The house is built into the hillside, (that is what Llechwedd means Hen means old) so the first floor is technically at ground level at the back of the house. The original Welsh long house part of the house wasn't that close to the ground at the back but over the years the house has been extended and then then trees have grown up which has meant the ground meets the house at the back. So the first thing we need to do to try and resolve the damp and water leak issues is dig out the back of the house to get the ground level more even.
It is quite scary to see a massive digger out the back of your house inches away form the window...
It has also turned out to be a bigger job than we first thought as our digger friend has dug deeper it appears what we thought was just soil and rock is actually solid bed rock. We were going to add french drains in as well but I am not sure we will be able to now as the rock is so tough. Fingers crossed the digging will be enough, we are forecast more rain tomorrow as we'll have to wait and see if the water still comes up through the floors.
“The house has been leaking water all over the place…” – That’s a big problem. Replacing the whole roof is really the best solution at this point. It’s a tough job especially that you have to dig up just get the ground level evenly. I hope you hire or have skilled people to work on this, to make sure that everything is being done properly. How’s the process going?
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