Cement or Clay?

[andyps]

I have been investigating the cellar in our house (approximately 150 years old in parts) and in the cellar, between the slate rocks which make up the walls there is a clay like structure which I guess holds things together. My question is, would it have been clay originally, or is it cement which has gone off over the years - there is quite a lot of water in there!

If it was cement, any great ideas about how I clean out the clay and replace it? I guess a large syringe type implement would be ideal for putting mortar between the rocks, but don't know if such a thing exists.

All suggestions appreciated!!

[Cassis]

If it is pure clay, it should have a very, very fine texture when damp and rubbed between your fingers and it should not crumble.  No gritty bits. 

If gritty it could be an old sand and chaux mix gone off in the damp, maybe?

What is the source (no pun intended) of the damp, do you know?  Is it just general penetration from the surrounding earth?

There is a thread here where I described how I raked out and refilled our stonework.  But you might have to do something about the damp first.

[andyps]

Thanks for the reply Cassis - your thread looks interesting - I will read it fully when off line (not got Broadband here!).

Our damp is coming from the surrounding land - we have a spring water source coming out of the hills just across the road from us, someof which does seem to find its way into our cellar. I will do something about getting the water out, but in reality probably can't do much about stopping it coming in.

Cheers

Andy

[legs_akimbo]

Any type of basement however damp can be successfully turned into a habbitable living space by a process known as tanking, there are products on the market that can be applied to the surfaces of the walls, rangeing in price according to how good they are. Alternately and to my mind the ultimate way to tank a basement is to have it rendered. This is not your everyday coat of sand and cement muck however but a build up of coats mixed to various ratios and applied in a certain way which renders (exscuse the pun) a basement as dry as a bone with nice smooth walls which can be painted. As for repointing between the stones you can buy a repointing gun with a nozzle that is filled with mortar and works via a pump action.

[andyps]

The repointing gun is something I will look into as that sounds like the sort of thing I was interested in - do you know where you can buy them?

I have read about tanking for cellars and need to get some professional advice on it really, but my concern is that the water which currently goes into my cellar has to go somewhere else - and if it goes upwards it then gets to the ends of joist and floorboards which might cause even more problems than a small amount of water on the floor. We found out that a couple of times in the last 20 years the cellar has flooded when the small river at the end of our garden has got very high - if I tank the cellar tanking on these occasions I would have an indoor swimming pool for a while I guess! 

[legs_akimbo]

I cant seem to be able to find any pointing guns to show you at the moment, will search again later and find a link. The worry you have regarding diverting the water can be alleviated by incorporating what are termed french drains around the perimiter of your property. In essence theese are 4" perforated pipes laid on crushed gravel that divert the water build up away from the house and into small soakaways in the garden. I am not overly familiar with them having never installed one but someone here may have a more detailed explanation, or you could ask on this forum where you would also get more info on the pointing gun that could be purchased from here also.

 

http://www.screwfix.com/talk/index.jspa?forumTab=forums&ts=74473

[SIMO]

please

 would you happen to know the  name (in france)of the various mixes needed or england.

iv only ever done  pointing by hand and never seen these guns you are talking about ,could you help there to.

regards

[andyps]

[quote user="legs_akimbo"]

I cant seem to be able to find any pointing guns to show you at the moment, will search again later and find a link. The worry you have regarding diverting the water can be alleviated by incorporating what are termed french drains around the perimiter of your property. In essence theese are 4" perforated pipes laid on crushed gravel that divert the water build up away from the house and into small soakaways in the garden. I am not overly familiar with them having never installed one but someone here may have a more detailed explanation, or you could ask on this forum where you would also get more info on the pointing gun that could be purchased from here also.

 

http://www.screwfix.com/talk/index.jspa?forumTab=forums&ts=74473

[/quote]

Thanks for that - I have found the item, it is http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=45910&ts=56546 - not bad at £24.99 so i will probably purchase one before my next trip to france - would have been really useful last time but you live and learn.

As for drainage around the house, this is something I am planning to do anyway. I have seen the channels with a grating over the top in Bricolage so was wondering about that rather than burying a pipe in the ground. Probabaly going to wait and see what the water situation looks like in wetter weather before I decide what to do - the cellar was so covered in mess generally it was difficult to see what was happening when we were there in January, but I have cleaned it pretty thoroughly so I should be able to tell where any water is coming in - hopefully not too much!!

Cheers

Andy