Advice wanted on work done to alliviate damp

[Fishwalker]

Hi

I've posted in the trade talk forum the following link, but am being asked there to ask in this forum, about whether it is fine that the replacement 'packing wood' 'pan wood' installed between the physical damp course and bricks above, is a remedy to resolve the rising damp we have in a corner of our internal wall? It's a 110yr old terrace.

It seems ok to me but then it's only just been done last week so only time will tell if it works but the wood used is tanilised and wrapped in black damp proof course plastic type material with the joist ends also protected with this.

Also advice greatly appreciated regarding resulting invoice that charges for chemical damp course that wasn't installed and guarantee that states it was. I asked the guy about whether he would knock off the charge but he said no because the replacement pan wood was a bigger job than anticipated (still done in time frame he stated and I'd said it would probably be rotten along the 1.5m strip of wall.

Please read thread and see photos within it.

https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/...-done-different-to-quote.510709/#post-4237757

 

[^woody^]

Any chance of bullet points?

 

[oldbutnotdead]

I still have no idea what pan wood is or what function it performs.

Your pictures are interesting- it appears that the original floor level in the room with the black floor tiles was quite a lot higher than it is now (the holes in the brickwork look like old joist pockets for a suspended timber floor, presumably the floor under those tiles is concrete). If that length of timber wasn't visible before he started the job then his original plan of chemical DPC would have made sense, once he's exposed the job and seen that timber he's gone for plan B of a physical barrier instead- and he hasn't fully wrapped it, he's left the edge exposed so it can breathe (though breathing behind the skirting may not work all that well)

So any warranty that mentions chemical DPC is worthless. An insurance-backed warranty that says 'if damp returns within 25 years we'll come and fix it' and doesn't mention chemicals will be worth having. You ought to pay him for time and materials- basically knock off £50 for the chemicals and maybe £10 for your posh socket that he broke) and call it quits. He's left a gap between plaster/render and floor which is correct, give that fresh plaster time to dry out (if you get bored of looking at pink, paint it with the cheapest emulsion in the world heavily diluted)

 

[Fishwalker]

I still have no idea what pan wood is or what function it performs.

Your pictures are interesting- it appears that the original floor level in the room with the black floor tiles was quite a lot higher than it is now (the holes in the brickwork look like old joist pockets for a suspended timber floor, presumably the floor under those tiles is concrete). If that length of timber wasn't visible before he started the job then his original plan of chemical DPC would have made sense, once he's exposed the job and seen that timber he's gone for plan B of a physical barrier instead- and he hasn't fully wrapped it, he's left the edge exposed so it can breathe (though breathing behind the skirting may not work all that well)

So any warranty that mentions chemical DPC is worthless. An insurance-backed warranty that says 'if damp returns within 25 years we'll come and fix it' and doesn't mention chemicals will be worth having. You ought to pay him for time and materials- basically knock off £50 for the chemicals and maybe £10 for your posh socket that he broke) and call it quits. He's left a gap between plaster/render and floor which is correct, give that fresh plaster time to dry out (if you get bored of looking at pink, paint it with the cheapest emulsion in the world heavily diluted)

Thanks for replying.

The room with black floor tiles is the kitchen and is about 1ft above ground level. It is a suspended wooden floor not concrete. We had to replace rotten joists under there when we redid the kitchen 4 years ago.

The room beyond the door is the dining room and that is about 3ft above ground with suspended wooden floor.

The joist ends you see I think are the joists ends from the dining room and he has wrapped those in black damp proof material.

When they came to quote, you couldn't see the wall plate wood as the skirting was in place and that's when they said it would need chemical dpc injecting.

I showed them the rotten wall plate from the dining room side by lifting a few floorboards. You could only see about 3ft of rotten wood due to the joists.

His son said it was all fine to replace and they'd do so probably with treated timber wrapped in plastic to stop it rotting again. They said it could be packed out with slate alternatively.

On viewing the wall from kitchen side on the day of the job, and hacking off the plaster, they said they wouldn't chemical inject because there was no where to do so without it ending up above skirting level but that that didn't matter because the rotten wood was the cause of the damp patch and probably due to the water table rising (dry Summer? ) and or that it was due to incorrect Browning or bonding plaster and Polly filler they'd found on that wall holding in damp that had gone down into this wall plate.

At that point I wryly said "so if there's no chemical dpc being done, i assume that's knocked off the bill them?" To which he stuttered and mumbled and said something like "well the wood took a lot more work so the price still stands". I then lost all assertiveness and said "oh ok".

We had thinned down the white emulsion when we painted the skimmed wall 4 years ago but he said who ever had painted it had not thinned out enough and it was this peeling further up.