as for experts… well and good but there aways seems to be a ‘trend’ in the right thing to do with old buildings. currently it is rip off the concrete, but I do always think there must have been a problem in the first place.. that’s why they put the concrete there… if you see what I mean.

We are lucky to own older houses (ours is 400 and has the 2 ft thick walls too) but they do come with problems we will probably always be chasing!

We have had an expert on traditional local building techniques assess the problem, who advised that a lot of our current problems have been exacerbated by the double glazing & also the increased size of the window apertures - though of course the concrete hasn’t exactly helped.

Ugh, after a night of ferocious storms there’s more bubbling up right now - hope things are holding up at your end as we’re certainly not relishing the next 24 hours (& I bet all the ewes decide to lamb today as well).

Seems to me your problems relate to the use of concrete, rather than the DG.
Whilst I understand your pining for the original set up… it is worth remembering that they had cowboy builders back then too! (and people were freezing cold most of the time)

if it makes you feel any better, we wish we could go back to single glazing, less efficient though it might be - as double is literally killing our house!

If yours is an older cottage with thicker walls (ours is seventeenth century with 2-3ft thick walls) you need to be very careful about making sweeping changes to the original build.

Previous owners of our property, had (for some bizarre reason) a cavity wall put at the western end of the house; replaced the traditional, breathable lime plaster with concrete render (both inside & out); & installed double glazing - including putting larger window apertures in the living room, bathroom & master bedroom, to take advantage of the magnificent, uninterrupted views. Fortunately, they did not install a damp-proof course in the main part of the house, although there is now a concrete floor rather than the flagstones which were there, in the parlour.

Since we moved in a couple of years ago, the unusually damp weather has caused us succesively greater problems as the house can no longer breathe. The larger window area has caused ‘cold spots’ which attract moisture & creeps damp up the walls. And because of the concrete coating the walls, the moisture has no natural means of escape - it’s already in here, although at least the lack of the damp-proof course is a help. In some places the mildew is so bad it’s taken the plaster off the walls.

We had to have some extensive repairs done to the chimney stacks last year; which had a few years before been tackled by a ‘cowboy’ builder & were letting in water, compounding the problem in the walls as the water again had nowhere to go. We’ll have to get some airbricks installed as ventillation but had to leave it last year to help the wall to dry out initially; including serious repairs to the cavity wall which had ‘blown’ in places owing to the retained moisture, freezing in cold weather & causing it to crack. Not good! And now we have to have an ‘industrial strength’ dehumidifier blasting away for much of the time; which isn’t environmentally friendly, either.

OK, so if the windows had been left the house would’ve been colder - which with no central heating, would have meant even more wood needed to keep the woodburners going (but we have 11 acres of woodland, so not such a problem). However by replacing the windows with double glazing, it’s caused significant problems; & by widening them to boot, it’s made things even worse.

They’re wooden framed in oak, & look nice enough; but oh, to have the original stuff back & have the house as it was meant to be - the chaps who built it knew what they were doing; the ones who ‘improved’ it, sadly, didn’t.

Can you not just beef up your loft insulation, instead….?