Rising Damp Solutions

JenniferM91

Hi all,

Apologies in advance as I know this is a topic which has featured heavily before on these forums. However, I would really value people's input as I just can't find anyone that has exactly the same issue as we do! 

A bit of back story...we bought a circa 1900-1920 semi-detached cottage in December 2018. It had been developed cheaply by previous owners with poor quality double glazing etc. Coupled with that, the previous resident clearly had a fragrant disregard for any kind of ventilation (!) and the house was suffering from condensation, visible black mould on various walls and an overwhelming fusty smell. This is despite the house being a small, southerly facing, generally very warm property. 

Naively, we felt that stripping the house right back (which we did to floorboards) replacing all the windows and doors with good quality ventilated double glazing, repainting throughout and all new carpets, the smell would begin to dissipate. We are now eighteen months on and the smell has lessened, but is still very much present, particularly on our clothes and soft furnishings (noticeable when we go to work for instance or another property). 

We keep the house well ventilated, partly because we both like fresh air but also because we know it's important, the house is generally very warm and seems to be well insulated. Having scrubbed off the superficial damp and repainted, there has been no recurrence of damp anywhere and all walls feel bone dry. We don't suffer from condensation, the bathrooms are vented and we don't dry clothes indoors (using either a tumble dryer or the Everhot which also keeps downstairs warm). It is worth noting that bar the bathroom floorboards where there was a leak when we moved in (now fixed and boards replaced) all the floorboards were dry when the carpets were ripped out. 

HOWEVER, we cannot get rid of this smell! And weirdly, it seems to be more noticeable now we are in a warm summer than the winter. This week we finally got a damp specialist out to do a survey. He says our front sitting room walls (north facing) are saturated (flashed red on his damp meter) and what we are suffering with is rising damp, travelling up through the walls which is causing the smell upstairs. He recommended taking the affected walls back to brick, checking what insulation is there (possible evidence of previous chemical insulated having been injected from outside) ripping it all out, new insulation and damp membrane, re bricking and plastering up to 1 metre in height. He thinks any previous DPC has been compromised and the walls are sucking in all the moisture and it's travelling up. Replacing it should stop the water getting in, allowing the walls to dry out and the smell to dissipate. 

My concerns are as follows: 1) I know old houses are designed to breathe and sealing in the downstairs might make things worse? 2) I thought rising damp was confined to downstairs so don't understand how this is causing a smell upstairs (it doesn't really smell at all downstairs) 3) there is no visible evidence of rising damp at all anywhere. We have no tide marks, no salt crystals, the paint and walls are intact upstairs and downstairs and there is no mould. 

There is clearly an issue because the smell isn't shifting and gets worse on some days than others. It would make sense for the smell to be damp related as I think it coincides when it has rained, hence the house sucking up the moisture. The surveyor did say that because we are ventilating well and also have a dehumidifier upstairs we are limiting what would actually be a much worse problem otherwise. I just don't want to spend circa £2000-£2500 fixing something if it could a) make it worse (!) or b) not really solve the issue at hand. He also advised us getting the outside painted properly which does actually really need doing. There is also the issue that I worry the sitting room floor isn't sufficiently raised/has a concrete base. We laid reclaimed floorboards on top of a plastic membrane covered by a layer of insulation but the boards are dry and seemingly have no issue. The surveyor wasn't concerned about this and said the issue was with the walls. 

Any advice people can offer would be so gratefully received! I apologise for the length of this post but felt it was prudent people had as much information as possible. I am desperate to get this fixed as it's soul destroying washing lovely clean clothes (that smell delightful when you take them from the washing machine/dryer) and then a few days later putting them on and having a fusty feeling around your neck all day. I am conscious whenever anyone comes to stay that they leave with smelly clothes and towels or the bedlinen smells fusty. Any advice or experience please send this way!! Thanks so much. 

JenniferM91

Sorry that should say 1900-1910

stuart45

What is the construction of the walls? eg solid brick, stone, cavity?

JenniferM91

Thank you so much for reply. As far as we know, walls are solid brick. The bare brick is painted outside. 

stuart45

Painted brick can hold moisture in. Any small cracks will allow water in, but it can't escape. 
I'm guessing that the surveyor worked for the company that carry out the works.
I've never heard anyone claim that rising damp was travelling to the upper floors before.

JenniferM91

Oh dear. Is there anything we can do about the paint? Or is it best to get it repainted and hope the moisture leaves from the inside once it's no longer drawing in from the outside? Yes, the surveyor would carry out the work. Although he comes recommended and his theory seemed to make sense. I had thought that re travelling to upper floors. 

stuart45

I did a job last year with damp problems that had painted stonework. After removing the paint and repointing with lime the problem was solved.

JenniferM91

Lovely place! Hmm I did worry it might be a case of things having been inadvertently sealed in. The top half of the house is a painted sort of pebble dash as well. Financially we can't afford to remove all the rendering and begin again. I fear we are out of solutions. Would re-doing the damp course at a ground level (removing all old chemical attempts) and repainting the outside professionally be a bad idea or an attempt at reducing the problem in your opinion? Many thanks 

Doozergirl

Could you post some photos of outside?  There might be an obvious issue. 

Do you have wooden floors?

Please ignore your 'surveyor'.  It might be that we can see the issues, or you should pay more for someone that understands old buildings

stuart45

I wouldn't go for a chemical DPC myself. A house of 1900 circa will probably have a slate one anyway. A lot of these damp salesmen stick a damp meter in the walls and say it's rising damp, without really doing a proper investigation. 
It depends on what type of paint is used. Lime based paints are OK for a shelter coat, but masonry paints don't really allow the brickwork to breathe.

JenniferM91

Doozergirl said:

Could you post some photos of outside?  There might be an obvious issue. 

Do you have wooden floors?

Please ignore your 'surveyor'.  It might be that we can see the issues, or you should pay more for someone that understands old buildings

Thank you. That would be brilliant if you could take a look. I will post photos tomorrow of outside. The base of the house inside on the ground floor was concrete which surprised me given the age. I think it was a cheap developer choice some time ago. We have tiled with limestone in the hall and kitchen and laid reclaimed boards on membrane/insulation in the sitting room. Upstairs was relatively good quality wooden boards over which we have laid wool carpet. 

I'm inclined to agree re surveyor. Will post photos tomorrow. Thanks for insight!