Found an inside wall to be wet!

Doozergirl

abbas5001 wrote: »

Sorry its not a gas fire its an electric one. The house isn't that old, built in the 80s i think.

Yeah sorry its not a gas fire its an electric one - still weird though so i am not putting it on again obviously until i get it looked at, by a heating engineer i presume?

An electrician.

Doozergirl

Mr.Generous wrote: »

I'm afraid this does sound exactly like rising damp. It rarely gets as high as 1mtr (3ft approx).

Rising damp doesn't exist, but if it did, it wouldn't dry out overnight

abbas5001

wymondham wrote: »

is it just on one side of the wall, or is this an outside wall?

It's on 3 separate walls i will upload a pic of the room in a few mins.

abbas5001

JohnB47 wrote: »

Just to clarify. You say the room has two radiators that come on with the central heating but you are using an electric fire too. Is that room normally warm or cold then (when you're not using it)?

If it is normally on the cold side (maybe if you have the rads on low, 'cos you don't use the room), then have you checked outside? Are there air bricks anywhere near and are they open/unrestricted? It might be that the sub floor of the room is damp and when you heat the room, the heat draws the moisture up and it condenses on the lower parts of the cold walls. (The upper part of the walls would be the warmest and condensation wouldn't form on them).

Just an idea.

Yeah you are right, the room does have the radiators which are on a low setting cos the room doesn't get used (we have the radiator valves and they are set to '2' in that room). The other day was literally the first time in like 3 years that the electric fire in that room was used.

The theory seems plausible, i did look outside and there are those vents but they are unblocked.

diamond_dave

Had this problem in my Victorian house it's only condensation.- the bays -2 square and 1 angled were always damp. The problem arises because the walls in the bays are built with bricks and there is no cavity. The only solution was to batten and plasterboard the walls and insert some sort of insulation. Now no damp whatsoever.Try this and you'll find a vast improvement.

JohnB47

abbas5001 wrote: »

Yeah you are right, the room does have the radiators which are on a low setting cos the room doesn't get used (we have the radiator valves and they are set to '2' in that room). The other day was literally the first time in like 3 years that the electric fire in that room was used.

The theory seems plausible, i did look outside and there are those vents but they are unblocked.

In our house, a setting of 2 would hardly ever allow the rads to come on. They'd get a tad warm at best. I would try upping them for the rest of winter. It probably wouldn't cost you too much more.

phil24_7

diamond_dave wrote: »

Had this problem in my Victorian house it's only condensation.- the bays -2 square and 1 angled were always damp. The problem arises because the walls in the bays are built with bricks and there is no cavity. The only solution was to batten and plasterboard the walls and insert some sort of insulation. Now no damp whatsoever.Try this and you'll find a vast improvement.

With a suitable vapour barrier obviously, otherwise your wall will still be getting damp, you just wont be able to see it!

windup

Odd logic, the room has two radiators, one electric fire, and your conclusion is that the walls are dripping wet due to switching on a gas fire somewhere. Was that gas fire next to some wet washing

Air it, wipe the condensation off the windows with a cloth, turn the radiators up,bleed them, and dry it out for a few days. A cursory glance from outside will indicate if it's an internal or external problem.