Damp patches on inside of gable (?) wall

shiraz99

Does the whole gable end need doing or can just the bit where the cracks are be hacked off and repaired?

Here's a quick example of what pebble dash rendering looks like, the pebble dashing or rough casting can be a messy process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbYg2jmF8tk

Ben1989

So I spoke with the damp guy to hear his reasoning of doing the inside first, apart from the obvious.

He claims that the wall is soaked and is coming through the plaster, again obvious. He states that the plaster will take years to dry so he’s suggesting hacking it off, sealing the brick with tanking material, boarding and re-plastering. Keeps the moisture out of the house and saves ‘rotting the stairs’.

I said but that’s not preventing water getting in and that we can’t afford both inside and outside work. He’s confident the wall render is not blown and it’s just peeling paint and micro-cracks in the paint. In fairness, the paint is filled with tiny cracks. He says get a good painter, old paint scraped off and re-applied with a special outdoor paint.

Firstly, I can’t quite tell if the render is blown. The area I’d like to check is below the loft window so clearly I cannot get there. It’s half the price of the render. However, it all hangs on his statement of the render not being blown and this new paint job being the fix. Also, if it doesn’t fix the render we don’t have the money to THEN do the render. However, we could be stuck with mouldy walls for months with kids in the house.

I’d appreciate everyone’s advice on this.

FreeBear

Ben1989 said: He claims that the wall is soaked and is coming through the plaster, again obvious. He states that the plaster will take years to dry

No. Plaster will take at most, a few weeks to dry out once the source of the damp is fixed. Yes, there will still be some moisture within the wall, but it will dry at the rate of ~25mm per month.

If your wall is covered in micro-cracks and one or two larger cracks, I wonder if there is another source of water - I had a major crack in an exterior wall and it was never visibly damp on the inside. In extreme weather with driving rain, I would get water tracking through and dripping from the kitchen ceiling some 2m away. Once the rain stopped, the ceiling would be dry again within a few days.

Have you had the roof checked for loose/cracked tiles ?

Ben1989

No it's a fairly new roof and everything seems golden up there. However, the loft window frame is rotten, the pane has dropped and I suspect that is the start of the issue on the stairs wall. Downstairs hallway has damp and that's above a corner window (i.e. two panes 90° to each other) that is not the best quality. Both these windows are being replaced in a few weeks but I'm not sure if the damage has already been done to the render.

Ben1989

So we had another guy around and he said the render looked okay. The thing is, it's a £10,000 decision.

What would people do? Wait for the windows to get fitted and see if that stops it? Would you just get the front done too even though it's an extra £3-4k and not a wall that's suffering any issues at all?

FreeBear

Decide what you want in the long term with respect to render finish (i.e. smooth or pebbledash). Get the windows replaced, and if you want a smooth render finish, have the pebbledash ground back in the reveals and under the sills.

Grind out the cracks in the render and fill - Slap a bit of paint over the top for now. When funds become available, rerender & paint - Shouldn't cost more than £5K to do the whole house unless you are adding external wall insulation. If you are going for EWI, then any window sills will need extending to counter the additional wall thickness.

Ben1989

My priority is just to stop water ingress tbh. 

The area where if the render has blown is very high up. I'm not quite sure how I get up there to check without hiring scaffolding which is expensive. 

Re-rendering prices are coming in at £10,000 for the whole house and £6,500 for the problematic wall. Four quotes in the same price bracket. That's K-rend.

When they replace the loft window in a few days I might hang my head out and see what I'm dealing with .

FreeBear

Ben1989 said: The area where if the render has blown is very high up. I'm not quite sure how I get up there to check without hiring scaffolding which is expensive.

Get a ladder & climb up. Give the suspect area a tap with a block of wood or small hammer (gently). If it is blown, it will sound hollow.

Even if it does sound hollow, as long as there are no major cracks, it won't be letting water in, so don't get too hung up on that aspect.

If you are getting quotes of £10K, I'd be seriously looking at having EWI fitted at the same time. The increase in cost is not going to be huge, and will save a small amount on heating costs - Will also make the house more attractive to prospective buyers in the future.

plumb1_2

Ben1989 said:

When they replace the loft window in a few days I might hang my head out and see what I'm dealing with .

Just ask the fitters if you can use their ladder or scaffold for a quick inspection Do as FB says use a small hammer.

Ben1989

Yeah I'll do that, thanks guys.

Out of curiosity can you rent large ladders? Is that a thing?