Rising damp advice please

[Freespirit44]

Apologies for posting here. I need to make a decision pretty soon so I'm here for traffic and advice!
We live in a 1950s semi and have damp patches in several places. Two patches on the wall of the covered up chimney,(downstairs living room) this backs onto our neighbours kitchen wall.
two in separate areas of the kitchen. (One on the wall backing a downstairs WC, the other on the wall backing our garden)

We had a damp proofing company round today and they quoted just under £9k to get it sorted. This would include injections, protective membranes to make it more solid, vents in almost every room.
He said that it's rising damp due to an old damp course eroding and that due to houses moving etc over the years, water is seeping through. He said it's definitely not a water leak.

Any advice around wether or not I should go for it would be greatly appreciated.
@pigletjohn if you are around, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Also, I would welcome any suggestions about having vents in every room. This is a new concept for Me and I'm out of my comfort zone with all this!

Thank you.

I’d get a few different opinions. We have just had 10 different tradesmen’s out to diagnose an issue in our equally old house and only one pointed out the bloody obvious that everyone else had overlooked. With one quoting over 10k for scaffolding alone 😬

@OhmygodDont I would but the majority charge for just coming out to see you. This one cost £90, others range up to £500. I'm looking for someone to get to the source of the problem. We had someone come out free of charge and he took one look and said, yep I'll stich that up for £1700 and didn't even wave his damp checking machine thingy at all the walls!!

Ah yeah not so easy then. Definitely don’t want bodge it Bob either.

Under no circumstances get damp companies to quote or test for damp who sell damp treatments.

I would say rising damp is not strictly true but you need to find the actual causes of the issues. Some of the photos look like salts coming through the walls.

You need to search for every possible cause from leaking downpipes, condensation in chimney or leaking chimney bricks. Ground level higher than the house. There could be lots of reasons.

Go onto SPAB and read their damp leaflets.

Just reread your post again and for some reason totally missed the chimney duh.

Id get that checked first by a roofer / chimney chap. It could be that you’ve got water in that. The pointing could be gone or it’s not capped and the water is running down the chimney breast and then settling more at the bottom looking like it’s rising. Also does the blocked breast have any air bricks so let it breath?

Back wall to a garden again could be pointing issue. Our pointing is shot in places and needs redoing.

@Ziplob I don't know if it's timber. Not an ex council house.

Have you not ever had any of the downstairs floors up? Ours are concrete solid it’s on the efficiency rating on what we could improve to make it more energy efficient

Stand a brick in water and see if the water goes up more than an inch above the water line?

Most damp issues are caused leaking roofs, chimney flashing or pointing in and around the pot, poor ventilation, cold spots, blocked gutterings, incorrectly sealed windows/sills, ground level above any wall ventilation.

Bricked up fire places should have an air vent & a breathable chimney cover.

Don't get a so-called damp specialist out, they will, as you have seen, simply want to sell you these expensive "treatments" that may not fix the issue and might make things worse.

You need to find the source of the problem - it is a leak somewhere, or poor drainage? What they are wanting to sell you will potentially actually trap water where you don't want it and give you mould issues.

@OhmygodDont we moved in not too long ago and have not had anything changed on it yet as far as floors are concerned

As you have not long moved it - I would actually do nothing for a short while and see what happens to the areas with the issues, maybe with the exception of getting the chimney checked.

You may find once the house is lived in and CH switched on, some of the issues may dry out, if they remain then you can monitor if they get worse when it rains - this will give you more info as to what may be causing the problems.

The last thing you want to do currently is to pay a lot of money for damp proof courses etc until you know exactly what is wrong and how to get it fixed.

I’d get different quotes even if you need to pay the quotation fee as to give different options/opinions on how to treat.

Does your house insurance not cover the work required, also you’ve said you just moved in, how long ago and did you have a in-depth survey done of the property?

Rising damp is a myth. Damp meters don’t measure damp, just conductivity - and you have no idea what material it’s reading. Put a damp meter against lead paint and watch it go wild…

You invited a damp salesman into your home and - surprise surprise - they want to sell you damp proofing products. Do not hire them.

You’ve probably got a combination of a leaking chimney and high levels of humidity indoors. Buy a decent dehumidifier (£150) and a few hygrometers (£15), get your relative humidity under 50% and see if it dries out. Then ask around to find a local reputable roofer to take a look at your chimney and gutters.

As above, rising damp is a myth. And anyone waving a damp meter about is not to be trusted.

Before paying out any money I'd want to know that water isn't leaking in. Having the chimney pointing and flashing checked would be an obvious place to start.

@schloss by not long ago I mean four years ago!

@HaudYerWheeshtYaWeeBellend we had a very basic survey done at the time.

@BirthdeighParteighif I do everything you have suggested, how would I then know that the bricks have dried out? By touching the area it feels normalish to me even now so I'm thinking how would I be able to measure "success"

Ok, slightly longer than I thought! The advice you have received from many on here still applies though - it is not rising damp, allow nobody with a damp meter near it and do not get quotes from anyone who sells damp products.

You will get it sorted I am sure, many of us have had damp houses and have got them sorted, I would guarantee 99% of us have not had rising damp!

@schloss 👍 thank you. That's reassuring.

Do not do it. It sounds like the house needs to breathe not some expensive "remedy" work, prescribed by a company that does such work. Basically moisture in the atmosphere inside is probably condensing on cold areas of wall and causing the problems that you can see.

Lots of factors could be involved. Look into ventilation (could put PIV in the loft, a few hundred quid), decent extraction from kitchen and bathroom, plaster and render preventing the walls breathing, failed (wet) cavity wall insulation can be a nightmare, dodgy gutters/downpipes/gullies, house is too cold inside...

It will take a while but you need to do some reading and start a process of elimination.

@Ablondiebutagoody so I had to give an answer by yesterday evening to be able to retain a slot with the company. Its a lot of money so I'm going to do a bit more research and see if I can dry the house out myself. Might start by putting vents in the living room and kitchen.

It’s not rising damp. Rising damp does not exist. It always, always water ingress by way of gutters, roof, windows, doors, pipes, chimneys, failed DPM, non-breathable materials, or condensation.

The period property DIY and renovation groups on Facebooks are extremely helpful in troubleshooting these issues.

Just be careful that vents don't make the house colder because you will get even more condensation. It's a real balancing act!

I agree with PP, check out the Facebook groups they mention.

so I had to give an answer by yesterday evening to be able to retain a slot with the company

Dodgy high pressure sales tactics are the last thing you want from a company that will be doing work on your home. Avoid like the plague.