hi Alison, it is unlikely that the system can hold back water and over spill to the floor above. it looks to me like the membrane was finished at a high level and not taken further up the wall. As the room is a basement water will travel through brickwork through capillary action and you probably have damp on the wall in the ground floor of the property. unless you have running water going into the basement the system that was installed can work. it is not always necessary to have a full sump system when using the membrane. I'm not sure what the ground floor area at this is like, but it may be you have a problem with rainwater at ground level. check the drainage and ensure that you have water flowing away from the property. possibly add a aco type drain against the front of the house to collect water and run it to a drain. check that you dont have broken gullet, but dont do anything until you have these itnes checked as it is a cheaper solution. if you have to install a sump, you can do this without installing a perimeter drainage and it will still work as the water will find the lowest point. Get a reputable company to look at the work done. it may be better to employ a surveyor to carry out a thorough inspection and report. companies tend to want to opt for their work to replace what could be fixed. I hope this helps!! Rowland

@ Gabby - you were told wrong as it is not okay! I have been building everything from houses to retail centres and the problem with damp/water penetrating the void is that it takes a very long time to dry out especially if a rockwool type insulation has been installed. What is more you can also end up with mould growing in the void. It was sloppy workmanship and for the sake of a few minutes work the builders have an issue to deal with that should never have been. The amount of water showing on the face of the blockwork gives you an idea of the scale of the issue so do not be kind to them about this as it could come back to bite you in the behind in the future. If I was managing your project I would insist that they use the water resistant plasterboard (green in colour) to line all of the walls. This is a strong recommendation on my part.

We have engineered wood covering most of our floor. It‘s not glued to the subfloor. Our lower ground floor is concrete and screed whereas our first floor sub floor is timber. However on both floors the installers used special plastic(?) sheeting to cover the subfloors first (like underlay) before laying the engineered planks to avoid damp affecting the flooring. May be worth checking with the manufacturer what their advice is.

We got delayed by replacing our boiler, so fitting starts in six weeks. So I don’t know yet if the final design is any good! But what we will do is build a false wall on the low side of the room, and then have a 100x120 cm shower tray, with a glass door and panel on one side. We will get the glass cut and fitted by a specialist company. We will have storage in the alcove on the other side of the shower.