Damp on internal wall

katymayo

Hi, I live in a traditional 1930s semi with bay fronted windows been here about 10 years. About 5 years ago I redecorated the front room and took the orginal skirting boards off ( first mistake) and replaced with MDF skirting (2nd mistake) after a few months, along the internal wall that joins with next doors front room, that section of skirting was turning green with mould and tracking up the wall onto my new wallpaper. So took that off and replace that section with pine skirting....few months later the skirting was ok but the wall paper had white fluffy mould growing on it and a bit of a musty smell....now I left it and periodically cleaned it off and just lived with it. Last month had a bit of a switch around with the rooms and starting using it as the main sitting room and I just couldn't stand the smell in there musty / damp....so in a fit of frustration I pulled all my wallpaper off and the wall was wet from the skirting board to about a foot up the wall....then in another fit of frustration I starting pulling up the hard wood oak floor which was sitting on plywood which was on top of the orginal floor boards....the smell was horrible damp and musty. I'm only partway through the job but some of the orginal broads have green dusty mould on them. For context my front room as had the chimney breast removed by previous owner. Any one have any idea what to do next I'm going to pull a couple of the boards up and see whats going on underneath but I'm worried I've opened a right can of worms with no idea why the wall is so wet or what to do about it. Any advice greatly appreciated. 

Bigphil1474

Whatever you do, don't pay someone to inject damp proof chemicals into the wall. Costs a fortune, and just masks the damp for a few years.

It may be worth getting a damp specialist in. A survey won't cost that much, but you have to be careful as some are just salesmen for the chemical course treatment.

We had damp and a bit of mould on our bay in the old house. Got someone it to look at it, and he said it was almost certainly just  from condensation, so he took the wall back to brick, fitted some insulation, and plastered over to make good. We cleaned the air brick out as it was gunked up,  and problem sorted. Yours sounds a more serious. Maybe check outside for any pooling or cracks for water ingress, leaking pipes etc.

stuart45

Can you take some photos from a bit further back as well?

katymayo

stuart45 said:

Can you take some photos from a bit further back as well?

A few pictures a bit further back, the old concrete hearth is wet and the wall is wet about a foot up....the corners of the room are dry but the plug sockets are affected also, if a plug is in them any length of time it becomes discoloured 😬

stuart45

It's quite common to get damp issues where old chimneys have been removed.
Years of fires burning there have left loads of salts in the wall. The hygroscopic ones attract condensation. It's also better to knock out the hearth when a chimney is removed, as there won't be a DPM under it.