.htm

In short,our old house(in croydon i might add not on a mountain) had flint with old lime mortar foundations although the so called basement was about 4' deep i wanted to store stuff down there,my idea was the same as the OP tank it out.
But as i inquired about this i was told NO,the so called cellars in the row of houses were built like this to act as a soak away from water build up,if i did tank it no matter what way i would get a build up of water/moisture outside this,thus causing rising damp further up mine or next doors walls etc.
Same thing could be said for the OP house,his cellar may act as a soakaway from the main house

 

[Shedendman]

maybe you could ask any locals to see what they have done, their walls are different to ours and have to be treated differently

I agree,ask around,see what others have done,its Italy remember the Colosseum might be still standing,but that tower in Pisa looks dodgy,lol

 

[the snooper]

I agree,ask around,see what others have done,its Italy remember the Colosseum might be still standing,but that tower in Pisa looks dodgy,lol

used to be vertical before they tanked out the basement

 

[Shedendman]

 

[brightspark]

well maybee they arent fussy on stopping damp so anything will do.depends if u want a proper job doing

 

[brightspark]

if the leaning tower of pizza was over here it would have collapsed years ago they loaded one side up with about 80 tonnes of lead weights and steel cables and the pikeys would have pinched it

 

[the snooper]

if the leaning tower of pizza was over here it would have collapsed years ago they loaded one side up with about 80 tonnes of lead weights and steel cables and the pikeys would have pinched it

very true they have since bored under the opposite side to the lean and straightened it up a little

 

[Shedendman]

Like my old house,his cellar is stopping damp,by soaking away water from the main building,so in true they've done a proper job

 

[dannyp]

did 2 jobs that involved tanking when used to work on the building before picking up a welding torch.

if your going to tank a room, prep is everything. 1st job we did it was all scraped and wire brushed back by hand. 2nd one we blasted.

the tanking stuff the rep descibed as like PVA but latex based. sprayed the walls and floor with it to start with. any holes that look like they need building up or fixing before main attack got reapired useing much but with the tanking compound in the mix as an admix. then 2 coats of tanking compound / cement slury on walls and floor

floor was then screeded again with said tanking compound in as an admix. walls renderd agin useing tanking compound as an admix. after all that plaster as normal.

never put a screw or nail in the wall and should be all good

 

[pedrobedro]

if the leaning tower of pizza was over here it would have collapsed years ago they loaded one side up with about 80 tonnes of lead weights and steel cables and the pikeys would have pinched it

I reckon it would have got eaten before it fell over

 

[500e]

Here indoors was a farmers daughter & lived in an OLD farm house, when we got married the one thing she insisted on was we NEVER bought an old house After 47 years I think!! I never have.
But if you tank especially on a hill why cant you build in a drainage system & tank over it ?