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Help! Damp patches on wall upstairs


kittenheels

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I'm hoping the EDF hive mind can help...


We live in an end-of-terrace Victorian house, and after the recent wet weather we've noticed some damp patches appearing on the inside of our exterior wall. It's only on the first floor, so it's not rising damp.


We've just had a roofer out, thinking it must be down to slipped tiles, but all our tiles etc seem to be intact. His advice was that it could be down to small cracks in the brickwork and that we should just leave it to dry out.


The issue is, we're expecting a baby in March so I really don't want wet patches all over our walls - and I'm worried it'll ruin the plasterwork. The paintwork is already damaged because of this.


Has anyone had similar problems since the relentless rain? And how did you get it resolved?

Thanks Alji, sounds very similar to our issue. Please do keep in touch. I'm hoping it won't be too dramatic to sort this out swiftly!


Womanofdulwich - yes, I'm wondering if that might be the case. Have you had the same problem? Any recommendations for a great builder to come and take a look would be brilliant.

We had damp on an upstairs wall, which it transpired was caused by the outside wooden windowsill being rotten. We had it replaced in the summer and have had no problem since. We had to get the wall replastered, but after years of ignoring it and hoping it would cure itself, it was much simpler to fix than we thought.

Is it on the chimney breast? We had a similar problem, a chimney cap sorted out some of the damp but our problem seemed to be a build up of 'chimney damp', caused by a build-up of salts in the flue. These salts are from the tar and soot from burning coal or wood over many years. Googling 'hygroscopic salts' will give more info.


It's really annoying and the only way to resolve it is to strip off the plaster and put a membrane over the brick work (I think!). It's a massive hassle and we've just left it for the time being, our baby used to sleep in that room and I left a dehumidifier on when he wasn't in there, not sure if it helped but it made me feel better.

Don't panic! There are other interim solutions possible too!

We had similar issues and were told the render on our outer wall had been made with too much sand and so in the very wet weather it soaks it up and eventually comes through on the inside - sometimes a day or two after the rain. We had all of these visible cracks covered up with a tar like substance, you can also have the problem areas covered in a see through silicon - both of which are must cheaper than having the whole wall re-rendered and plastering done!


Might be worth speaking to David Duggan - search for him on here for other recommendations.

Hi All,


I've got a leak coming down through a chimney that's been cut off at ceiling height (I'm in a to floor conversion flat - the chimney breast in the room has been removed to make more space but it's still there in the loft & sticking out of the roof - my guess is with the wind and rain water is coming down the chimney then dripping in where the new bit of ceiling is).


Has anyone here got a builder they could recommend to have a look at it? or had a similar experience?


Many Thanks,


Jack

Hi Jjjjj, we've got David Duggan coming over tomorrow morning to take a look. He's got loads of recommendations on here so I'm hoping he can come up with a plan to solve the problem. Might be worth you giving him a call too? Good luck with it all!

Hi all, I thought I'd add my tuppenceworth... I too have an infuriating problem with damp patches when we have this driving rain. The roof is fine, the window is fine the pointing looks ok. I have tried the Ronseal clear sealant stuff in previous years but that hasn't worked. There is another product which looks better (http://www.stormdry.com/) to waterproof porous brickwork which I may resort to.

I have David O Brien (recommended on here) coming to have a look soon and will also get an opinion from a surveyor as have had so many conflicting opinions. The issue may hinge on whether you have cavity walls or solid.

I will let you all know when I get a successful outcome..

Hello all, just a quick update for those of you suffering from similar wet patches (sounds SO wrong)...


David Duggan came out to see us on Saturday morning and was extremely helpful. It looks like our side wall is completely soaked and has absorbed a lot of rain water in the past couple of weeks. It seems the wrong type of mortar might have been used between the bricks and that's to blame for the water soaking through to our inside walls.


We're just waiting to hear back from David with more advice and cost estimates, but it sounds like the wall might need spraying with some kind of protective coating or - worst case scenario - extensive (and expensive) repointing.

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