workshop damp

[wallace]

This workshop was built by me maybe 17 years ago, It was constructed using trench blocks. Their is no damp coarse in the blocks. There is no guttering on the back of it. The back wall is rendered on the outside.
I want to make it a bit more machine friendly and help keep the rust monster at bay.





Everywhere is dry, but the back wall gets damp. Obviously I need some guttering.
I'm about to start laying the wadkin flooring I got a few years ago. They are pine end grain blocks which I intend to lay the old way in bitumen.

Would it help reduce dampness if i painted the bottom portion of wall with bitumen. I was contemplating putting bead & but panelling around the bottom half, but I thought it might compound the damp issue by restricting air.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated

 

[Mike G]

Get the basics right outside, and the inside should be fine. You need to sort the guttering, and you need to get the ground level down below the slab level. If you can't do the latter all round, then, and only then, we might have to look at other measures.

I certainly wouldn't be cladding it, as that only restricts ventilation, which is the other half of the anti-mould equation. I would do the gutters and the ground level, clean down thoroughly with a fungicide, and then get as much air moving through the building as possible during the spring and summer.

A damp course almost certainly makes no difference in these circumstances.

 

[wallace]

Thanks Mike, I've also got issues with a timber extension to this workshop, water has been getting into the wall over winter, I hadnt noticed until I found some cupboards that had been attached to the wall were on the floor. It was lined out with big sheets of conti board, which are all soggy mush now. I'm not looking forward to sorting that.