How bad is this damp? :(

Doozergirl

BananaRepublic wrote: »

Is the wall inside surface cold during some of the day? Do you have a source of humidity on the house such as drying clothes? It could be condensation of moist air on a cold wall.

It's not condensation. Condensation attracts mould quickly and doesn't look quite so wet. It's damp.

The damp proof course could be breached outside and the ground level needs reducing immediately around the house. I suspect though that there's a down pipe not discharging properly in that area.

BananaRepublic

Condensation can look damp. That’s an extreme case of course. Mould behind furniture is more common.

RoughNeck

Firstly, thank you all for the responses, this is really helpful. Thank you Banana for sorting the links

So, the property is circa 1904 - so we're talking pretty old I guess? Word has it, the person who took this property over, maybe back in the 90s, did a bodge job of sorting things out before quickly throwing it back on the market. That's what our neighbour has said anyway.

The general state of the house is reasonable. Some cracks here and there, awful woodchip in areas, creaky stairs - but generally ok. However, the dining room just seems to have issues with damp. We have the rising damp in the one corner as per the photos (that's the worst), on the opposite wall we have a patch in the corner (from floor) which has actually risen beyond my pencil mark for the first time and other very small patches dotted around. We also have the chimney breast which has damp patches at the top, which I am trying to get a roofer check the flue and roof tiles over. Thinking about it, there's damp on every wall in the dining room, ranging from ground level to ceiling.

In response to the chair in the corner, it's quite a big chair, but there was still room behind it, but maybe not enough. We do also dry clothes in the dining room, but this to me feels/looks a lot more like rising damp. I have attached further photos of the outside - sorry for the poor lighting/quality.

https://ibb.co/vJ0dCks
https://ibb.co/bPcXqV4
https://ibb.co/KzS6ffL
https://ibb.co/zmSNbXx

There is a down pipe right on the corner, and you can see we have a plastic storage cabinet too, but that's further away from the corner. If you look closely on one of the images, you can see a red 'air brick', but that's the only one I can see at the moment. The render also looks ancient, and you can see where the pipes have been changed, or altered in some way as they render looks poor where they've tried to re-render.

What are people's thoughts?

Thank you again for your help.

RoughNeck

Also, if I recall, from various discussions with the neighbour (who recently bought and renovated next door), the houses don't have much room/air space under the floor. I don't know for definite, but it would make sense considering the issues we're having.

JohnB47

I'm no expert - just chipping in.

It looks like there is no DPC, or it's been rendered over.

Second, the render looks jagged and damaged at the bottom there, near the corner.

Third - the bottom of that down pipe appears to sit above the gully grid suggesting that in anything more than moderate rain, there could be significant splashing going on around that area - sending water up around that corner and in at that jagged bit.

You could check by having a good look the next time you get a downpour.

I would modify the down pipe so that it sits further into the gully to stop splash back.

RoughNeck

Thanks. Yeah, I can see if I can perhaps get an additional bit of piping to sit further into the gulley. From looking at the paperwork we recevied, a DPC was installed, but around 25+ yrs ago. Could someone lie about this? The only reason I ask is because they did a marvellous cover up job everywhere to hide certain things. I guess they would have lost money on the house had they not covered it up.

As for the render, I wonder if re-rendering the rear would be a good shout anyway at some point as it looks very old and has patch work where they've done work previously.

Am looking for a reputable Damp Proof company at the moment...

G_M

As discussed, the rainwater downpipe will be causing splash back when too much water comes down. Depending on size of roof it is collecting from, even moderate rain may result in this. Get the downpipe to end inside the drain beneath. Maybe just cut the centre of the drain cover to allow the pipe in.

There's 2 damp patches higher up the wall where the (toilet?) and (sink?) outflows come through the wall before joining the main downpipe. Maybe the pipes leak? Or there's cracks in the render from when the pipes were put through so rain has entered behind the render. The trouble with render is once rain gets behind it, the water has nowhere to go.........

The render seems to stop 18 inches or so above ground level. That is correct and should be above the dpv. However it looks like a cement render or something has been added to the walls below the pebbledash render, covering the brickwork and breaching the dpc. If so, it should be removed.

Because of this, too, the dpc is hidden so it's impossible to tell where exactly it is and if the ground level itself breaches the dpc.

Is that the airbrick behind the rake? Presumably that is to ventilate the sub-floor? Is it clear or blocked?

Next time it rains decently, go out and see what else is happening! Your damp is not to do with location of furniture, though drying clothes inside does create moisture in the air.

Be careful looking for a damp proof company. You'll get a salesman and his job is to scare you into installing whatever damp proof mechanism the company specialises in. They'll call it a free survey. It's not. It's a sales visit.


Find someone independant who does not do dp work themselves.

FreeBear

RoughNeck wrote: »

As for the render, I wonder if re-rendering the rear would be a good shout anyway at some point as it looks very old and has patch work where they've done work previously.

Am looking for a reputable Damp Proof company at the moment...

No such thing as a reputable "damp proof" company - They are in the market of selling what ever magical treatment that they think they'll get away with. And trust me, there are some really whacko widgets & crap being peddled. A prime example is this one - http://www.ecclesiasticalandheritageworld.co.uk/news/1074-the-aquapol-masonry-dehydration-system-a-lasting-solution-against-rising-damp (what a load of....).

Taking the cement render off the exterior walls would certainly help. Depending on the state of the bricks underneath, rerender in a pure lime mortar - I'm guessing this property has solid brick walls (would be consistent with a 1904 build) - A pure lime mortar will allow any moisture within the walls to evaporate.

Note - A pure lime mortar does not have any cement mixed in. Many builders, if/when they suggest a lime render actually mean a mix of sand, cement, and a bit of hydrated lime. A true lime mortar (or render) will be a mix of sand and NHL lime or lime putty, no cement or any other additives.

Doozergirl

You don't need a damp proofing company of any kind.

As I said, I suspected there would be a down pipe in that corner!

You've got some half decent advice already but here's my summary to add to it:

The downpipe needs to end inside the gulley. That isn't terminating correctly and is almost certainly part of the cause.

Check the gulley itself isn't blocked immediately.

The staining on the soil pipe from the toilet looks suspicious. There could be a leak there but there could well also be blocked guttering to the main roof, causing water to cascade and mark The walls after it catches on the clips connecting the soil pipes to the wall. You really need to go out there in some good rain and watch what is happening.

The rendered wall facing us looks pretty adequate with the bell bead and brick work beneath. The other wall should look the same. The render down to the ground is breaching your DPC and that is what the water is using to climb up and over. Knock back the render to just above DPC, install bell bead, tidy up.

You shouldn't have concrete right up to the wall, especially if it slopes towards the house. Cut the concrete back away from the house by 30cm, dig a small channel to take the ground level right away from the DPC and backfill with gravel. Ensure the new level is more than two courses of brick below the DPC.

Ensure adequate air bricks with a through flow of air - ie. at front and back, side to side. Air needs to get in and then out again.

It's a bit late now for lime render unless you're happy to knock the whole lot back, in which case you can go for it, but I'd see how all the other changes help for the moment. There's plenty to make. What I'm suggesting is just what should exist and would have originally - the house has been interfered with in the wrong way.

Repeat. You do not need a damp proofing company, you need to carry out some maintenance. Much can be done yourself, or by a friendly handy man. No one that sells damp proofing needs to come to your house. The solution is cheap but they don't sell cheap solutions so you won't get one. You'll get some expensive waterproof render on the inside walls that will disguise it for a few years. Deal with the root causes.

You have to fix the cause, not cover it up!

Doozergirl

BananaRepublic wrote: »

Condensation can look damp. That’s an extreme case of course. Mould behind furniture is more common.

Hmm. Or there could be a down-pipe not discharging properly in that corner

Call me psychic.