Damp patches on inside of gable (?) wall

Ben1989

I have more images after painting. Who do you approach? A damp specialist? A builder? An external renderer? Which direction do you go initially? It improves with continuous sunny warm days so I definitely think it’s water getting in

FreeBear

If you go to a damp "specialist", they will probably diagnose rising damp - And yes, I have heard of them telling a home owner that their problem on a first floor was rising damp (it was actually faulty lead flashing on the other side of a party wall).

Your render doesn't look to be in too bad a condition. Certainly a lot better than mine was. A builder or plasterer/renderer won't be that interested in patching the cracks - To small a job.. You could try asking the person that did your internal plastering, either for a recommendation or if he/she would do the job. Failing that, a general handyman, or you could do it yourself.

A scaffold tower would be handy (you have fairly good access). Grind the cracks out, fill with something like Toupret Touprelith F which stuart45 recommended in an earlier post. Once hard, paint. Would also be worth putting a bead of frame sealant around the windows as there doesn't appear to be any in some of the images.. If indeed there isn't any sealant around the windows, that could be the source of much of the damp.

Another observation - The lead flashing over (porch ?) roof looks a little hinky. Hopefully, the lead is chased in to the wall, but slapping render over the top is asking for trouble in the long term. Lead expands & contracts quite a bit, and will eventually push the render away from the wall leading to cracks forming and eventual failure. One would normally chase the lead in to the wall, fit a drip bead (bell cast) just above, and then render to the bead. The quick & dirty way is to just fix the lead to the wall (nails or screws), and then slap render over the top which will eventually fail.

Ben1989

An update:

So we had a damp company round and he said we have water coming in from the outside. We have a pebble dash wall which is painted and you can see cracks in it.

He recommended treated it by pulling the internal plaster down to brick, putting some sort of protective sheet up, and then replaster. I wasn't there when he visited I'm just messaging what the missus was told. He said the plaster and wall will remain 'soaked' for months and months so the sheet will protect the inside and supposedly the stairs which he says can suffer if left for too long. Then we can revisit the actual render when we want to/if we want to.

As it stands we have wet plaster which has and continues to grow mould.

Does this sound feasible? We just cannot afford a re-render and judging from what he said the inside wall will remain to stay wet for a long time.

FreeBear

You would be much better off biting the bullet now and fixing the render. Messing around with short term fixes won't save you any money. And if that damp is getting into the stairs, they will slowly rot (major expense to fix).

You have reasonably good access down the side, so scaffolding shouldn't be hugely expensive. You can save money by chiselling off the top layer of pebbledash yourself - An air hammer/chisel is the ideal tool, an SDS drill, next best thing, all be it, quite a bit heavier. Identify exactly where the cracks in the base coat are, grind out, and fill. If there are cracks in the underlying masonry, helibars can be used to stitch them up.

Once you've finished the prep & repairs, call in a renderer/plasterer to put a finish coat on.

stuart45

When fixing damp issues in a wall it's best to do the outside first, which is the source of the problem. 

Ben1989

The thing is you’re talking, what, £12,000-£20,00(?) to re render the wall? I have no idea of prices (north west). We just cannot afford at the moment, at all. I’m going to call him tomorrow but he said working inside out is best, not sure why.

He quoted the below:

1) remove skirting boards and picture rail
2) remove plaster work back to brick 

3) chemically sterilise brick work 

4) inject new Wykamol damp course
5) install Wykamol tanking membrane 

6) plaster board and plaster skim finish 

7) install new skirting boards & picture rails with preserver 

8) remove all waste 

9) supply all materials and labour 

10) issue 20 year Wykamol independent guarantee 

£5,500 inc VAT


Is this something Home Insurance can cover?

stuart45

He said working from the inside first is best probably because that's the work that his company cover. 
You always fix the cause of the dampness first. 

shiraz99

Ben1989 said:

The thing is you’re talking, what, £12,000-£20,00(?) to re render the wall? I have no idea of prices (north west). We just cannot afford at the moment, at all. I’m going to call him tomorrow but he said working inside out is best, not sure why.

He quoted the below:

1) remove skirting boards and picture rail
2) remove plaster work back to brick 

3) chemically sterilise brick work 

4) inject new Wykamol damp course
5) install Wykamol tanking membrane 

6) plaster board and plaster skim finish 

7) install new skirting boards & picture rails with preserver 

8) remove all waste 

9) supply all materials and labour 

10) issue 20 year Wykamol independent guarantee 

£5,500 inc VAT


Is this something Home Insurance can cover?

No way that much, not for single wall, maybe three or four grand.

As @Freebear implies, it's much better to fix the problem at source rather than treat the symptoms.

At least the damp company didn't say you had rising damp and offered some form of injection damp proofing, small mercies and all that.

stuart45

New DPC Number4

FreeBear

Ben1989 said: 4) inject new Wykamol damp course

That bit on its own is a complete waste of money and will not do anything to block water coming in through the cracks. And if you strip off more than 25% of the plaster in the hallway/stairwell on the outside wall, Building Control should be notified - They would probably want to see insulation added to that wall.. The proposed works still leaves your staircase vulnerable to damp, so you can expect that to eventually rot.

Chipping off the outer layer of pebbledash and skimming would be a repair, so not notifiable. Depending on how much work you are prepared to do yourself, I would be very surprised if a rerender cost as much as £5500.