Mould/damp Advice please (pics included)

[itsadisaster]

Me and DP brought a house months back. A do-er upper to say the least which we wanted to do up and re-sell. When we brought the house we noticed no damp or mould! We now think that the previous owners painted over and cleaned it off when selling the property because a few months after buying the house damp and mould just started appearing out of no-where! We've been slow to get the house decorated due to personal reasons but have been coming to and from the house and managed to get a couple of the rooms decorated with new carpets etc.. We have no idea how to fix this issue! Who do we contact? Is it expensive to sort out? Would our house insurance cover it? We've cleaned it off a few times but this is obviously not going to fix the issue. I have attached some photos (there is more than this but these are the worst areas).
Image 1 = Skirting Board in the hall which is an inside wall (no idea where water would be coming from?)
Image 2 = window ledge, frame and wall which just rapidly gets worse each time it's cleaned off!
Image 3 = A inside wall in the dining room that always looks wet but isn't wet to touch, it's been painted over a few times but it comes back (no idea where waters coming from) !
Would really appreciate any advice if anyone has had this issue before!

[Blankblankblank]

You need @PigletJohn

[WhoWouldHaveThoughtThat]

I'm afraid your insurance wont cover it unless it was a result of a flood.

Did you have a full survey done? They should have checked for damp. Skirting board suggests rising damp, window ledge could be failure of joint around window frame.

Do you think that the damp is at the bottom of the wall or is penetrating higher up and running down?

[CottonSock]

Check guttering and cracks in render. And window frame seals etc.
Check for condensation too. If so a dehumidifier will help.
Beyond that my experience is limited.

[Flymetothetoon]

Does the house have a cellar?
If yes it could be creeping up from there.
We had a problem in a previous house and it was coming from the cellar which flooded on a regular basis.

[Zebrasinpyjamas]

Start with fixing the easy wins. When it rains, go outside and look for water running down walls, look for gaps in guttering or blocked overflow pipes or guttering . Think about ventilation inside, particularly next to the kitchen. (We got damp in our kitchen since we improved our windows so there are no drafts any more.)
If it's rising damp, you can get injections in the wall but do this before you decorate as it's messy. It also only helps where you have it done, ie further along that same wall won't be protected .

[PigletJohn]

stand back and take some wider pics please to show context.

Include something in every photo to show scale

pic 1 - is the floor concrete? If you draw a line between where the outside stopcock used to be when the house was built, and where the kitchen sink was when the house was built, does it pass near this damp patch? Where is the nearest radiator pipe, and what's on the other side of the wall?

pic 2 is probably mildew arising from gaps around or above windowframe. Is it in a bay? Photograph the outside, including gaps round frame; gutter above, downpipes, and stained brickwork.

pic 3 Is it a chimneybreast? What's on the other side of that wall?

[itsadisaster]

@PigletJohn
I cannot take more photos right now but I will try explain the layout
Pic one = This is the wall between the hall and the kitchen, the door frame also has this same damp, there is a stopcock inside the house in the hall on the other side of the room, from you mentioning the stopcock and where the kitchen sink is it makes me think that it's the pipes running through to the kitchen..
picture 2 = it isn't a bay window, it's just a upstairs bedroom window, the windows are actually rubbish and probably do need replacing, they are double glazed but are old. Also I can imagine the gutters haven't been cleaned out in a very long time!
Picture 3 = this is the dining room, on the other side is just kitchen cabinets. It is right next to the door frame! There is a radiator about a metre away from the wet patch..
Do we need to throw the whole house away? The more I think about it the more I realise it's probably going to be a huge expense that we can't really afford. If there are pipes leaking would that be covered on house insurance? Also would we need to disclose damp in the house if we decided to sell? It wasn't mentioned to us at all when we brought it and I feel it is too late to bring it up now!

[PigletJohn]

pic 1
Is it a concrete floor that pipes are running through?

[PigletJohn]

pic 3
So it's not a chimneybreast?

Is there, or has there been, a kitchen sink, washing machine or other watery thing on the other side of the wall? Is it a concrete floor?

[justasking111]

An upstairs bedroom window so it has to be coming from outside, what we need is for you to take pics from outside if possible. It looks like your sill outside is shot so water getting in that way which means a whole new frame. You may also have water running down that wall from broken guttering.

[lljkk]

Just my experience...

we had worse mould problems before we got the cavity walls filled -- because the walls were so cold. Do you have good wall insulation?

Anything that gets water away from walls is helpful, are your gutters all good? Is the house well ventilated -- the moisture you're seeing may be what you breathe out.

If the previous owner kept on top of it then you can do a lot to reduce the mould too. Bleach spray has been a revelation for me.

[justasking111]

The ground floor problem, rising damp have they bridged your damp course by laying a concrete path up to the walls outside?