Condensation issues

HampshireH

If its not under as your timber and bricks are dry and its not to the side it has to be from behind.

The fact it is a kitchen there (as opposed to the bedroom) makes it more possible it could be a leak from there.

If you have wet insulation between the walls its not going to look any worse or better as the it will be trapped water. And could be coming from the other side of the kitchen (window wall - usually where waste pipes are) and being absorbed through the walls and across)

But you would expect mould on the other side of the wall. However if it is a kitchen and lined with cupboards then it won't be visible until its really bad and the cupboard start to be affected. 

Where do your water pipes run in your kitchen because they are likely to be replicated next door. (unless you have reconfigured the kitchen as HAs are less likely to do this)

Assuming its not a solid wall if you're not precious about the decor I'd be tempted to pop the skirting off and cut out the plasterboard in the affected area you will be able to see what is going on behind.

Louise151201

HampshireH said:

If its not under as your timber and bricks are dry and its not to the side it has to be from behind.

The fact it is a kitchen there (as opposed to the bedroom) makes it more possible it could be a leak from there.

If you have wet insulation between the walls its not going to look any worse or better as the it will be trapped water. And could be coming from the other side of the kitchen (window wall - usually where waste pipes are) and being absorbed through the walls and across)

But you would expect mould on the other side of the wall. However if it is a kitchen and lined with cupboards then it won't be visible until its really bad and the cupboard start to be affected. 

Where do your water pipes run in your kitchen because they are likely to be replicated next door. (unless you have reconfigured the kitchen as HAs are less likely to do this)

Assuming its not a solid wall if you're not precious about the decor I'd be tempted to pop the skirting off and cut out the plasterboard in the affected area you will be able to see what is going on behind.

Thank you! That all makes sense. It’s an odd one as it does dry out but seems to just get wet again without dehumidifier. Would make sense if it was wet insulation or something behind the wall as we are only drying the wall not the insulation. As for the kitchen I’m not too sure as the previous owner has completely remodelled the kitchen. From standard the sink area is by the window to the rear of the house but ours is to the window at the front of the house so I’m assuming water pipes would be slightly different. 

It may be worth just biting the bullet and having a look behind the wall. Thank you for your advice

Doozergirl

I would always say to give context in your photographs, so large expanses of walls or rooms with reference points and scale. 

I'm afraid I'm none the wiser with written descriptions of what is where.  Try to get more of the room in a photo and even the whole of the back wall.  

But I would def check behind the skirting boards and even under the floor covering if you can.   

Edit: Okay... would you say that the vertical blue line on the corner in the thermal image is where your fence line is? If so, is the fence screwed into the wall in any way? 

My gut says that's water running down and pooling in the corner then spreading upwards where it's blocked by the DPC.   

It could be something as innocuous as a screw drilled into the wall.  

Louise151201

Doozergirl said:

I would always say to give context in your photographs, so large expanses of walls or rooms with reference points and scale. 

I'm afraid I'm none the wiser with written descriptions of what is where.  Try to get more of the room in a photo and even the whole of the back wall.  

But I would def check behind the skirting boards and even under the floor covering if you can.   

Edit: Okay... would you say that the vertical blue line on the corner in the thermal image is where your fence line is? If so, is the fence screwed into the wall in any way? 

My gut says that's water running down and pooling in the corner then spreading upwards where it's blocked by the DPC.   

It could be something as innocuous as a screw drilled into the wall.  

Thank you:) we have checked under the floor it has a pretty large crawl space and it all seemed dry but that isn’t to say there’s not a bigger picture of the issue behind the actual wall. It’s been advised a few times to check behind the skirtings so will defo take that on board and see if that gives an indication of what is going on. 

The fence isn’t screwed in and with the winds lately it’s just been flapping around the place, we’ve been planning to replace this in summer as it’s in a pretty bad shape. Could be possible it was once screwed in and now is not. Apologies for my poor descriptions, I understand why it would’ve been confusing to understand where things are. 

ThisIsWeird

Could the test used for determining whether damp is coming up from a solid floor also work here? Ie, wipe down that worst affected corner of wall, and fully duct-tape a panel of clear polythene tightly over it. See on which side most of the resulting moisture forms?

money08

As ever..ALWAYS ALWAYS Open the windows every day for an hour if posisble, or a few times a day if not say 15mins. Fresh air is king. It may be the house had a bad damp issue recently that as fixed but the damp left behind wasnt. So get some heat in there and open a window for a few days in the day and see how it goes. Get yourself a damp tester too they are cheap and a great help in tracking problems.

ashe

money08 said:

As ever..ALWAYS ALWAYS Open the windows every day for an hour if posisble, or a few times a day if not say 15mins. Fresh air is king. It may be the house had a bad damp issue recently that as fixed but the damp left behind wasnt. So get some heat in there and open a window for a few days in the day and see how it goes. Get yourself a damp tester too they are cheap and a great help in tracking problems.

They've got a PIV system, their house should be full of fresh air & they said earlier they upgraded the heating in the room, theyre running dehumidifiers constantly so surely not just some damp needing to dry out by now

jonnydeppiwish!

Op, what’s in the room above this room (I’m assuming this is an upside down house?). Given that it was possible the kitchen before, is there a bathroom above? Is there a water pipe in the wall?

For 30 something year old house, it’s definitely not right to be that damp.

jonnydeppiwish!

I’d be tempted to strip the wall paper off, look for any repairs to the plaster that may have pipes behind.
Condensation on your windows is normal (I vac mine each morning) but that is excessive on the walls. I also can’t see it tracking up the wall, rather it would track down (gravity). 

markin

Was all the insulation soaked and replaced? Was it blocking the ventilation in the eves?

With next door being empty and cold in Dec it could have just been a cold wall for condensation to form on, if its still empty why is it not being used?
Seems very odd to me that they couldn't get someone in within a week, Ask around how long it has been empty for.