Damp walls-again-sorry

[Blair]

Have done a really long archive search but cant find an answer.Our house is an 1850 ish town house, straight onto pavement, in Northern France. The front interior walls are damp up to about 18". we asked a builder about an injectable damp proof course and were told that it is not available in France (?). In terms of the cause, I imagine it is penetration, there is no build up of soil outside (obv. as on the pavement!) and the house was occupied and has central heating so shouldnt be condensation. I thought that painting with a anti-damp paint (from international) inside and repainting the outside with a waterproof paint might help, but thinking about it, am I then sealing all the moisture in and will the bricks rot?
Many thanks in advance.

[Soleil]

Sorry I haven't any other details, but I have seen kits,in DIY shops, for injecting walls to prevent damp. It seems to consist of drilling holes, inserting a funnel type thing and letting the liquid soak into the walls at regular intervals along the wall.
Someone on this site is bound to have used it and may be able to recommend or otherwise.
Jeff

[Mazan]

The injection technique certainly is available in France though for some odd reason that I don't understand builders never seem to do it. It's left to specialised companies that you will find if you look for humidit in the Yellow Pages or your local free ads paper or here http://search.ke.voila.fr/S/voila?kw=humidite

These companies aren't cheap. As you are very close to the UK you may prefer to hire the pump and buy the product in the UK, bring the lot over and DIY it, or have a French builder do it for you. This will probably save you 50% or more.

Your damp is probably rising damp by the way. Once the walls are treated you will still need to strip off all the plaster and re-plaster them with a special additive in the mix.

There are several threads about this problem in the archives, including one that refers to a technique that involves using an electronic device.

[Richardbk]

You can hire the quipment and DIY. E.g http://www.kiloutou.fr/ it is called a 'pompe a injection'

e.g -> nos machines -> particuliers -> soudres... -> suivant (at bottom of page). it is on the next page.

If I remember from the catalogue, they also sell the stuff to inject.

However, I would take advice depending on the composition and quality of the wall. You don't want to blow the wall apart !

regs

Richard