Damp on internal wall

[ihatehomeownership]

You wouldn't get condensation on radiator pipes if the heating's on. You get it on cold pipes in damp rooms - usually the cold feed and toilet header tank get a good coating that can often look like a leak.

If the air in your house is exceptionally damp AND the heating's off and stone cold then it's possible it's condensation. But I still find that theory unlikely given that it's wet enough to make the paint darker.

Does your heating system require manual top ups via a filling loop? If so then do you find it loses pressure and needs topping up regularly?

Do you have a water meter? If so then take a reading down to the very last digit and arrow position, ideally take a photo, before you're next about to go out for a day trip. Check when you return, if it's moved then there's a leak.

Measure the humidity with a decent meter. If it's above 60% at a reasonable living temperature then it's too wet. Above 70% is definitely a problem.

I still think it's way too severe to be rising damp, but you're guessing unless you get the floor up at the bottom of that wall and have a proper look.

I run a dehumidifier most of the time in the house in cooler months. Without it it probably runs around 60 at reasonable temperature. We get some condensation on external walls. I put a hygrometer in the subfloor recently and it was getting like 87 but probably not surprising with that standing water.

My boiler is old and tends to run at quite high pressure, it does drop the pressure when cool but once it's on it goes up to around 2. If it's filled to 1 when off then it can go up to 3.

I can try and crawl underneath through existing hole and take a picture.

The meter isn't going up and the leak detection people found no leak.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Without it it probably runs around 60 at reasonable temperature.

If it's 60 without the dehumifier, then you don't need the dehumidifier. We use one, but only in the utility, and only for drying clothes.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

It's possible that the humidity is low only because there are cold walls it condenses onto, i.e. your house has a built-in dehumidifier.

You need to stop typing and start pulling up floor boards, we're all just guessing here.

 

[ihatehomeownership]

It's possible that the humidity is low only because there are cold walls it condenses onto, i.e. your house has a built-in dehumidifier.

You need to stop typing and start pulling up floor boards, we're all just guessing here.

I'm a little averse currently to pulling up all floorboards. I went under the floor from the hole by the front of the house and looked around. The floor is damp but not particularly wet under most of it. The wall underneath the wet wall is pretty dry, although the wall above is also drying out.


Pipes show corrosion but couldn't see a leak although not sure how long water would stick around for on central heating pipes.

I noticed some drip marks on bricks. I wonder if it could condensation onto foil insulation which is in contact with plaster - not sure if far fetched.

Attached some pics from either side of wet wall in case you can see anything I can't.

Edit: looking at it again the mortar seems quite wet also. Maybe it's poor drainage, flooded subfloor, high humidity, condensation against presumably cold foil, wet mortar above dpc, capillary action.

The wall on the other side of the wet wall has a radiator and a kitchen paint, which could explain the differential staining. Most of the drips appear on the radiator side which has foil underlay. The room on the other side of the wall has some sort of polystyrene style underlay.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I'm a little averse currently to pulling up all floorboards. I went under the floor from the hole by the front of the house and looked around. The floor is damp but not particularly wet under most of it. The wall underneath the wet wall is pretty dry, although the wall above is also drying out.

Your damp course, is directly below those joists, your joists are actually resting on it. All the timber, in those photos, looks to be in absolutely great condition. In your first photo, the soil up to the wall looks fairly dry, but beyond that appear damp/moist.

You need to check, and ensure - all the soil outside, is well below that damp course level, and make sure no drains around that are leak free, and clear.

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Looks unlikely to be from below from here.

Could we have a look at the plumbing you mentioned on the other side of the wall?

I can see from below there's a couple of pipes vanishing mysteriously into the brickwork.

 

[ihatehomeownership]

For clarification photos 1 and 8 are on wet patch side of wall, the remaining are from radiator side of wall.

I don't know if you mean plumbing side above ground but I have attached that.

The boiler is under the stairs. I think the ones going into the brick work are going to/from the boiler, with the blsck insulation in one of the pics. Just beyond the radiator there are pipes going upstairs in some sort of casing.

Thanks.