Hi Gang,

sorry not been on for a while done a fair bit of work but lapsed in taking photo's. Getting to grips with the breached tanking on the adjoining wall under the stairs. I had stripped  all the tanking 2" of hard concrete of the wall by mid November. The inside staircase stretcher had been concreted into the tanking at the base so the damp came through at this point and has rotted of the bottom of the staircase I just stopped then because I was a bit fed-up.

Anyway its the new year and its back to work I've started to chasing the concrete out of the mortar joints between the stone. I plan to repoint this with lime. Its a bit cold to do this now I know its inside but if the lime mortar freezes before it sets its useless. So I'll do the pointing in March.

I've decided to use a passive tanking to solve th damp problem using a dimpled membrane and a drain at the base to allow the water to come through and drain away. The barrier formed by the concrete tanking allowed pressure to build up with washed out the lime mortar in the base of the wall in some places. The membrane I want to use is transparent so I can inspect the wall and check for damage periodically. It is fixed by plastic plugs that you can screw timber studwork to the plaster board the wall. I think I will make removable T&G panels so I can check on the tanking. I'm only going up to the level of the existing tanking above that I will leave a bare stone lime mortared wall. I have to replace the staircase and the supporting floor joist ass that is also rotten where it was concreted into the wall.

What else have I done well I replaced the flashing on the porch as it was leaking and we had a flood but forgot to take any picture. To be fair it was raining with hailstones and I soaked through but had to get the job done so didn't take any photo's. I will take some pics and post them when the weather is better.

That's about it folks.

KBO