Conservatory damp on old external wall

[clairebintos]

Hello,

Please could someone give me some advice?

A couple of months ago a damp patch appeared in the arch way into the conservatory where the dining room window was previously. This has grown somewhat to cover the whole side of the arch.

The attached photos will hopefully explain it better....we have cut through the plasterboard to investigate a little (we will be putting doors in once the damp has been resolved anyway)
View media item 52563
View media item 52565
View media item 52564There is no leak from the conservatory roof.
View media item 52566 View media item 52567It has started to show at the bottom of this wall.
View media item 52569This is a crack on the conservatory wall to the right of the arch as you are looking back into the house. I wonder if it may have something to do with it? And this is what the crack looks like from outside...
View media item 52570This is the flashing......
View media item 52568
A friend has mentioned that it may be due to the bricks being porous and as the back wall is north facing (freezing) they have not had a chance to dry out this year. We have lived in the house for two and a half years now and have not noticed anything like this before.

We have also tried putting a line of sealant (one which was ok to use on PVC) at the point where the flashing goes underneath the conservatory PVC. I don't think this has done anything to solve the problem.

We currently have dehumidifier in the conservatory which I thought was helping until this recent bought of extremely wet weather. Money is tight and we cant afford to keep this running!

Please could anyone advise some steps we should be taking to rectify this problem?

Many thanks, Claire

 

[HERTS P&D]

You need to check the flashing above the conservatory.

Andy

 

[joe-90]

Is it turned into the mortar joints or just a pretty pattern?

 

[clairebintos]

Amazingly we have now found the cause of the damp to be the toilet overflow! It had been blocked in the toilet with some kind of filler.......which hadn't worked. Annoyingly although we had considered this to be one of the possible causes, we didn't investigate for some time as we didn't think anyone could be so stupid and just cover over it with plasterboard!