Hi everyone
I need to tank my basement for a kitchen conversion - the house is terraced and on a slope, therefore suffering from penetrating damp on the uphill side where my house is below that of the neighbours.  having had several people around to look at it i am somewhat confused by the plethora of different remedies people are suggesting.
I am proposing to fix a plastic membrane on the wall affected by the penetrating damp and put a paint-on tanking coat on the floor before tiling over.  I would very much like to hear what the experts think of this.  thanks for your help.

The trouble with securing battens into the wall of a basement in particular is that this becomes a point of ingress for water bearing in mind there is alot of pressure from the damp behind theese walls and water is a thin man and will find its way through at the weakest points.
There are a number of products of a bitumen type tanking membrane that you paint onto cleaned walls (wire brushed)  then when still wet you dash with sharp sand which when dry acts as a key for a render coat , I have used this product with no problems though it is at the lower end of the price range and Sika do a number of products that may be of better use on a bigger scale job as this is, or a plasterer could tank it using a 1:1 then2:1 then3:1 render coat. As for floors try mastic ashphalt which is a hot pour self leveller ...this works a treat, try the yellow pages for a contractor.

Hi currently doing my first basemnt tanking, and after a lot of reserch, i came out woth what i am doing now;
1.Hack surfice to brickwork
2. Scrach coat of render with sika.
3. 2 coats of Vandex bb 75 have look at this site http://www.safeguardeurope.com/applications/basement_waterproofing.php
4. Top coat of render
5 finally plaster when dry.

for the floor, they seal a menbrane that would go, under the screed, at least this way you'll get some garantees as this product has been tested in reservours and places like that.
there was also the opction of putting a menbrane on the walls, but that wasent that good plus the fact that you would be loosing some space.