Damp. What do you think to this?
Discussion
Just purchased a terraced house. Viewed a couple of times spotted some very small damp patches and know that the rest of the row is affected in a similar way no real biggie. Unfortunately today whilst doing a few jobs this lot appeared in the understairs cupboard:
I'm thinking leak, its clearly been a problem for a while as there is a line where the plaster has been redone previously. No pipes running anywhere near it, gutters are clear, checked under bathroom floor upstairs. The whole row has a had a DPC on the external walls but it seems to have appeared to quickly to be rising damp..........
I'm thinking leak, its clearly been a problem for a while as there is a line where the plaster has been redone previously. No pipes running anywhere near it, gutters are clear, checked under bathroom floor upstairs. The whole row has a had a DPC on the external walls but it seems to have appeared to quickly to be rising damp..........
Edited by fridaypassion on Saturday 24th March 19:55
If there was no sign and smell of damp before it is almost certainly a plumbing leak, or just possibly a sudden leak in volume into the wall from the roof.
This much evidence of damp happening suddenly is generally only caused by leaking water directly into or onto the wall.
Rising damp takes years to develop.
Your insurers will pay for repairs.
Get a plumber on the job. they can trace pipes and pinpoint the leak.
Get it stopped. Inform your insurers. Good Luck
This much evidence of damp happening suddenly is generally only caused by leaking water directly into or onto the wall.
Rising damp takes years to develop.
Your insurers will pay for repairs.
Get a plumber on the job. they can trace pipes and pinpoint the leak.
Get it stopped. Inform your insurers. Good Luck
I would expect a sudden leak behind or possibly above the damp patches.
TELL YOUR INSURERS this will be covered and you will have buildings insurance and you may have contents insurance.
House insurers are pretty good I was MD of a house building company when we had two finished bungalows destroyed by a huge beech tree (TPO'd) falling on them. Shattered the bungalows.
They were show homes and empty, fortunately, or there would have been several deaths.
Insured with AXA they visited the site in 2 days and paid out the full cost of rebuilding in 14 days. £240,000 on the button into our bank.
No arguments no delay. Quite brilliant service.
House Insurance is not like Car insurance. You will get this sorted.
TELL YOUR INSURERS this will be covered and you will have buildings insurance and you may have contents insurance.
House insurers are pretty good I was MD of a house building company when we had two finished bungalows destroyed by a huge beech tree (TPO'd) falling on them. Shattered the bungalows.
They were show homes and empty, fortunately, or there would have been several deaths.
Insured with AXA they visited the site in 2 days and paid out the full cost of rebuilding in 14 days. £240,000 on the button into our bank.
No arguments no delay. Quite brilliant service.
House Insurance is not like Car insurance. You will get this sorted.
Looking at the lower part of the wall in the corner, in your first photo, there look to be salts. If this is the case it is a more established problem than you suppose. Rub your hand over the area and see if you get a white powdery deposit.
If you do then there is, or was, a passage of water in the wall. You can discount condensation.
As you have damp to walls either side of the cupboard if it's a leak the floor would be saturated too. It's possible the floor could be dry if it has a membrane and the ground underneath were flooded, but this would be apparent if you looked at the floor/wall joint behind the skirting.
I would guess from what you've said that these are not outside walls? I this is the case then penetrating damp is highly unlikely.
What age is the house?
If you can't find a plumbing leak, my best guess would be that the original damp course, if there is one in this area of the house, is two brick courses below the concrete floor.
If you do then there is, or was, a passage of water in the wall. You can discount condensation.
As you have damp to walls either side of the cupboard if it's a leak the floor would be saturated too. It's possible the floor could be dry if it has a membrane and the ground underneath were flooded, but this would be apparent if you looked at the floor/wall joint behind the skirting.
I would guess from what you've said that these are not outside walls? I this is the case then penetrating damp is highly unlikely.
What age is the house?
If you can't find a plumbing leak, my best guess would be that the original damp course, if there is one in this area of the house, is two brick courses below the concrete floor.
There should be an original damp proof course, probably bitumen, that's the one you're looking for.
The drill holes don't really help you find the cause of your damp, they just tell you someone has paid for a chemical DPC or done it themselves. It doesn't tell you whether there was rising damp in the first place, whether it was installed correctly (or at all) or whether it works.
Did the house originally have timber floors? You should be able to tell if there are air bricks to the outside walls or signs they've been removed or sub floor level vents to identical neighbouring houses?
The drill holes don't really help you find the cause of your damp, they just tell you someone has paid for a chemical DPC or done it themselves. It doesn't tell you whether there was rising damp in the first place, whether it was installed correctly (or at all) or whether it works.
Did the house originally have timber floors? You should be able to tell if there are air bricks to the outside walls or signs they've been removed or sub floor level vents to identical neighbouring houses?
fridaypassion said:
Yes these are all internal walls, house built around 1900..... The Damp course if definitely above this level you can see the drill holes on the outside walls.
Drill holes suggest that a proprietary damp proof course has been inserted into the walls to prevent rising damp. Very unlikely the silicone barrier this ensures has failed. Edited by fridaypassion on Saturday 24th March 21:55
These DPC's are very effective saturating the bricks with silicone which is very stable in preventing damp rising.
I suspect a leak from a pipe or water carrier somewhere.
I reckon a Plumber is the best way forward. Good Luck.
Blimey Steffan, even the damp proofer's trade body don't claim that!
Firstly the accepted practice isto inject into the mortar course and you are not expected to get a complete barrier. They only claim the fluid spreads in a finger pattern and helps control rising damp. As with all liquids it takes the easiest route rather than conveniently saturating the length and breadth of the wall.
Secondly the accepted chemical damp proofing practice requires the right type of plaster to control the residual rising damp that the dpc has failed to control.
It may well be a plumbing leak, but lets not assume during the diagnosis that a few holes elsewhere mean an effective damp proof course.
Firstly the accepted practice isto inject into the mortar course and you are not expected to get a complete barrier. They only claim the fluid spreads in a finger pattern and helps control rising damp. As with all liquids it takes the easiest route rather than conveniently saturating the length and breadth of the wall.
Secondly the accepted chemical damp proofing practice requires the right type of plaster to control the residual rising damp that the dpc has failed to control.
It may well be a plumbing leak, but lets not assume during the diagnosis that a few holes elsewhere mean an effective damp proof course.
It is not the presence of a few holes. That merely confirm a treatment in the past. Not uncommon in houses of this age. Usually effective.
It is the sudden appearance of clear damp patches across a spread of wall that suggest a leaking pipe to me. My understanding was that the OP bought the house recently.
It will have been surveyed. No surveyor would miss such a damp area. Therefore it is recent. Too quick and too apparent to be rising damp.
Leaking pipe is my bet.
I will be very interested to see the outcome.
It is the sudden appearance of clear damp patches across a spread of wall that suggest a leaking pipe to me. My understanding was that the OP bought the house recently.
It will have been surveyed. No surveyor would miss such a damp area. Therefore it is recent. Too quick and too apparent to be rising damp.
Leaking pipe is my bet.
I will be very interested to see the outcome.
Steffan said:
It will have been surveyed. No surveyor would miss such a damp area. Therefore it is recent. Too quick and too apparent to be rising damp.
There are a number of assumptions there. It may have been surveyed ,or valued or neither. If it was surveyed or valued the Surveyor may have picked it up, the OP mentioned there were areas of damp. In a valuation report they don't always list every area of damp.It's an understairs cupboard, it's possible that it was full of boxes or houses detritus when/if inspected and the Surveyor couldn't access the walls. Or didn't feel the need to look or didn't bother.
We do know that damp that appears 'overnight' is not rising damp and likely to be a plumbing or penetrating damp. In this case on an internal walls almost certainly overnight damp could only be a plumbing leak.
My experience suggests to me from looking and the photos and the information we have, that the damp has probably been there for sometime. That is why I asked whether there were salts on the wall, these don't appear overnight.
Looks like a classic case of damp to me. The fact that the floor is not soaking wet suggests that it is not a water leak.
Perhaps the previous owner hid the problem?
It wouldn't be too difficult to do. Just a small fan heater in there while it was on the market.
Also, my 2 year old grandaughter could have made a better job of painting that skirting! That suggests a bodge job to me..
Perhaps the previous owner hid the problem?
It wouldn't be too difficult to do. Just a small fan heater in there while it was on the market.
Also, my 2 year old grandaughter could have made a better job of painting that skirting! That suggests a bodge job to me..
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