Change of plans: basements

[Rogue]

I think the fact you are going to make it a usable space will make a huge difference. As for the sealing of the floor that is not an issue, thats why they have DPM :-). If you are worried about ventilation, stick some rads in, put some vents in the floor to equalise the moisture and the good OLD modern heating will sort the rest out. Forget plastering just caulk and tape the joints, a bit of sanding and your done. Insulating between the beams go for 50mm so you have useful joist still that you can hang things up in. I reckon you could get an X4 size machine down there no probs.

I noticed that with the attic, the atmosphere changed massively once we got it back into use.

My wife is still complaining that the whole house now smells like basement after I had the door open for a few hours today, hopefully with cleaning it out, regular use and fresh air that should change. I said earlier there was no noticeable smell suggesting damp - it turns out that all those years of chainsmoking clearly did kill my sense of smell because the wife clearly disagrees with my assessment!

Now, what do you mean by "rads" and vents in the floor? Are you suggesting venting through the floorboards into the front room?


This is a rough side view for visualisation, it might help my ramblings make a bit more sense!



Edited to add: X4? If I was flush enough to throw money at one of those I'd have enough to just pay a builder to come and do it for me

[Swarfing]

I see what you mean about venting into the lounge, swarf smell does not go down to great.

rad = radiator

Just work with what you got, street side will be fine. You could look for a one way vent to keep the wind blowing in and put a vent in the access door. The place would never be so warm :-)

[Rogue]

I see what you mean about venting into the lounge, swarf smell does not go down to great.

rad = radiator

Just work with what you got, street side will be fine. You could look for a one way vent to keep the wind blowing in and put a vent in the access door. The place would never be so warm :-)

Now there's a blindingly obvious idea that didn't occur to me - vent on the basement door! Then it's just a matter of ensuring that air is mostly going through in the direction we want. It would also make tackling the (alleged) smell very important.

Taking control of that flipping great hole is in line with some other really helpful suggestions I was given, along with possibly using a bathroom vent-type fan.

So, it seems as if step one will be scrubbing the place out and putting together some kind of vent arrangement for that hole in the wall to keep the outside air "outside". It has been suggested that repointing might be a good idea, I assume that holds true whatever steps two onwards might be. That means step one needs to include getting rid of the random paint application!

If that makes the place a bit more palatable then I can convince the wife to let me move to step two!

[Swarfing]

meant to say "stop the wind from blowing in". I have to be honest, i don't know what is but i've always wanted a basement.

[Rogue]

meant to say "stop the wind from blowing in". I have to be honest, i don't know what is but i've always wanted a basement.

You are more than welcome to take mine if you can replace it with a decent brick workshop!

[Rogue]

Given the weather I've not thrown myself fully into this; somehow I get the feeling the middle of a snowpocalypse isn't the time for airing and cleaning basements.

At this stage I'm not going to touch tanking. After thinking about it and re-reading through some of these posts, my plan is to clean it, limit the external vent to keep the cold air out, add some insulation in the ceiling to keep warm air in and give the walls a few layers of limewash. This will most likely be coupled with some dehumidification system once the external vent is sorted. Some heating facility would probably be a good idea too, though it would be nice if it isn't needed!

I'm currently attacking a corner to test out the process while I'm waiting for better weather. A bit of light elbow grease brings me down to red brick but there still seems to be the remains of paint or something that doesn't shift. Lightly chipping with something sharp doesn't seem to elicit much of a response. I guess it doesn't help that the surface is very rough so it is difficult to try and scrape under the crud to shift it.

I want to get rid of this without damaging the brick, cleaning it back fully so that is can be painted later with limewash.



Some of it almost looks... cementlike. Grey, solid, doesn't respond to scrubbing. The white stuff visible here is the paint or whatever it is that I'm also trying to shift.



Is this just a matter of scrubbing harder with wire brush or is there a smarter way to approach this? Or do I even need to do this? I'm assuming that I do, but then again I assume a lot of things

[D.C.]

That looks more like rust, is that a rsg at the top of the wall? As long as you get all the loose crap off you should be ok to stick a few coats on top without any problems, if you spend weeks wire brushing the crap out of the brickwork you will just damage the bricks. You might want to google 'wirebrush brick' before you go any further it is pretty much universally condemned. Just using a hard yard broom and then a soft floor broom then a good hoovering should get rid most of the crap use a scraper to get rid anything flaking off. Anything that doesn't shift after that is probably going to rip chunks of the brick surface off if you try to remove it so just let it be. If you have any mould/fungal growth give the place a good nuking and then stick an antifungal undercoat on.

Might also want to get the dehumidifier in and give the beam a bit of tlc, steel is much better at holding up your house than rust.