Damp caused by plastic masonry paint

These photos are quite historic for me - they were taken at the house of a client who introduced me to Nick, at Twoclicks, who wrote our websites.  So you could say these photos are the start of all that trouble I've been heaping on the damp industry, and the start of Heritage Consulting too.  Cool stuff.

What are they - well it's a quite old house - solid walled, brick replacing timber frame, and painted in thick layers of limewash. At least it was... 

Then along came modern man.  And with him the plastic paint salesman.  Who told him his house would be nice and dry in its waterproof plastic mac.  What he didnt say was that it would sweat beautifully, and get very damp.

When we started peeling the paint off, water actually ran down the wall behind the paint - you can see in the photos the limewash paint, untouched by any damp, and water ponding between it, and the plastic paint.

The last photos are more of those horrible little tubes that schrijver damp proofing put into people's walls. They destroy the brickwork, cement these in, and tell you that water will evaporate.  Well the cement stops any water from going anywhere.  What they DON'T tell you is that just taking the paint, or cement render off, will sort the problem beautifully.  Nor do they tell you that having smashed holes in the wall of your Grade 2 Listed house, they, and you as owner, have just committed a criminal offence of damage to the material fabric of a Listed Building.