Hello I am.new to this community and was wondering if anyone could help with a weird situation I have in an old end terraced house on an adjoining wall to the next mid terraced house.. A weird damp patch has been developing on the adjoining wall I will attach photos. It is 2.4m from any exterior wall and 2.4m up from the ground floor level on the stair well. I have been to the neighbours and he has a fireplace about 2m from the end wall with a wood burner in it but that is on the ground level and he has no signs of this circle on his wall at 2.4 x 2.4 from what is the same wall. I am at a loss...could it be if that part was patched with differing plaster? Thanks in advance ....
Wouldn't think it's different plaster, but a water leak in neighbour's property a possibility maybe first floor. Water never takes the easy route from A to B.
Thanks...will go and see neighbour. .it must be from his side as I don't have any pipes for heating on that adjoining wall on the house...
And sometimes with water leaks there are no signs in the house with the leak, but your neighbour has the wet patches & other signs of a leak.
hi just seen your pics and that area has been patch plastered in the past ,very badly i might add.it's extremely uneven. how long have you been in this property and when did this mark / stain appear.? did it start small and grow or suddenly appear overnight ? as older terrace houses were built with brick walls it is very unlikely to have anything to do with your next door neighbour. as you go up the stairs at head height what is the room behind your head is it a small " box bedroom" and is there a radiator in there or any pipework.
Thanks all for the advice. .update. . As you go up the stairs the room behind is the box room front bedeoom. There are no pipe runs along that wall at all in the house. Most of the central heating runs are on the opposite side to the adjoining wall in the picture's. I popped next door and measured to the centre of the damp patch in neighbours house. The spot on that side would be located in his chimney breast..towards the top of his first floor ceiling and about 90cm from the edge of the breast on tge left as you look at his chimney...could it be the flashing on the roof and water trickling down to a feather point???? On his side? I have circled the patch in pencil and was going to see what happens to the size of the spot with the dry warm weather? The patch appeared pretty much ovwe about 2 days and has been like it for about 5 months..
I circled the patch last Thursday. ..must have been the hottest prod of the year for 6 days and the patch is the same size. ..do you think that would be likely with a rain water leak?
In your last pic - 25 - it looks as tho' the patch is emanating from above - but that could be from your house or next door's. Process of elimination - it isn't condensation! It ain't 'rising' damp. That means it must be coming from a water leak inside the house or from a 'rain' leak from the outside. You are sure you don't have pipes running along that wall anywhere, even in the loft? Does the same apply to your neighb? (This includes storage tanks in the loft etc.) Good move to mark the patch and observe it over a few days. I would agree with you - with the lack of rain and the searingly hot weather we've been having, it surely has to be extremely unlikely that it's still left-over rain-penetration leak. It's not impossible - it could be that the chimney was soaked inside and the damp has only one slow route out through your wall, but I have to say it has to be unlikely. When was the last time you had rain? Is your neighb's flue 'open' - is it being used? If boarded over, does it have a vent grill in the downstairs room? My suspicion is that it's a water leak from above but inside the house possibly in the loft, yours or your neighb's; water can easily hit a ceiling near the wall, and make its way down via a cavity before hitting a brick or ledge or summat which then allows it to 'wick' back through. Check you own loft first, then your neighb's if you can.
Thanks for that...it hasn't rained here for 6 days. .forecast is for thunder tonight. .. I have been in the loft on my side fairly regularly. .no pipes along that side the water feeder tank is at the other end of the loft at least 5m away...I don't have any pipes or radiators at all on the adjoining wall they are king of in the middle of the house or mainly on the oposing wall...neighbour really helpful and he has no pieces on that wall either..says pipe run goes down the middle.of the house...don't know about his tank posion though...if I were to hazard a guess this started very close to the time that he fitted a log burner (basically behind the damp patch) although the damp patch on his wall would be in his chimney breast close to the ceiling on the left as you look at it...and nothing there but hard to tell as would need to destroy his chimney to be sure...he uses his burner but not at this time to year. .he had new flue stack for burner put in and capped it off correctly. ..the only think I noticed was that there are no vents on the board that connects his log bunker flue to the existing chimney breast..So I don't think there is a natural vent in his chimney...I did wonder if that was not helping or whether it is this hydroscopic salts in the plaster leaking through from the back of his chimney breast...
Either coming through a iffy flashing, poor pointing,back gutter, or flaunching around your/neighbour chimney, water can take some stange routes getting from A to b, as I have said before. Disused chimney need ventilation, your stain doesn't look like salts leaching out.
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