Can anyone offer me advice please. I live in a 3 bedroom detached house with external rendering. W have single brick not cavity walls. We are suffering from damp issues in the living room and kitchen particularly. I know that condensation due to cooking will not help but this would not filter through that much to the living room. When we moved into the house 2 years ago we stripped off the wallpaper in the living room to find aluminium backing paper this was duly stripped so that we could plaster the walls to redecorate. Could the external render be holding water? The side of the house is North facing at the front so the Western side of the house is exposed to the elements. Any ideas on sorting this issue out would be most helpful. Please see attached pictures.
Pictures uploaded. Render looks in good condition to my untrained eye. Looks like a little bit of paint damage to the brickwork but render look undamaged.
I don't see anything obvious either, I'm afraid. Only the roof tile overhang to front isn't 2" - Everything seems good. When the wall were plastered, what was the old plaster, the house looks older, and it wouldn't have been rendered or painted previously externally. Inside the walls would may have been lime plaster, which allows walls to breath.. I would say that the paint and render is holding in the moisture in the house. Had a similar problems, and a damp specialist confirmed it was a condensation issue. A lot of back panels of furniture had mold as well as shoes. Obs = Windows don't have trickle vents
Do you have a cooker hood, quite surprising how much moisture is formed when cooking, which all needs to go somewhere.
Paint is lifting,flaking on brickwork, but not all, is gutter blocked? Can't tell what rest of wall is like up to & including gutter as no photo. What's idea of tiles work in corner of wall, a bit unusual. As Jit already pointed out no tile overhang on front gable, isn't helping things, plus painting lifting/flaking as well on right corner, again a water issue from gutter/roof.
No idea about guttering although can't say i have seen any overflow when the rain is heavy. Roof tile overhang was fixed last year and lead flashing was fixed also. We do have a cooker hood but as mentioned no tricked vents in either windows. Are trickle vents an easy retro fit or would we be better to fit new windows with top openings? House is 1920's build, old plaster internally was in poor condition when we stripped the wall paper off. So we think the render is holding water, sounds like an expensive job to strip it off though.
Thinking about the issues we have in the house, the only room where we have no damp/mould is the downstairs bathroom which has an extractor fan through the external wall so their is a constant air flow into the room. Would air bricks be a way forward? If so how much would i be looking at for a builder to fit several?
Cooker hood is only any good, if it is vented through a outside wall. If it was condensation I would expect to signs of the damp issues on the other walls. Better to fit a new window with ventilator, rather trying to fit one to an exsisting frame. No window in downstair bathroom, extractor van woulld help, but you need ventilation & plenty of it.
Trickle vents to windows can be retrofitted, but i think you will struggle to fix them to the window frame, some windows have them on the sash part (openable). What about air bricks? Maybe get a survey done, mine was free. Thought they did recommend fitting a PIV (positive input ventilation) unit for about £900. I think the warm air is drawn to the cold external walls, so only affects certain walls. NW was the same side wall as mine.
Who did your report? I have been in touch with a damp specialist but they did not keep the appointment this morning. I live in Mansfield so any company recommendations would be appreciated. I have read a lot about PIV units, did you have this fitted? Have you noticed the difference?
Didn't get the PIV installed, but does look interesting. The unit they would install was a envirovent MR Lofty The house was rented out to students and one of the issues was they weren't putting the heating on (this was mid winter), to save costs.
We don't dry clothes on radiators a lot. We don't suffer from much condensation throughout the rest of the house. The main problem appears to be on the external walls on the western side of the house. After reading the comments i am inclined to think that it is the render which is causing problems but i guess i will never know unless i get a builder in to remove it.
Not sure if removing the render would just work. Only guessing here. But modern gypsum plaster doesn't allow walls to breath, not sure what the purpose of the aluminum backing paper was, maybe a vapour barrier?
Strange, what do the other houses look like. Looks like the window opening have been altered in the past. On the first floor window below, could have been clay tile in fill?
I don't thinks it's the render causing the problem, the problem starts from the gutter & down brick work to where those tiles poking out in corner. And front gable, again it's on the brickwork finishing just below first floor window.
No insulation in the walls and modern living practices with limited/no ventilation and uPvc Windows with no trickle ventilation = condensation. Install extracts in kitchen and bathroom. Open windows after shower a nd cooking in those rooms, dry clothes outside. Keeping heating on in all rooms going off and on to suit your preferred temperature likes. Put pvc Windows on day latch on occasion. You'll want to consider installing insulated palsterboard to all internal faces of external walls. You'll also want to consider installing a forced air ventilation fan in your upstairs landing hallway to draw out the warm humid air before that humidity hits your cold external walls.
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