pldouglas

Delighted to hear you still have no damp bits!
Funnily enough, when we were looking to buy 5 years ago, the first emlak we went to was Turkish and he told us that if we worry about damp in a property, then Turkey is probably not the place for us (and you lot thought all turkish emlaks were economic with the truth!) Anyway, having had several old houses, minus damp course, in GB, we decided we could cope with whatever damp occured. We've had a little, but nothing of great concern and easily fixed. So to a degree, i think its something we have to learn to live with bearing in mind the construction of many of the properties and just learn from the local people how to cope with it.

turtle-webs

Snap, ours in Dalyan is about 12 years old and free of any concernable damp, there are a couple of patches on the external wall but no bigger than an A4 sheet of paper and nothing at all inside. Ours is for sale too.

Guz1

If there hasn't been any rain for a couple of months, why would there be any sign of damp? Will be interested to know how things are after the rainy season.

Like others, our house has minimal damp, mostly caused by poor sealing around the window frames (bringing Mastik with me on next visit). Ours is not for sale - not this year anyway.

moodyblues

damp caused by rainwater ingress is totally different to rising damp, which is caused by water in the surrounding ground being drawn up the walls by capillary action.
Damp due to badly draining balconies etc. is easily rectified by improving the drainage of the balcony or surrounding area, usually caused by the fact that most houses here seem to have their balconies tiled with the fall towards the house and not away !! so re-tiling with a fall away from the house usually cures the problem caused by rain water.
Rising damp needs some sort of physical or chemical barrier to stop the capillary action as it will continue to pull the damp all year regardless if it rains or not, hence the need for some sort of injection treatment with a suitable barrier if it is truely rising damp causing the problem.
Hope this helps to clarify the difference between the problems.

Guz1

Yes, it does clarify the difference. Thank you, Moodyblues.

Lycia

As a German wife of a constructor in Turkey I can surely say that the isolation technics and standards of German companies are reliable.

BernardMatthews

If you have what I would call a minimal or small rising damp issue. That is ,some discolouration to surface decoration. If that problem cannot be treated by barrier method (injection or membrane and you don't wish to keep redecorating the area frequently then try this.

Instead of simply trying to overpaint the decorative damp,instead line the wall to at least 1.5mtrs height with metallic backed paper ,metallic side to the inside lined crosswise to the wall, after which you can simply apply a normal lining paper vertically over that which you can emulsion as normal. You can of course if you really wish also use a decorative paper on top of the lining paper although I think Turkish homes tend to be just painted.
This does not deal with the damp in the sense it prevents it's occurence ,it doesn't. What it does do is prevent it materialising internally as it cannot pass through the metallic lining paper and cause internal discolouration.
Applying this 'paper' requires something called '3 in 1' glue which comes in a tin and is spread on rather than brushed. Any half decent decorator can put this stuff on if you give him the correct materials (paper & glue).

Note I am suggesting this as a potential solution to redecorating what I call decorative rising damp . It is not the same as a barrier method for preventing damp.

Edit note....understand when this metallic paper goes on ,it is really on in the sense it does not come off very readily .So before you use it make sure you want to keep it for some years to come.

Susan

Yes but surely it would just climb up the wall and come out above the metallic backed paper.

Susan