spots/mould on the solid wall!

Section62

Jellynailer said:

Returning to the task of trying to help work out the nature of the OP's issue in the face of a range of opinions and speculation, I have no concerns about my own wall because my damp meter has recorded a 0 result for 10 years. A damp meter is not expensive and could be very helpful in this case.

Inexpensive damp meters are notoriously innaccurate, and sujsuj doesn't need one to work out that a gap in the gutter directly above the area which is showing signs of damp internally is the first thing to address.

No speculation about that - it is a fact that defective rainwater drainage is often the root cause of a damp problem, and even if not the cause of this problem it still needs fixing ASAP.

Jellynailer

Section62 said:

Jellynailer said:

Returning to the task of trying to help work out the nature of the OP's issue in the face of a range of opinions and speculation, I have no concerns about my own wall because my damp meter has recorded a 0 result for 10 years. A damp meter is not expensive and could be very helpful in this case.

Inexpensive damp meters are notoriously innaccurate, and sujsuj doesn't need one to work out that a gap in the gutter directly above the area which is showing signs of damp internally is the first thing to address.

No speculation about that - it is a fact that defective rainwater drainage is often the root cause of a damp problem, and even if not the cause of this problem it still needs fixing ASAP.

The same damp meter recorded 7 above a drip in my bedroom but 9 in the far corner today.  My home help looked at that corner outside and found a tile had shifted.  Now, that seems fit for purpose to me.  Have you done now or can you find any other reason to criticise what I say? [noting you have done this repeatedly on other threads as well.] I think the purpose of MSF is to help others save money while solving their problems

FreeBear

Jellynailer said: A damp meter is not expensive and could be very helpful in this case.

A damp meter will only give accurate readings when used on untreated timber. As soon as you go sticking in any other type of material, the readings become meaningless. That said, with a modicum of thought, a damp meter can be used to identify an area that might benefit from closer inspection. Unfortunately, the charlatans that generally use damp meters to diagnose "rising damp" are just using the raw numbers to con unsuspecting home owners.

Jellynailer

This is getting way off beam and really not helpful to the OP.  Of all the possible causes of the OP's problem in an upstairs bedroom, rising damp is the most unlikely.  A useful site to help identify causes bases on symptoms is https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/damp/article/what-kind-of-damp-is-affecting-my-home-arNnf1P2wVnV

The symptoms of a possible problem reported by the OP do not fit with any of the causes identified to date by other forumites.  The symptoms could, however, fit with a fungal growth called black mould so I asked the OP questions in my first post rather than speculate on this and alarm the OP.  

My questions were "How long have the spots been there?  Have they got any worse over that time?"

An explanation of black mould can be found by copying the OP's image into your search engine.  This site looks helpful https://www.homeserve.co.uk/knowledge-hub/home-maintenance-advice/how-to-get-rid-of-black-mould/:

because it specify the symptoms as well as how to remove mould.

ThisIsWeird

Hi SS.
Could we have a wider pic showing the whole wall(s), please, to see if it's localised staining? And an indication of where these walls are - there are two affected walls in your pic, so I presume one is the 'party'?
And, is the window in that room suffering from condensation at all?
We've had some whopping rain recently. If this continues, could you go outside with a torch and observe?
How long have you lived in that house? Your bricks are universally darker than your neighb's - do you know if it's been given a treatment of some sort?

EssexHebridean

@Jellynailer - if you are happy with your damp meter then that is great, but @section62 makes a good point that right now it is more important for the OP to workout what is causing their issues, and fix that, rather than to spend money on a device to tell them something they already know. 

MSE is indeed a site about saving money, and this forum is the same, therefore we would generally advise against someone spending money on irrelevant items in favour of finding the best fix for their particular problem. 

Nobody on here will be criticising someone’s posts simply for fun - if criticism is being levelled it is going to be because the advice is poor, misguided, or misleading - all things that we don’t want to see going unchallenged, not only for the OP, but also for those other who may come after them with similar problems. 

@sujsuj I wonder whether that gap in the gutter is causing water to overflow and run down the down-pipe, and the cable that then loops across the wall behind it is then causing that water to be spread out across the wall too. There does look like some external water marking on the pipe, and I *think* the wall looks a slightly darker shade there too?  If so, then with the wet summer we have had it may just be that the reason the spots have appeared now is that the wall has been consistently wet for long enough that the inside is now showing the effect. Not sure you say whether you own or rent, but if it were me I’d be getting that gutter fixed ASAP, then ensuring plenty of airflow in that room, adequate heating, and good clearance on any furniture against the affected wall. Monitor to see how things look, both using photos as you already have, and seeing how the wall feels too - the damp wall in a former property of ours was quite easy to feel when it was particularly bad. 

Section62

ThisIsWeird said:

Hi SS.
Could we have a wider pic showing the whole wall(s), please, to see if it's localised staining? And an indication of where these walls are - there are two affected walls in your pic, so I presume one is the 'party'?
And, is the window in that room suffering from condensation at all?
We've had some whopping rain recently. If this continues, could you go outside with a torch and observe?
How long have you lived in that house? Your bricks are universally darker than your neighb's - do you know if it's been given a treatment of some sort?

sujsuj's house is detached.  And he's had multiple drainage issues before, so iffy guttering isn't a surprise now....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6537136/any-idea-where-rain-water-from-roof-normally-end-up-1950s-built-house

ThisIsWeird

Section62 said:

ThisIsWeird said:

Hi SS.
Could we have a wider pic showing the whole wall(s), please, to see if it's localised staining? And an indication of where these walls are - there are two affected walls in your pic, so I presume one is the 'party'?
And, is the window in that room suffering from condensation at all?
We've had some whopping rain recently. If this continues, could you go outside with a torch and observe?
How long have you lived in that house? Your bricks are universally darker than your neighb's - do you know if it's been given a treatment of some sort?

sujsuj's house is detached.  And he's had multiple drainage issues before, so iffy guttering isn't a surprise now....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6537136/any-idea-where-rain-water-from-roof-normally-end-up-1950s-built-house

D'oh!
It looked as tho' there was a too-neat vertical line just to the left of the black DP, with all the brickwork to the right being a shade darker. My eyes... my eyes...

stuart45

Looks like the brickwork was toothed out and extended.

Section62

Jellynailer said:

Section62 said:

The same damp meter recorded 7 above a drip in my bedroom but 9 in the far corner today.  My home help looked at that corner outside and found a tile had shifted.  Now, that seems fit for purpose to me.  Have you done now or can you find any other reason to criticise what I say? [noting you have done this repeatedly on other threads as well.] I think the purpose of MSF is to help others save money while solving their problems

Absolutely. But nobody will save money if told to do the wrong thing or buy the wrong thing.

There's nothing personal in my posts - if I see advice being given which is seriously wrong or misleading I'll point it out, whoever is posting, because bad advice is worse than no advice.  Good advice on this forum usually comes about as a result of different people discussing the issue and eliminating possibilities - none of us has a monopoly on the right answers. You can't expect other forum members not to comment if you post something which is incorrect/misleading/dangerous/harmful etc.

sujsuj doesn't need a damp meter - which if it works at all will probably be calibrated for timber - to work out that the wall has some kind of damp problem. Those of us with some experience of building defects can see from the pictures that there is a possible damp issue.

Spending money on a damp meter won't help sujsuj deal with this issue.  And it won't save him money.

Jellynailer said:

The symptoms of a possible problem reported by the OP do not fit with any of the causes identified to date by other forumites.  The symptoms could, however, fit with a fungal growth called black mould so I asked the OP questions in my first post rather than speculate on this and alarm the OP.  

Fungus and mould generally grow well in damp conditions - they aren't fussy about where the damp comes from, so long as the damp is conducive to growth.

A leaking gutter causing an external wall to be saturated is a probable source of damp - either by penetration of the wall, or as stuart45 says, creating a cold spot leading to condensation.

It is difficult to understand how you've drawn the conclusion that the possible causes identified by other forum members don't fit the symptoms - but regardless, a gutter with a gap in it immediately outside the wall which is displaying symptoms is something which needs fixing.  In all probability the problem will go away after the gutter is repaired - but if it doesn't then further investigation can be done into the cause of the damp.

I would also hesitate to declare the issue as 'black mould' - the pictures aren't clear enough to make a definitive diagnosis of the problem yet.