Penetrating Damp or Condensation?

Matty0682

Hi All

How to I tell the difference between Penetration Damp or whether it is Condensation damp.

A the top of my stairs, on the side wall (directly under chimney) there are damp spots on the wall. The is little ventilation here, and the cold spots are cold to touch.

Do you think these may be caused from water Penetrating due to chimney leak?

Or is Condensation? They are always in the same spots.

Thanks

ThisIsWeird

Penetrating.

Tho' travelling down 'through' the wall, somewhat.

I'd say that this is far too focused and defined to be cond, which would tend to be more general, widespread, and concentrated in corners where there's relatively little air flow.

It looks to me as tho' it's coming down 'through' that wall from above, and just coming through to the inside where it can. Is it a solid or cavity wall? What's at the top - how is it capped or finished? There's a chimney up there, presumably with 'flashing'. Guess what I suspect? Which would be good news, as it should be easily fixable.

Grenage

Quite possibly penetrating, although I do see a clothes dryer right by the spot...

rob7475

Is the wall with the damp spots plasterboard? It's quite hard to tell from the photo but I think the damp spots may be where the "dabs" are in a dot and dab plasterboarded wall. These dabs of adhesive bridge the gap between the plasterboard and external wall and you may get condensation  over them if there is enough moisture in the air.

ThisIsWeird

rob7475 said:

Is the wall with the damp spots plasterboard? It's quite hard to tell from the photo but I think the damp spots may be where the "dabs" are in a dot and dab plasterboarded wall. These dabs of adhesive bridge the gap between the plasterboard and external wall and you may get condensation  over them if there is enough moisture in the air.

Ooh, didn't think of that

stuart45

This is from a barn conversation done years ago. It's an internal wall, so not actually cold bridging, but they are damp spots from condensation.

rob7475

ThisIsWeird said:

rob7475 said:

Is the wall with the damp spots plasterboard? It's quite hard to tell from the photo but I think the damp spots may be where the "dabs" are in a dot and dab plasterboarded wall. These dabs of adhesive bridge the gap between the plasterboard and external wall and you may get condensation  over them if there is enough moisture in the air.

Ooh, didn't think of that

I could be totally wrong of course  . The washing drying right next to the wall makes me think that condensation could be an option though.

ThisIsWeird

stuart45 said:

This is from a barn conversation done years ago. It's an internal wall, so not actually cold bridging, but they are damp spots from condensation.

Blimey!

Looking at the OP's photos again, I'm still hedging towards water ingress, as some of the patches appear to be yellow stained.

It would be nice if Matty came back (how do you do that '@' thingy?) with an update, ideally to confirm whether it's a D&D wall.

stuart45

ThisIsWeird said:

stuart45 said:

This is from a barn conversation done years ago. It's an internal wall, so not actually cold bridging, but they are damp spots from condensation.

Blimey!

Looking at the OP's photos again, I'm still hedging towards water ingress, as some of the patches appear to be yellow stained.

It would be nice if Matty came back (how do you do that '@' thingy?) with an update, ideally to confirm whether it's a D&D wall.

You just put @ in front of the username, like @ThisIsWeird

Matty0682

I have only lived here for a year, house was refurbished 20 years ago.

I have decided to drill a hole to see. It isn't D&D (no plaster board)

Rather it's thick plaster, maybe they pastered directly onto external wall?

The hole was supper dry, so I think it's not penetrating damp

ThisIsWeird

Are you detached, Matty?
What's on the other side of that wall?