Mike.C
Established Member
As some of you will know due to health reasons for years now I have been unable to really get into the workshop, but in the last few weeks due to the improvement in the drugs/treatment I take, things have improved greatly and so I have started to get back to the land of the living, and will hopefully be able to finally CONTRIBUTE something to the forum. I seemed to have taken a lot from this forum but hardly given anything back.
While I am at it I would like to thank members like Philly who have helped me tremendously in the background.
One of the things that I need advice on is lighting for the WIP photos and some reviews I am supposed to be doing. I just cannot seem to get it right, even though there was 8 florescence tubes put up a few years ago. (26ftx14ft).
But today while trying to sort the workshop out I came across an even bigger problem and that is damp at one end.
If I explain about the workshop it might help aid in any advice.
It is 2 storey (both floors the same size) and before it was bombed in the war used to be a house (although unusable it still has 3 fireplaces). It was originally made of granite and half of this is still in place. At sometime in the past it was rebuilt into a workshop using bricks at the sides and for some reason concrete blocks on top of the granite at the front. The rear walls are all still granite on both floors. They also put a flat roof on the building, and I suppose to cover up the difference in building materials they pebble dashed the whole thing
One of the only problems with the building is where it is situated, which is about 5 feet below our house, which means the garden/patio is 5 feet up one wall of the workshop (the other 3 walls are clear) and this is the wall that is damp.
I did have a bit of a damp problem (on the same wall) outside a few years ago and a couple of crumbling bricks inside but once they fixed a few cracks in the render that appeared to have cured the problem.
The wall that is now damp has a bench built into it's full width, which although made of 6"x"2 (4 wide) and really solid had been used as a mechanics workbench and had oil or some type of fluid soaked into it, and even after planing a fair bit off was still ruined, so I covered the top with 18mm MDF which has given it a great surface to work on. So I was then going to build in some cupboards underneath and because a lot of the lime plaster under the bench had fallen off and it looked rubbish I lined the wall with the same MDF boards, and I was going to make doors out of the same and line the rest of the walls in ply.
My health then took a turn for the worse and so thats how it was left until today, when after moving machines, tools, and other stuff that had been stored both on top and under the bench I found black and white mould in the corners of the bench (on top and underneath) and white mould going up the wall in a few places for about 2 feet above the bench, and it really smells damp.
I was talking to one of the neighbors who said that an old boy who owned the house years ago ran his garage business from there and every time he stored a lot of stuff under the bench he got the same problem, but when he left it clear and it dried out he never had anymore problems, no mould, not even a smell.
It looks like whoever did the building never did any damp proofing outside between the garden and the bricks. The trouble is to do anything about it now would be very hard and expensive because theres 6 inches of concrete under the patio.
I know I have to remove the MDF and let it dry out, but do I then just leave it clear with apparently no more problems, which there wasn't before I put the MDF on. Tank it, which will then allow me to use the space, or is there something better I can do?
I will take some photos of the problem if you think it is worth it but as I said the lighting is not very good.
Cheers
Mike
While I am at it I would like to thank members like Philly who have helped me tremendously in the background.
One of the things that I need advice on is lighting for the WIP photos and some reviews I am supposed to be doing. I just cannot seem to get it right, even though there was 8 florescence tubes put up a few years ago. (26ftx14ft).
But today while trying to sort the workshop out I came across an even bigger problem and that is damp at one end.
If I explain about the workshop it might help aid in any advice.
It is 2 storey (both floors the same size) and before it was bombed in the war used to be a house (although unusable it still has 3 fireplaces). It was originally made of granite and half of this is still in place. At sometime in the past it was rebuilt into a workshop using bricks at the sides and for some reason concrete blocks on top of the granite at the front. The rear walls are all still granite on both floors. They also put a flat roof on the building, and I suppose to cover up the difference in building materials they pebble dashed the whole thing
One of the only problems with the building is where it is situated, which is about 5 feet below our house, which means the garden/patio is 5 feet up one wall of the workshop (the other 3 walls are clear) and this is the wall that is damp.
I did have a bit of a damp problem (on the same wall) outside a few years ago and a couple of crumbling bricks inside but once they fixed a few cracks in the render that appeared to have cured the problem.
The wall that is now damp has a bench built into it's full width, which although made of 6"x"2 (4 wide) and really solid had been used as a mechanics workbench and had oil or some type of fluid soaked into it, and even after planing a fair bit off was still ruined, so I covered the top with 18mm MDF which has given it a great surface to work on. So I was then going to build in some cupboards underneath and because a lot of the lime plaster under the bench had fallen off and it looked rubbish I lined the wall with the same MDF boards, and I was going to make doors out of the same and line the rest of the walls in ply.
My health then took a turn for the worse and so thats how it was left until today, when after moving machines, tools, and other stuff that had been stored both on top and under the bench I found black and white mould in the corners of the bench (on top and underneath) and white mould going up the wall in a few places for about 2 feet above the bench, and it really smells damp.
I was talking to one of the neighbors who said that an old boy who owned the house years ago ran his garage business from there and every time he stored a lot of stuff under the bench he got the same problem, but when he left it clear and it dried out he never had anymore problems, no mould, not even a smell.
It looks like whoever did the building never did any damp proofing outside between the garden and the bricks. The trouble is to do anything about it now would be very hard and expensive because theres 6 inches of concrete under the patio.
I know I have to remove the MDF and let it dry out, but do I then just leave it clear with apparently no more problems, which there wasn't before I put the MDF on. Tank it, which will then allow me to use the space, or is there something better I can do?
I will take some photos of the problem if you think it is worth it but as I said the lighting is not very good.
Cheers
Mike
