localised rising damp between walls

[beatts]

Hi,

We have just moved into a Victorian semi-detached house, and all is good, but there is an area of 'rising damp' which was picked up on our survey but now I am able to have a better look at.

please see attached pics. The wall with the plug socket is the old kitchen, and the wall at 90 degree to the left is the party wall between properties. The floor in this room is concrete.
The other pic of the yellow wall covering, is the room adjacent and from the door frame to the corner the wallpaper alternates between dry and wet depending on the weather. When we moved in, the weather was torrential rain and the wallpaper was very wet. The party wall to the chimney breast is not wet (or at least not to touch) and looks fine. The floor in this room is timber.

There are central heating pipe running through this wall, but we have not seen any loss of pressure at the boiler so I assume they are not leaking.

I assume there is no DPC between the two rooms. The other pic shows a similar area on the other side of the door, and yet the wallpaper on the other side is bone dry?!?


What would be the cause and remedy of this situation? We will get pro's in to do the work, but I don't want to be fleeced with a 'temp fix'

Both flooring surfaces under the carpet / lino are dry.

I appreciate any advice.


Thanks

 

[Wayners]

Maybe have ago yourself.

 

[JohnD]

Your first two pictures show a wall that is wet at the bottom. The wet appears to be localised.

So we can reasonably suppose that there is a source of water in or under the floor. Or possibly in the wall, bur the wet patch runs along the bottom of the wall and does not have a particular spot that is worst or highest.

Is the floor wooden or concrete?

What is on the other side of the wall?

It may be useful to know that water in houses commonly comes from leaking pipes, drains and gutters, sometimes from leaking roofs or wall defects such as cracks or badly fitted windows. It is worsened by blocked airbricks and bridged DPC, which are usually due to ground or paving levels being raised after the house was built. Rarely from a spontaneous source in the ground such as an underground spring.

Silicone injections do not repair any of these faults.

 

[foxhole]

Roof condition? Does roof have a parapet wall? Any extension built to these areas?

 

[beatts]

Hi,

would a roof issue not show at upper parts of the wall? This is only 8" high from the bottom.

The party wall at 90deg to the damp walls are dry, and as I mentioned the white side is above a concrete floor, the yellow side is above a wooden floor and both floors when the coverings are removed are dry.

 

[foxhole]

Hi,

would a roof issue not show at upper parts of the wall? This is only 8" high from the bottom.

The party wall at 90deg to the damp walls are dry, and as I mentioned the white side is above a concrete floor, the yellow side is above a wooden floor and both floors when the coverings are removed are dry.

You can have serious roof problems which only show at ground level, water penetrates down and then appears when it hits you dpc.
Could you answer other questions?

 

[beatts]

Hi,
I mentioned in my original post, there was no DPC in the base of this wall.

The white walled room is a kitchen outrigger, I.e. an add on at 90deg to the main building. This would have been built decades ago, or even at the same time as the rest of the building building.

The length of this wall is shared with next door and is not showing any sign of damp along its length. The damp is on the wall which essentially butts up against the main body of the building and only at skirting level.

See attached pic. The red lines are where the damp is, but only at the point where the kitchen meets the main building wall.

 

[foxhole]

Probably not correctly finish at junction of old and new.
Allows rain to soak down into wall unhindered.

 

[JohnD]

the yellow side is above a wooden floor

Can you lift a floorboard and see what is underneath?

I don't follow your photo with red lines. Can you draw a floorplan?

When damp occurs in or beside a kitchen or bathroom, it is often due to plumbing.

Please include the original and current positions of the sink, drains, and water supply pipe.

What years was the house built? Does it have an iron water pipe?

 

[beatts]

Ok, so looking at the photo, you can see extending from the main house, a flat roof room, and an apex slate tiled roof room.
The flat roof room is the new kitchen, with drain, water supply etc. All is ok here.

The other room under the apex slate tiled roof is now a kind of sitting room, but was I believe the original kitchen.

The damp is where this old room meets the living room.

I haven't lifted a floorboard as yet, but I will do. The only area of damp is in this one place. The rest of the room is ok.

The house was built between 1905 and 1910 so I have no idea where the original sink etc was, but it has been like this for 20yrs at least.

 

[JohnD]

The house was built between 1905 and 1910 so I have no idea where the original sink etc was, but it has been like this for 20yrs at least.

Where would the front door be, and where are the outdoor and the indoor stopcock?

Can you see where the drains go?

Is there a water meter?

 

[beatts]

So, as with the plan attached. The main drain goes from the red circle to the main road.
The stop cock is in the entrance porch (green) and the damp areas are in yellow.

 

[beatts]

not sure if there is a water meter. I haven't checked,

 

[JohnD]

So the damp is in the room that used to be the kitchen, and has a concrete floor.

Do you think the concrete floor is original, or a replacement?

If the wall is wet and the floor is dry, there might be polythene between the two, may be visible behind the skirting.

 

[beatts]

The damp is in both rooms, on either side of the wall, one has a concrete floor and the other timber.

I've got a damp company coming out this week, I'll see what they say.