Brick is obviously an amazing building material, but also prone to dampness, particularly where brick houses are surrounded mostly by concrete, so there is nowhere for surface water to move.
Recently I was tasked with a standard Brick house with a big damp problem. Not an unusual sight at all, but underneath the structural timber of the house was starting to rot in places it made contact with the brick.
There was also a huge amount of cracking on the ground, an indication of a serious damp problem, caused by the soil going from very wet to very dry rapidly. My concern was that the cracks were huge near the piles, which might one day affect their structural integrity.
Most of the obvious damp was on the timber, and around the base of the house where the brick made contact with the ground.
The customer needed these problems resolved in the most cost affective way possible.
On the lower brickwork and where the timber and brick made contact I painted on a rubber waterpoofing agent. My fave product for this is Masons Hydro Seal, but in this case I used a less expensive but similar product from Bunnings Warehouse, which has appeared to work very well.
The plan was also that an expertly installed moisture barrier would at least slow down the rate at which the soil beneath it goes from dry to wet to dry, so the cracks might not be so intents.
All of the we areas were covered with the waterproofing membrane and sealed over with the moisture barrier. Within a week the customer reported the inside of their house smelling noticeably less damp, and I was happy to install some security window stays, so they can have the windows partially opened when they go out.
Great to add them to my list of 100% happy customers so far.
