Water leaking through walls

DottieDam

We bought our house in January, there was a slight dark patch on one wall that is in front of where a chimney used to be. The house had been empty for 18 months and it's the west coast of Scotland so we figured we'd watch it and not panic.

Well, five months later. I just noticed the wall is wet to touch with what feels like wallpaper paste coming off on to my fingers (it's a painted wall no wallpaper). The stain is now huge and covers almost the entire wall plus the top of the ceiling where it joins the wall (about an inch of staining on ceiling). There is some staining in the adjoining room that also used to have a fireplace. From what we can tell in the attic there were two fireplaces that joined to one chimney at the top. There is no staining in the rooms above them.

It's really wet just now but has been very dry for months (the weather that is) and I am fairly sure the wet to touch is new, the stain growing might not be (it's a difficult colour to tell on).

I realise I need to get someone in to look at it but my question is who? A builder, damp treatment specialist, a surveyor?

I'm pretty panicked as it's all very wet and I've no clue about these things!

tonyh66

It's common to get damp where there are disused chimneys , has the fireplaces just been covered over?

DottieDam

tonyh66 wrote: »

It's common to get damp where there are disused chimneys , has the fireplaces just been covered over?

The walls have been plastered so there is no sign of the fireplaces existing, except for two vents in the walls. I'm not sure what is happening higher up.

southcoastrgi

The top of the chimney should have been capped to stop water Co I g down the chimney, the vents low down are to vent it to prevent mould but if it's not being used it needs capping

PurAsc

I've had this before - contact a local surveyor who can take a closer look and correctly advise on the cause. They could fill the old fireplace vents. There's no point guessing and assuming it's one thing just for it to come back.