Damp on Chimney Breast

Bendy_House

Wow! Nice stack! And it looks in very good order.

I'd been looking at your photos on a wee phone, so only now see it on a larger screen - I thought the damp was light patches, but that's sunlight?!

So, the issue is the dark outer corner of the breast? That's a weird place for it to appear. It couldn't possibly be something as simple as an unventilated room and rusting corner beads? That would also be very unusual, but just covering all possibilities. If, for example, this room was near a bath/shower room that wasn't properly ventilated, and the resulting damp air had access to this room, which was in itself not heated or ventilated, then, perhaps...possibly...tho' very unlikely...

Interesting roof shape - what happens above that steep hip? A more gentle pitch? I think there's a good chance that a crawl in that roof space will give some clues; most likely the ingress will be in that same corner, so at the top of that pitch-change. I suspect it'll be obvious once someone gets up there to look, but surely it's worth a roofer looking in the loft first? Is there space?

Does anyone use a drone for such external checks these days?!

stuart45

Chimney DPC Tray being fitted. - Bing video
The problem could be the chimney stack. Nowadays the stack has a tray built into it like shown above. Years ago this probably wasn't needed as the fires were usually going all day in bad weather, so the flues stayed dry. Nowadays the flues are often cold for long periods.
The top of your stack looks like it's been rebuilt. Probably the metric bricks were a fair bit smaller than the originals so there is a ledge for rain to run down onto. It should have a sand/cement fillet on it, but cracks might have formed on it.
A large stack like that is really exposed to the weather, and being single skin brickwork a certain amount of moisture will get through to the flue and run down. On the chimneys before 65 the inside of the flues were parged without a flue liner.
Some of the moisture just soaks into the parging, some runs further down.
Where the flue upstairs travels over to the edge of the breast and then straightens up it a point where the water is more likely to soak into the brickwork and then the plaster.
This can bring hygroscopic salts into the plaster which will attract condensation at a relatively low R/H.

AAZ

Bendy_House said:

Wow! Nice stack! And it looks in very good order.

I'd been looking at your photos on a wee phone, so only now see it on a larger screen - I thought the damp was light patches, but that's sunlight?!

So, the issue is the dark outer corner of the breast? That's a weird place for it to appear. It couldn't possibly be something as simple as an unventilated room and rusting corner beads? That would also be very unusual, but just covering all possibilities. If, for example, this room was near a bath/shower room that wasn't properly ventilated, and the resulting damp air had access to this room, which was in itself not heated or ventilated, then, perhaps...possibly...tho' very unlikely...

Interesting roof shape - what happens above that steep hip? A more gentle pitch? I think there's a good chance that a crawl in that roof space will give some clues; most likely the ingress will be in that same corner, so at the top of that pitch-change. I suspect it'll be obvious once someone gets up there to look, but surely it's worth a roofer looking in the loft first? Is there space?

Does anyone use a drone for such external checks these days?!

This is what I think that it is a condensation issue rather than something with chimney. The tiles and fascia are completely intact and I should not get my soakers changed . It was just surveyor opinion therefore I got a roofer to come and have a look, who just stood from the top of his van and said fascia and tiles are fine so it must be soakers.

I have recently purchase the property from an old lady, who was downsizing and her daughter told me that she just used to live in one room with heating on in just that room as she did not wanted to waste energy therefore she was moving her mom to somewhere near to hers house. So my hunch is that this room was not heated well

AAZ

stuart45 said:

Chimney DPC Tray being fitted. - Bing video
The problem could be the chimney stack. Nowadays the stack has a tray built into it like shown above. Years ago this probably wasn't needed as the fires were usually going all day in bad weather, so the flues stayed dry. Nowadays the flues are often cold for long periods.
The top of your stack looks like it's been rebuilt. Probably the metric bricks were a fair bit smaller than the originals so there is a ledge for rain to run down onto. It should have a sand/cement fillet on it, but cracks might have formed on it.
A large stack like that is really exposed to the weather, and being single skin brickwork a certain amount of moisture will get through to the flue and run down. On the chimneys before 65 the inside of the flues were parged without a flue liner.
Some of the moisture just soaks into the parging, some runs further down.
Where the flue upstairs travels over to the edge of the breast and then straightens up it a point where the water is more likely to soak into the brickwork and then the plaster.
This can bring hygroscopic salts into the plaster which will attract condensation at a relatively low R/H.

Thanks 
The House was built in 1900 and then extended in 1930, the last owner had the property for around 40 years and they have done any work on chimney so it is likely there is no flue liner.

I am looking for advice that should I sit tight, heat the room properly and observe if there is further dampness or get another roofer to have a second look