To wonder what the hell I'm going to do about my house

[mystiquesonya]

Hi, okay I'll start by confessing that this isn't really an aibu but I am absolutely at my wits end and as I know there's lots of traffic through here, thought maybe there's someone out there who has a clue what's going on through personal experience or otherwise and could give me some much needed advice before I go crazy..

Okay, so here's the deal, in December 2010 we noticed that rainwater was coming into the house through the walls. Our inside walls are literally soaked through. This has caused damp problems, i.e. mould growing on everything, dc's toys, walls, kitchen cupboards and the house stinks, it's just horrendous. In December 2010 when we first noticed the problem we called our insurance who sent around a builder and a surveyor who agreed the problem was 'condensation' and that we just needed to open windows, ventilate the property more etc (although we were reluctant to believe this as we WERE always opening windows etc). We listened to their suggestion anyway and kept the house extra ventilated for the next few months. But, alas, no change. During this time we had to replace the floor as it was so wet it collapsed.

In December 2011 we contacted an independent surveyor. We scoured the internet for a decent, respected surveyor because we wanted someone who could solve the problem and found somebody who a.) was chartered b.) had appeared on a bbc consumers show offering advice and c.) charged an arm and a leg (and we assumed we'd get what we paid for). The surveyor came out and he did a thorough examination of the wall and under the floor (where there's also water). He then advised us that our problem was because our walls were filled with the 'wrong' type of insulation which was soaking the rainwater from the outide wall and into the interior wall. So (deep breath) we paid £400 for a company to come and remove the insulation... And still there's NO CHANGE. Every time it rains our walls are soaked and it's causing so, so many problems. I hate my home and hate being here and I'm worried for the dc's health. We've spoken to countless friends anf family members, none of whom have ever heard anything like this and even the professionals don't know what's going on.

So, if anyone has had rainwater seep in to their internal walls I'd be so eternally grateful if you could advise me what caused it and how you resolved it. You would honestly be saving my life. Thanks in advance for any replies. And thanks for reading.

Other house!? Old house. Meant to add he also re-pointed the house before sealing. It was a time consuming job but not too difficult. He is quite handy to have about sometimes my hubby

Surely the insurance company should be dealing with this for you? that's what you are paying them for! I'd be getting back to them as well as the surveyor.

I really feel for you actually; I have so many problems with my house...hope you get it sorted.

We had a problem in our flat (converted Edwardian semi) that was the upstairs neighbours front door - rain blew in under the door and made the walls in my part of the flat damp!!!

Water takes the route of least resistance and in one uni a researcher tried to get water to rise up through brick pillars and he couldn't make it happen so unless the outside is higher than the inside of the wall you don't get rising damp it's all a bit of a myth.

Guttering or pointwork similar the most likely culprit.

How good are the windows? If they are not sealed properly around the frames, then water and damp, and lots of condensations can seep in around them.

If there is water below the floor your founations could be below the water table - check it and check your damp course- also if you are sure it coming through Walls you can get a treatment that waterproofs Walls - but bricks are waterproof!
In the meantime to help with the mould etc run a dehumidifier - I had same probs in my old house but the foundations were under the water table. It needed filling in with concrete and damp course. Hth.

Is the house detached, semi-detached or terrace? If semi or terrace, are the neighbours having any problems?

we had this, but not so bad, and it was as the bit where the pipes (for bathroom ventilation) had so much of an opening around them ,when it rained it rained into the house in places (we had internal wall dripping). A local handyman did some detective work, found the pipe that was just stuck in loose, and sorted it.

I hope you have a simple solution too! It is a very frightening thing to happen

where are you OP?

My first thought was guttering, for it to be happening when it rains. At 50 years old the house is probably too young for this, but some neighbours of mine have very odd guttering, whereby the gutters on the front of the house do not feed into a downpipe on the front, but are instead channeled to a downpipe on the back of the house via open 'canals' in the attic. One neighbour's 'canal' got blocked once and caused all sort of damage.

Water under the floor - I'd usually assume a cracked drain or main to produce that much water. Or - your house is built on top of an impermeable layer (e.g. granite) and surface water cannot drain through this layer; so that the local water table has risen enough to reach your foundations. To do this, there must have been an increase in surface water from something. Hasa lot of buidling taken place around you OP, e.g. large carparks or something else causing a lot of area to be concreted over, so that water cannot seep away onsite and so is draining into an area that includes your house? If this were the case neighbours should also be affected.