Damp/condensation Help

Jeepers_Creepers

Ah, these photos? Yup - still bad  

How old is this house? Are the walls cavity? And what is that outside pavement level compared to the inside?

We are jumping to conclusions thinking it must have something to do with that concrete level outside - we don't yet know.

How long have you lived there? 9 years ago you had that outside work done, and the level raised slightly? And even beofre then there were signs of damp; "Shortly after the job was done, I coated the area you can see in pictures (and along the rest of hallway from stairs to door) with an antidamp paint, as there was signs of some moisture. I was told this was due to the area being a 'dew point' for warm air meeting cold air. I fitted a Warmology unit into the attic, in the hope that it would eradicate the problem."

I think, pretty clearly, it isn't condensation and never was.

How come you've only just noticed how bad it is - was it 'ok' over the past 9 years but suddenly became 'bad'?

There's a chance it's even 'rising', due to a failure of the DPC at that point.

Anyhoo, it would be useful to know what the relative ground/floor heights are.

I think I'd run a grinder along that drive next to the wall, 100 to 150mm wide (to suit off-the-shelf drain covers) and remove the concrete layer and excavate down, say, a foot. Leave it open and let it dry - and see if water appears in it. See what happens inside - does that now improve?

PaulC0

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Ah, these photos? Yup - still bad  

How old is this house? Are the walls cavity? And what is that outside pavement level compared to the inside?

We are jumping to conclusions thinking it must have something to do with that concrete level outside - we don't yet know.

How long have you lived there? 9 years ago you had that outside work done, and the level raised slightly? And even beofre then there were signs of damp; "Shortly after the job was done, I coated the area you can see in pictures (and along the rest of hallway from stairs to door) with an antidamp paint, as there was signs of some moisture. I was told this was due to the area being a 'dew point' for warm air meeting cold air. I fitted a Warmology unit into the attic, in the hope that it would eradicate the problem."

I think, pretty clearly, it isn't condensation and never was.

How come you've only just noticed how bad it is - was it 'ok' over the past 9 years but suddenly became 'bad'?

There's a chance it's even 'rising', due to a failure of the DPC at that point.

Anyhoo, it would be useful to know what the relative ground/floor heights are.

I think I'd run a grinder along that drive next to the wall, 100 to 150mm wide (to suit off-the-shelf drain covers) and remove the concrete layer and excavate down, say, a foot. Leave it open and let it dry - and see if water appears in it. See what happens inside - does that now improve?

First noticed when hall was carpeted with a wood skirting. I'd see woodlouse on occasion near the bottom of the stairs. They were driving me mad. Lifted the carpet and removed the skirting, expecting to find thousands of them....but nothing. Stripped wallpaper and allowed hallway to breathe for a while, before laying tiles, coating with antidamp paint and wallpapering again. It's only recently that I seen a small patch of black appear where the staircase meets the ceramic tile. Tore of the wallpaper above the tiles expecting to see lots of damp but was surprised to find it dry, with the only area suffering from any moisture shown within pictures. 
I was out comparing the drive level to my neighbours (original path in place) and do notice a difference in height. I called into my other neighbour (semi that is attached to mine) and they also have damp issues in the hallway but closer to the door. I also had a look at the cement near the ball and there is some green algae/moss visible, suggesting resting water???

I think the ceramic tiles may have been hiding it for long enough?

FreeBear

PaulC0 said:  would it be worth getting a dpm cream put into internal hall wall above ceramic level?

Absolutely no point in slapping waterproof anything on the walls (paint, creams, render). All it will do, is mask the problem for a few years and push the damp out elsewhere. Most likely in to the timber forming the stairway which will slowly rot away.

Fix the root cause of the problem. If that means taking tiles off the wall and installing a french drain, do it. In the long term, it will be cheaper.

Apodemus

Paul, we still need to know more about the age and construction of your house.  What is the "warmology" unit you fitted and what made you think you needed it?  At the moment, I think you need to slow down, take a deep breath and not be sucked into any quick-fix "treatments".  

Jeepers_Creepers

I suspect the Warmology is a positive-pressure device which keeps your house under gentle positive pressure (it's basically a fan in the loft which pumps into the house) therefore keeping it ventilated. I've no experience of them, but have read some glowing reports - clears away condensation problems very effectively.

PaulC0

Apodemus said:

Paul, we still need to know more about the age and construction of your house.  What is the "warmology" unit you fitted and what made you think you needed it?  At the moment, I think you need to slow down, take a deep breath and not be sucked into any quick-fix "treatments".  

House was built in 1954
Insulated with those pesky polystyrene balls (they made an appearance when we originally started renovating and drilling holes for tumble dryer/cooker fan)
As above, the Warmology unit (Drimaster) helps clear any condensation issues and helps with any allergies. 

PaulC0

Phoned a local company and was told they were booked up until the end of July. Had another guy come look at it and he isn't totally convinced that it's the concerte drive height as it was installed 10 years ago, with problem only visible recently. Had told him we always had issues but I damp proofed over it years ago and have since installed tiles which may well be masking the problem. He had a look at the outside and there's a gap between the height of concrete drive and wall render. It's full of clay (I'll take a few pics and attach shortly).

Talked to a guy that lives at the top of the street and he was telling me that he had a problem near the front of door and slowed/solved by removing the overflow pipe that belonged to the old style toilets that were originally installed in propery (cistern high on wall). He said he removed the pipe and filled. 

Would it be worth installing dryrods or something above the driveway level alongside the whole side of house? 

PaulC0

https://ibb.co/WvSczYG

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As above

PaulC0

UPDATE 

Had a local building company looking at it yesterday and they've recommended a new DPC along that side of wall at driveway. They confirmed that these houses are poured concrete and that excess may well have spilled into the cavity as it was being built, causing some bridging. 

Doozergirl

I can't offer any proper advice as there's no context to the photos at all.  It could be anything, anywhere.   We need photos of the whole wall.  

How do they propose to install this new DPC? Injecting above the problem area? 

Have you read other threads on this board where we've said what we think about chemical injections.  

It may well be concrete breaching the DPC, but that means you should be removing the concrete back to an acceptable
distance, not injecting a water-based water-proofer 🤔 at various intervals *above* the problem.  

If you let them slap waterproof render on the inside of your house, the water will eventually rise above their 1 metre mark.  It'll take a long time, but your paying people for snake oil, a sticking plaster.  

We have no photos, but to me it sounds like you need a circular saw and a general builder for a day to create a french drain.  

Injected DPCs and waterproof render do not solve the root cause.  The injections do nothing, the waterproof render prevents the remaining damp from showing.  It definitely does not cure it.