Old Manse,

Aberlady

Possibly the smallest piece of work we’ve done, but no less important, we were asked to provide some advice on how to reduce or eliminate issues of dampness in the sunken ground floor of a beautiful sandstone building in East Lothian.

A quick inspection revealed the most likely cause of the dampness to be hard paving slabs running right up to the face of the lime-rendered stone walls - preventing rainwater from draining away properly and causing the stone to absorb it.

The solution was to carefully dig a trench around the perimeter of the house, install a land drain and then fill the trench with free-draining gravel - making sure to keep the top of the gravel at least 150mm below floor level.

The owners monitored this for over twelve months and reported that the dampness in the walls had reduced to the point where it was no longer an issue.

All this without a trace of chemical injections or waterproof plaster in sight!