Repairing foundations

imported_seanie

I live in a city center cottage in Dublin Ireland...and just discovered that our bedroom extention has really bad damp in the (outside) corner....I went outside and inspected the area... to my horror i found that the "cowboy" builders had not cemented or finished the lower corner....I removed some rubble and found earth....this is causing me lots of stress....how can I seal this area???....the gap is 8 inches by 4 inches and is between the ground level....it has a cement path wraping round the corner....I don't want to start a major job by breaking up the path....any one got any opinions on this ???? any advise will be greatly appriciated....

Sean

MgMopar

Sean

I don't think this is a DIY. but it doesn't sound like you could actually hurt it to bad. It would seem if they made the original construction that poor you can only help. I would think the best think would be to clear all the loose dirt and debris from the bad area. Build a form with wood and use a free flowing concrete mix such as hydraulic concrete to hopefully fill in your voids and give some structure back to the wall. I would think after this is set it would have to be better then what you have now. After if you still are getting moisture threw you will at least have a surface you could apply a water sealer to.

Make sure you have the ground grade slopping away from the structure as well. And gutters and down pipe are always good too to help keep the water from the building as well

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Mgmopar