The first problem and how we solved it.

The first real problem we have found so far manifested itself a week ago.
When I went back to sea in early March MrsB went to the UK for a month and on return found that in the corner shown a “damp patch” (stop sniggering) had appeared on the new scalpings.

The edges were dry, the wall is dry, there are no leaks in the roof, there are no pipes underneath where we dug down 







When you look at this photograph which I had not studied until MrsB sent the previous one, you can clearly see the darker soil but is was not really visible to the naked eye and didn’t feel damp or look damp when we dug down.






There are a couple of possibilities, Next door has a leak that is seeping through under the ground, Until they turn up in late May I wont be able to check, or there is an underground small spring slowly seeping up to us. We have had no rain to speak of since the scalpings were laid. 

Now I am being forced to think about it a small history of “nothing to worry about or “it will be alright when we get the roof done” springs t into sharp focus. 

When we first bought the place and in the couple of years before we started work on it the earth floor in old doorway (where the wine rack now is was often a bit damp. I put that down to the leaking lean-to roof at the back. 

When we dug down the lounge floor and had laid the gravel then the sand to get a smooth surface for the membrane to sit on I remember that over near that corner it had after a few days developed a bit of verdigris (sort of green tinge) but put that down to the sand holding some dampness and not getting any sun. 

I noticed that when I dug down to put the concrete plinth in for the wine rack that the earth was darker but it didn’t feel “damp” and the walls had no damp in them either. Funny that now with the full benefit of hindsight, the signs were there all along and proof that experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

I am going to do three things, the first is that I am going to ask the key holder of next door to let me into their garage (which is the other side of the wall) to see if they have a leak. It would be the easiest and most convenient of all the possibilities.

Number two is that on the outside in the neighbours garden I am going to dig a trench next to my wall and run a drain along to take away any excess water and run it into a soak away on my ground. This is a precautionary belt and braces measure because if you look closely at the next picture you can see where there appears to be some damp in his wall. That corner it should be stressed never gets any sun at all. 

Where my wall meets his white one is (when you look at my kitchen photo) to the right of the wine rack so there is some possibility of water travel.





Number three is that I am going to dig up the scalpings that are damp and then dig a small trench further down ion the stone underneath and then inlay some of the drainage pipe shown and run it out of the kitchen door into a soak away at the front. 





I may have to T piece the drainage pipe to run along the direction the water seems to have followed. And get it to go where I want it.

So that was my plan and I hired in the small digger again with the smallest trenching bucket and dug in some drainage pipe running along the middle wall and out to the front to a soakaway.
It sems to have solved the problem .