patches of damp on wall

bigmock

Hi I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice on how to approach this problem- I have 2 patches of damp in my bathroom on an internal wall about mid way up the wall, they are coming out of some tiles (So I cannot see how far these patches spread) The tiling has been up for around a year and a half with no problems this has only happened about 2 months ago. Today the patches were soaking wet! Normally they are just damp and have stained the wall (not an odd colour but just from the wetness) I share this wall with neighbours so Im not sure who is at fault here or what is causing it also how serious is this kind of damp problem is, I am not sure what to do I think I should contact the neighbours and ask if they are also experiencing this? also then what happens do I contact a damp company?

Anyway if anyone has any advice please let me know!

Thanks

bigmock

oh and im on the ground floor if this helps

wallbash

First thought, any pipes running inside wall ......in fact, as its an internal wall, chances are its a buried pipe. And its got a leak.

happens do I contact a damp company?

Never.
You need a builder or a competent odd job man
Will have to remove tiles, and getting them ( or more likely replacing ) is not going to be easy /cheap. But thats wot we have insurance for.

bigmock

wallbash wrote: »

First thought, any pipes running inside wall ......in fact, as its an internal wall, chances are its a buried pipe. And its got a leak.



Never.
You need a builder or a competent odd job man
Will have to remove tiles, and getting them ( or more likely replacing ) is not going to be easy /cheap. But thats wot we have insurance for.

Thanks for the reply I will have a look for some builders/competent odd job man. My insurance states 'THE EXCESSES UNDER SECTION ONE BUILDINGS AND SECTION TWO CONTENTS, IF
APPLICABLE, ARE THE AMOUNTS SHOWN IN THE SCHEDULE OF COVER EXCEPT FOR
ANY CLAIM UNDER PERIL 4 (ESCAPE OF WATER FROM AND FROST DAMAGE TO FIXED WATER
TANKS, APPARATUS OR PIPES) WHERE THE EXCESS IS 250 POUNDS OR THE AMOUNT STATED
IN THE SCHEDULE OF COVER ' So I guess i only have 250£ cover for damage caused by water pipes?

Any idea how much roughly would this job cost?

wallbash

WHERE THE EXCESS IS 250 POUNDS

Thats what your max exposure is, i.e you will be paying the first £250

As for the cost? until you Know the damage , impossible to say .
First find the cause and stop the water. Take a few photo's . inform insurer

bigmock

thanks very much for the advice:beer:

bigmock

what im worried about is how are they going to find this pipe what is a 'buried pipe'?

wallbash

That is the BIG problem.
Buried pipe, one which is concealed into the wall.

As I have been doing DIY for years, I would remove a few tiles.
Thats the first problem , is the wet patch in the middle of a fully tiled wall, or is the wall only half tiled, how may tiles are we speaking of. Removing tiles from the middle is hard work , and impossible to do with out breaking. You might be able to remove some from an 'edge' Replacing is another problem .

An insurance job would more than likely retile the whole wall.

Tiles off....... wet looking plaster, remove and hopefully see a pipe.
Fixing pipe is the cheap and easy bit, the tiles / plaster is the cost.

bigmock

Oh thank you for the response the wall is only half tiled and the patches are coming out at two points near each other on the side of the tiles, to be honest I do not really like the tiles but was going to leave them as do not want to waste money on new tiles but I guess I have no choice now lol the tiled area is nit that big is basically covers where the bath is and shower however it is a medium sized space only.
I have never made an insurance claim before and have no idea what to do do I make the claim after i have had tiles removed etc?

wallbash

Normally you get the advice/ permission of the insurer before any work is carried out . Think car crash, you would need the insures permission before getting car fixed.
But think , fire, they would expect you to put the fire our , straight away ...... way before phoning insures
Storm damage , same thing you are using common sense, if you protect wots left.

So stopping water is your first thought. Then worry about the final cost.

TeamPlum

Sorry if i've not read this thoroughly.

Did you say these tiles havn't been up long? If so, did they put new plasterboard up?

If they did, might be the dot and dab from the old wall, into the back of the plasterboard.