Damp on outside wall

FreeBear

murphydavid said:  From the outside brick pattern it appears that the wall is a cavity wall.

Every sixth course, a row of headers - This would strongly suggest a solid brick wall, as does the age.

Slapping waterproof coatings on such a wall will not do it any good in the long term. Moisture will get trapped inside the brick, and during the winter months, the water will freeze. This will eventually lead to the bricks spalling and a significant repair bill at some point in the future.

stuart45

I think you missed out the 'not' between the will and do.

stuart45

It does look like a solid 9 inch wall, but the back of the chimney was often a single 4 inch skin of brickwork to allow for the flue. 
As fires were normally going all day back then in the damper weather there wasn't usually a moisture problem.

FreeBear

stuart45 said: I think you missed out the 'not' between the will and do.

You are correct. Now fixed thanks.

woodwormme

murphydavid said:

Ok so at point 3 you say "Neither removed the damp internal wall". So is the damp we can see on the outside also have a damp wall on the inside?
If you can see the damp proof line (horizontal line of mortar a bit thicker than the others) which I think I can about 2 and a half bricks up and there is no damp inside I would not do anything to the path till I checked if removing the dining room chimney breast (removed the chimney stack from the dining room this week) has solved the issue. You won't notice a rapid change it takes time.
I presume the inside wall where the chimney breast was is now bare brick work.
So more questions. From the outside brick pattern it appears that the wall is a cavity wall.
Is there it a cavity wall where the chimney breast was or is that now single thickness.
Is the wall at that point damp or dry inside? 
To answer one of your questions directly. Although you might not get a problem the correct procedure for the remaining piece of the dining room chimney is it should have had a vent installed when it was capped and it should now have a further vent installed at the bottom. You should also check the proportions of how much stack is inside the building and how much is outside.

Also this may be of interest
https://www.practicaldiy.com/general-building/chimney/chimney-breast-removal.php

Hi,

there are two areas of damp - inside bedroom which I noticed straight away and the outside wall, which I only noticed recently. To combat the damp internal wall, I removed the chimney stack. The wall hasn’t been taken back to bare brick, it’s a purple colour and I can see the water ingress get worse when it rains. 

I’ve just removed the stack, not the chimney which is internal. 

Did I cover everything? 

woodwormme

Doozergirl said:

Have you checked in the loft to see if there's any evidence at all of a leak from the roof?  If it's visible outside then I'd say its getting a soaking somewhere and more than just a ventilation issue.  

I'm in absolute with freebear.  You need to remove that concrete from the side passage.  Someone did it properly initially and laid the paving away from the wall and then someone else has come along and put that concrete in. 

The damp proof course is being breached, it isn't 'failing'.   I don't think that is the only issue though. 

The roofer did and he said it was leaking inside. He showed me pictures of wet timber but when I’ve gone up and I couldn’t find damp timber. Roofer also said the chimney needed re-pointing. 

I got a guy a few months ago to paint some waterproof paint on the stack (yes I was silly) and it helped stop the water ingress, but not 100%. The flashing could have let in the leak?

woodwormme

FreeBear said:

murphydavid said:  From the outside brick pattern it appears that the wall is a cavity wall.

Every sixth course, a row of headers - This would strongly suggest a solid brick wall, as does the age.

Slapping waterproof coatings on such a wall will not do it any good in the long term. Moisture will get trapped inside the brick, and during the winter months, the water will freeze. This will eventually lead to the bricks spalling and a significant repair bill at some point in the future.

My brother in law told me to get waterproof paint. Thank goodness I didn’t! 

woodwormme

Doozergirl said:

That is an old house.  It shouldn't have a damp proof membrane and those are paving slabs, not block paving.  If there is a problem with the concrete breaching the original damp proof course then it will solve a long and ongoing problem.  The paving isn't the 'keeper' here, the house is the asset and no one should be laying concrete against the side of a house like that.  Any perimeter can and should be laid away from the house.  

You should never put any type of damp seal on an older building, lime mortar is designed to pull moisture out from inside the house.  They breathe.  It's modern methods that stop a house from breathing that start to cause and compound issues.  If the mortar is replaced with a cements mix, then the brick become the softest medium and they start to do the job that the mortar was designed to do.

There is evidence of a previously injected damp proof course, which, of course, isn't working, because they don't work.   

Where I have seen this before, it was a roofing problem.  The back gutters had split and there was water pouring down the walls, but it was only showing at ground floor level where it was spreading out.  

I was going to say that it would be useful to see the walls inside, but there's probably waterproof render on them hiding it.

OP, where is the inside floor level and what type of floor is?  Solid or suspended?

It might also be an idea to check how the wall looks and the ground around it when it's actually raining.  

It would have been wood before, now it’s brick. I know this as I’m doing the kitchen and I can see the bricks under the laminate. There is also laminate flooring and the floor has no creaking. 

The wall is majority protected from the House next door: I will take a picture when it rains. 

FreeBear

woodwormme said: It would have been wood before, now it’s brick. I know this as I’m doing the kitchen and I can see the bricks under the laminate.

Are you sure it is brick ?

It is more likely terracotta quarry tiles - Bricks laid as a floor would be, um, agricultural at best, and not what I would expect in the vast majority of houses. If you do have an original quarry tile floor, it would be worth repairing and conserving. A period feature like that has been ripped out of so many houses...

Doozergirl

woodwormme said:

Doozergirl said:

Have you checked in the loft to see if there's any evidence at all of a leak from the roof?  If it's visible outside then I'd say its getting a soaking somewhere and more than just a ventilation issue.  

I'm in absolute with freebear.  You need to remove that concrete from the side passage.  Someone did it properly initially and laid the paving away from the wall and then someone else has come along and put that concrete in. 

The damp proof course is being breached, it isn't 'failing'.   I don't think that is the only issue though. 

The roofer did and he said it was leaking inside. He showed me pictures of wet timber but when I’ve gone up and I couldn’t find damp timber. Roofer also said the chimney needed re-pointing. 

I got a guy a few months ago to paint some waterproof paint on the stack (yes I was silly) and it helped stop the water ingress, but not 100%. The flashing could have let in the leak?

It's not showing at ground floor because someone has "treated" this long ongoing issue by installing a chemical damp proof course at ground level.  That involves putting a waterproof render on your ground floor walls.  It hasn't solved the problem, it's hiding some of the symptoms from appearing inside on the ground floor.  It will start to reappear above the 1m mark on the ground floor. 

Yet another example of these snake oil salesmen.  

You have got a significant issue with rainwater leakage and painting stuff more recently was never going to be any kind of effective protection against the rain.  

You need a decent roofer up there and to be prepared to spend some proper money.  You are in serious danger of there being rot in your roofing timbers.  This needs sorting out now.  

Replace the entire roof covering if needed.