Can anyone advise re small damp patches on chimney breast?

LisaW123

I wonder if anyone can advise? A couple of years ago some very small damp patches appeared above the skirting at the base of the chimney breast wall. We have a gas fire (never used as it throws out little heat - gas flames dancing up through glass fragments and any heat going straight up the chimney). The fire had been in around 6 years before the patches appeared. We recently redecorated and applied anti stain paint to this part of the wall. However, the patches have reappeared. They spread no more than 2-3 inches above the skirting and are solely restricted to the area immediately below the fire. There are no signs of damp patches anywhere else in the room or on the chimney breast. The new patches seem a little more pronounced, however, and I wonder if the problem could lie with the chimney. It is not capped and the patches reappeared shortly after the recent periods of heavy rain. Any advice would be appreciated. I tried to attach a photo but have been unable to do so.

Leif

I had a similar issue, with a damp patch appearing on a kitchen wall where a boiler flue hole was blocked. It appeared during the recent monsoons. Clearly damp was getting into the unused chimney. Is there any air flow through your chimney? That would help clear damp.

Like you I have applied some stain blocker paint, and I hope it will work but it's a bodge really.

keystone

Mmm, assuming this is ground floor, I wonder if there was originally a fireplace and hearth which was removed and the hole beneath the old hearth filled in before new fire fitted but inadvertently bridging the DPC and allowing damp to rise. This I've seen before.

Second possibility (going on a completely different tack) are you sure its damp proper and not stains caused by soot leeching though brick and plaster?

Pics would be a good plan. Upload to imageshack or similar folowing their iunstructions. Once uploaded you wil be offered a number of different codes which will be a link back to the uploaded file. Choose the "Forum Code" one and copy/paste it into a post. That will give us access to the image(s).

Cheers

LisaW123

Thanks for the replies. Here is a pic (I hope).

keystone

Thats more option A than Option B. But now I've seen it there is a third. The wall looks painted. Was it previously papered? That looks like wallpaper paste contamination where on stripping the wallpaper all of the paste wasn't scrupulously removed before painting. That often happens at boundaries such as skirting boards.

Cheers

LisaW123

Thanks. I've heard of wallpaper paste causing problems but wonder if this can be the case with our damp patches? We've lived here over 10 years and have never had wallpaper in that room. It was not wallpapered when we bought the house. Although there could have been some up at some point, it must have been an awful long time ago. We had a damp proof course installed shortly after we moved in as it was recommended in our survey. The fire/ornament was installed a few months later and the room was decorated with paint (we got a decorator in to do this). It must have been six or seven years after this that the patches first appeared and they are only in that spot immediately below the fire. I keep thinking it must be something to do with the chimney as there is no damp anywhere else in the room (or in the whole of the house come to that). The patches are only present immediately below the fire.