Major damp in kitchen - survey failed to spot this

tonyh66

no way is that rising damp, those cracks on the exterior wall look interesting, hows the guttering look on that area of the building?

pedgepuk

Thanks for all the replies so far. I'll post more snaps of the exterior when I'm home during daylight.

Just to answer a few questions, the property was renovated over a 5 year period according to my neighbour. The whole property including the kitchen has been replastered, the bathroom is fully tiled and has some signs of damp on the plastered wall by the window.

The kitchen has two air vents which lead from the outside to inside one of the kitchen cupboards. There is also signs of mould in the utility room.

I have taken one of the ceiling down lights off to inspect for any leaks from the bathroom above, but I'm unable to see any signs of leaks.

Aylesbury_Duck

Do you have a dishwasher or washing machine on that side of the kitchen?

Years ago, I had a similar problem with blistering paint on the wall above my worktop and around the kitchen window. On the external brickwork, I could see white, salty deposits. The cause was that I had pushed the washing machine a little too far back into its space, the cold feed flexible hose had pinched up against the wall which caused a tiny split. Over a sustained period of time, it had sprayed water over the wall behind the machine which became saturated and eventually manifested itself almost 18 inches above the machine.

TRB

The plastering is in fairly bad condition on the outside imho as a plasterer that is where the problem is. What you need to do is get a ladder and tap around where those cracks are if it sounds hollow then i am afraid it will need re-plastering if sound you could open up cracks with a angle grinder fill and paint. As you were told rising damp is only 1.5m .

phill99

As someone that has been involved in building defects and repair for 30 years I have this to say: It is blistering from the worktop to the ceiling? For crying out loud, this is no more rising damp than Howard Shipman was caring for the elderly. Rising damp will only rise up masonry by around 4'. Capillary action sucks the moisture up and gravity keeps it down. Any thing above this is either penetrating damp or, more likely a leak from above. If the bathroom is above this, it is either a leak on the incoming hot/ cold feeds, a leak on the waste, or, very commonly, mastic or grout failure around a shower or bath. I can almost guarantee that it is one of these.


Why did the surveyor not pick it up? Because it wasn't there when he inspected.


I suggest you employ a plumber and get this dealt with rather than looking to blame someone who looked at your property 18 months ago.

beckstar1975

My mum had similar and it was a crack in the waste pipe carrying shower water away - the tray itself was fine the crack was a bit further along the pipe.

Do you know the route the shower pipe takes? I can't open all your pics so sorry if they have this in.

Le_Kirk

To open the pictures, click on the link and then when it opens, click on slideshow - at least it works me.

Furts

pedgepuk wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies so far.

The kitchen has two air vents which lead from the outside to inside one of the kitchen cupboards. There is also signs of mould in the utility room.

This situation is absurd. How do you expect to get ventilation, and by default damp and condensation removal, when the vents are blocked by cupboards?

I am also seconding the observations about the dreadful state of your external render. This needs rectifying as a matter of urgency, all the more so it it is an exposed and frosty location.

Address these issues and methodically move forward and see what happens.

FreeBear

Furts wrote: »

I am also seconding the observations about the dreadful state of your external render. This needs rectifying as a matter of urgency, all the more so it it is an exposed and frosty location.

Not been able to view any external images, just the shots from inside. On one, the window reveals look surprisingly narrow, almost as if it is a single skin brick wall.

How old is this property, and how thick are the external walls ?

rach_k

I would definitely get the render looked at. We had some work done and ended up with what looked like a very small crack in the render. I didn't even notice it myself. The first time it rained against that side of the house, water ran straight into the wall and ended up in a puddle half way across the kitchen floor. We were 'lucky' in that the crack was above a UPVC door and the frame channelled the water straight through the wall and out into the room where we could see it dripping rather than slowly saturating the wall. If it had not had the door there, it could have been letting rain into the wall for a long time before we noticed. As it was, the small bit of wall was wet for a few days maximum and we still ended up with what I believe was a kind of mould (white furry stuff).