Staining around plug socket on chimney breast

[wannadie]

Hello,

I just notice some staining around this plug socket.
- No signs of water damage above or below
- Socket is on chimney breast. Fireplace to the left, build in wardrobe to the right.
- Chimney is shared with neighbour
- Bedroom is on middle floor
- No plumbing in this area

Any ideas how this happened?

Thanks,
Big Matt

 

[Koolpc]

Have you taken it off and looked behind (Turn elec off first).

 

[wannadie]

No, but I will.

 

[ReganAndCarter]

What sort of building is it, flat, house? When my brother had a flat, the Muppet in flat above closed a towel in his washing machine door and caused a leak through brother's ceiling. Water also came down the electrical conduits buried in walls and out a couple of sockets above his kitchen work surface. Maybe something similar happened here in the past.

 

[wannadie]

What sort of building is it, flat, house? When my brother had a flat, the Muppet in flat above closed a towel in his washing machine door and caused a leak through brother's ceiling. Water also came down the electrical conduits buried in walls and out a couple of sockets above his kitchen work surface. Maybe something similar happened here in the past.

Period house circa 1910.
The neighbours have a bedroom on the other side of the wall.

 

[ReganAndCarter]

Period house circa 1910.
The neighbours have a bedroom on the other side of the wall.

Could possibly be that water/moiture has somehow got into conduit/back box. One of several possibilities though.

 

[JohnD]

Scrape the paint to see if the plaster is damp inside and outside the stain.

The socket was obviously put into an old wall so the colour could be caused by different layers of paint or filler. The stain shape is consistent with new filler.

Water tends to run downwards

 

[foxhole]

Damp in chimney has picked up soot and caused staining at easiest escape route.

 

[ree]

OP,
Possibly as above ref damp attracting hygroscopic contamination from a sooty flue?
Larger, bigger context pics of the whole chimney breast might help?
Have the flues been swept?
Are any fireplaces blocked off?
Have you been in the loft to investigate?

 

[JohnD]

Contamination from the flue would have to travel quite a long way through brick or plaster to get to the socket. I don't see other stains suggesting that.

I suppose it is possible that somebody drilled from inside the fireplace to the socket box, perhaps for an electric fire, but it doesn't seem a likely explanation.

It does not have the colour of a soot stain.