Hello I have Victorian sold brick semi with rendered exterior wall. On the rear face, a damp patch is occurring during rainy periods. I previously treated the plaster with Zissner BIN, but now luck. I have chipped away a bit of plaster next to this patch and the plaster turns dark pink when it rains. A few weeks ago, I booked in two guys to come and repaint the high side of the house. The masonry paint looking at bit green was a causal factor. They are down to do a scrape, fill and paint but from ladders. However, with the reappearance of the little patch, I am minded to cancel them and book in a surveyor to have a proper look (only had the house for two years, surveyor for purchase missed a fair few things). The guys are due on Tuesday, so really want to make decision to cancel or not quite soon. I am about 50% minded to cancel. I have got a kid coming along in October, so I minded not to 'experiment'. I have attached some photos. The rear of the house is shown, with blue circle highlighting where the water is showing on the inside wall (photo attached of it as well). There doesn't appear to be any ingrees in the room upstairsI have also attached the photos of the side of the house to be painted on Tuesday/Wednesday.
Pointless painting wall of house, if you have damp patch... Need to find source of it & recifity it first.
I cancelled them and got in contact with several damp surveyors. Want to register inside so need to solve problem not mitigate
Had a damp guy round, apparently rising damp from elevated ground level behind the rear wall. Although his damp meter showed dry near the bottom. Definitely wet in the middle but not at the top. Need to get a few more quotes.
I'd suggest you call a good traditional local builder rather than a 'damp specialist'. Ideally one familiar with the type of house construction you have. Your problem doesn't appear to be a 'damp' one but more of a 'leak'! The fact it follows after rain indicates that it ain't 'rising'. The fact that it ain't at the bottom of the wall indicates that it ain't 'rising'. That fact that the damp specialist claimed it was 'rising' indicates that he's a twit. Water can follow all sorts of torturous paths before it finally shows itself - a skilled builder should hopefully be able to point to the most likely sources of water ingress and then test them one by one. There is some good news - the damp patch follows a rainy period? How soon? And the fact the plaster is dark pink shows that it is pretty darned damp, so is a significant focus point that could hopefully be traced back from. Ie - "this isolated area is damp. The water must be coming either directly through from outside, or from above and then through. Let's have a look-see..." (I make it sound simply, eh? ) Please report back with how this progresses - it's an interesting one, and could also be of help to others. I can't really see the detail in your second pic properly, but this could all be as simple as water getting through around the window frame half-way up the window, and running along a mortar joint before coming through the wall. Ok, wishful thinking there, but you never know... Your wall construction is solid brick? In which case, without a cavity to direct the water flow after it gets in through the outer skin, it's unlikely to be coming from far above the point of indication. Having said that, the render coating outside can act like a cavity if it's 'blown', leaving a small space behind it. Does it look, feel or sound hollow when you thump it? Anyhoo, your builder will check all that, no doubt.
you can generally ignore rising damp as the cause tbh. I would inspect all water and heating pipes as well as drainage inside and out to ensure here are no leaks. I would re check the roof and guttering to ensure it is water tight and not blocked. check the fall of gutting to ensure it is going in the right direction. I would also pay keen interest to the windows and cills, if they are old stone or brick Cilla then they may need repointing / repairing. likewise with windows if at any point they are damaged or the sealant / putty has failed then rain may find a way in behind the render that way.
Agreed that if it's rain related, probably easier to address actually. It's an issue of ingress. I've heard of splashback from hard patio surfaces being mistaken as rising damp also? I.e. rain hits hard surface and bounces back up, wetting the wall but not quite at the very bottom, because the splash is slightly higher up than ground level.
I just don't buy into the whole rising damp crud tbh. 99% of the time Damp in a property is caused by other factors such as leaks from pipes and drainage, cracks in walls and brickwork, leaks in roofing and condensation through poor ventilation etc. you are correct the lower bricks in a property can look green and damp but it is usually because there is no drainage and a great big concrete slab that butts up to the wall. But that doesn't mean you need to tank half the property in bitumen like some people would have you believe
I wouldn't go so far as to say rising damp is a myth because 1) I've experienced it myself and 2) DPCs are a very old and well established concept, pre-dating any dodgy damp remedial chemical DPC type outfits trying to blame everything on it! However I agree that rising damp is massively over reported as a lazy response to more subtle (but often cheaper) remedies, to do with gutters and other poor management/exclusion of rain water. Ignore those issues at your peril!
Helloooo! I was only holiday. In summary, - I contacted 9 'damp specialists' which I found on Checkatrade - Of those 9, I received 3 quotes (2 no response, 3 no show, 1 no quote) - 'Several vampire marks' in the wall - For all four attendees, including quite a large contractor (I can give names by PM) there was generally a consensus: Our home purchasing surveyor should have picked up the wet plaster on the side elevation. too late to claim The raised exterior ground level on the garden wall is likely bridging the DPC, a lack of french drain is not helping. The interior plaster between 0m and 1m off the floor level is different (likely waterproof, as readings were dry and the stuff stronger, could support the damp meter) and 1m+ is 'pink' plaster. Wet readings were recording 1m to 1.3m off the flow with minor dampness above. No water above 1.3m approx and dry walls in the room above. The remedies were uniform: New waterproof plaster from 1m to 1.5m off internal floor level Digging out of french drains on side and garden wall elevations (exposing blocked air brick on side elevation) New DPC I am reasonably happy with a quote, just need to clarify a few matters. I did contact an independent surveyor, however to look at the wall and make a report would have been approx 40% of the final quotes. I appreciate that I have asked the same question to the same people but the fact that it's only a damp band rather than the whole wall would lead me to believe that it's this. I have had a look at the exterior. There is some flaking paint at the higher level. The seals around the PVC windows are not in amazing condition but there is no significant de-bounding. I recently got the guttering refreshed with drip trays installed about the garden wall. The same roofing contractor fixed dampness in another part of the house (upstairs), so I am confident that they were installed correctly.
Guys coming in tomorrow to do the works. Will upload photos. They will be doing: - New French drains around the outside (250mm deep, 20mm gravel, liquid membrane to bricks) - Exposing blocked airbrick - DPC along wall - Re-plaster degraded plaster with waterproof render.
So the works are underway, we have been told that we should leave the plaster to dry for a month (fine) and that we should use breathable paint. However, understanding what 'breathable' is pretty tricky. So far my understand is that it means 'non-vinyl'. The room was (newly) painted with two coats of Dulux (Domestic, Waterbased) Matt. To seal the plaster, I was thinking of using a tub of Leyland Contract White (£15 tub), which I have upstairs, diluted 1w:9p as per its instructions for sealing porous surfaces. I don't mind going out and getting a better primer/base coat (e.g Leyland Super Leytex Matt Paint Brilliant White 15Ltr, "the permeable film allows new plaster surfaces to breathe and dry out".). But I am going to be a bit circumspect about not being able to colour match the rest of the wall. Any advice?
Everything finished. Outside, one guy installed the french drain all the way around the house. Recovered (one was buried in muck) and replaced two air bricks with two periscope air bricks. And then blackjacked the brick below the level of the new dpc and refreshed the blackjack above the gravel. The drains are 250dp x 150-200wide and look good. Inside, scappled off all the damaged plaster to the brick wall, which looked ok. Sand/cement and then plaster finish, which looks nice and smooth. Unfortunately, the CH pipes couldn't be moved but that's a boxing in job some time. Happy with works, just have to wait till plaster dries and then painting and waiting to see what happens...
Hi Ech. Only chust seen all your updates - sorry. That all sounds good - it never occurred to me that the outside ground level could have been so high. And that's a very interesting one about the lower plastered walls inside not showing damp 'cos they had waterproof plaster on it! Sheeesh Is it all looking good so far?
Hello! Unfortunately not at the moment. When they did the works, the pipes did not come off the walls as they did not have plumber available, bit of oversight on my part too. 95% of the wall is now bright pink except next to the window (attached). Incidentally, this was where the original damp spot manifested. My hunch is that the in situ stuff behind the pipes is bridging on to the new plaster. So the dark patch is either being fed continuously by a leak through plaster behind the pipes (hope not!) or is sucking the water out of the plaster/render that's still wet behind the pipes (hope so!). The works are under guarantee (and are one week old), so their surveyor has agreed to come out after 28 days. I was looking at getting this section, once dry, boxed out although if we are replacing the pipe work, my wife is interested in making the (new clean) copper pipes a feature in the corner with some brass fixings. We were also advised to get breathable paints, and I have narrowed this down to Dulux Supermatt, as an undercoat, and Earthborn (Grasshopper Grean, £60/5L) as finishing paints.
So the corner dried out and I got a plumber and Chippy along to take/replace pipes and do a boxout. The annoyance now is on the non-window wall where the old plaster meets new. The plaster joint seems to be attracting moisture. Can't do anything at the moment, but I have guarantee from installers, who did all the works. And have made them aware. Apart from this spot all light pink. Planning next summer to get people in to do scrape and fill on the non-windowedwall, it's south facing and there are spots of hairline moss cracks
It seems to me that the work they did was pointless. Its nothing to do with damp arising from those issues they Claimed to be wrong. You said when it rained thats when you had the problem? Water travels and i would say its coming from above that spot. Sorry but i think you have wasted your money so far. Check this guy out: https://www.youtube.com/user/stibnite11/videos
Thanks for the link , will have a look. The reason behind going with the Dpcs was that: - ground level above internal level (paving butting wall): French drain installed around outside of house with reinstatement of a lost air brick. This was also noted on the survey when we bought the house. - original salt/brown line was 1m abouve internal floor level: this was the top of the original waterproof sand-cement mix. - meter results: during surveys from different companies. I got them to do deep/shallow scans of the whole wall and upstairs, this showed that the moisture was confined to 1.5m above the instneralcfloor level and not manifest upstairs. I have looked around the outside of the house when it's raining and it doesn't seem to be any point of Ingress.
I have had 2 surveys on 2 dif properties by the same survey firm and they came up with almost the same issues with both properties even though one house was dilapidated and the other renovated recently! I dont trust damp survey reports. We were told our current property had too high a ground level but it is rubbish! I asked the surveyor where exactly and he could not be specific! Seems like they include things in a survey to cover their own backs! Sorry but this is what i believe (This is our 5th house in 30 years) Water can trickle down from anywhere!
Fair enough, re ground level it was clear that the ground level outside was higher. I have had a look at Peter wards website, and I understand where he is coming from. Our property does have a cement render over lime mortar/brick, which would include inevitably trap water. I guess his Dpc argument is that actually by sealing the base you prevent vertical drainage, sealing the water above. From where I am sitting, I can't really see what more can be done that wouldn't run into the £1000s, i.e. Hacking off the exterior render. I could pay for another RICs survey...The inside of the room is used to dry clothes but we keep a dehumidifier running (<60%). A cheaper alternative maybe would be to get them to finish the remaining section and spend a little money on some clay based paint that would allow the wall to breathe internally and dry out that way versus emulsion.
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