Damp in hallway, please help!

[Mumof22020]

Could someone help? I pulled out the unit in my hallway and at the bottom of the wall the paints cracked and a bit bubbly. The wall itself doesnt feel damp but somethings going on. I've attached pics if anyone can give me advice, thanks.

Is it an external wall? What's on the other side of it? What you need to look for is a source of water, so inside it could be adjacent pipework, an adjacent bathroom/loo, or outside it could be a leaking gutter, downpipe or soil pipe, or a cracked drain. As an example, damp in an interior wall of my last house was traced to a leaking water supply pipe near the front door - it had been leaking slightly for years probably and the water tracked back into the wall, which was damp along its entire length.

Thanks for the reply, yes its an external wall on the other side. I need to ring a damp specialist but just worried about the cost, everythings so expensive 😫

Run a dehumidifier to suck any water out of the wall. But consider the room above it I.e a bathroom is a prime source for water escaping.

Is there a drain pipe, gutter pipe on the other side of the wall? Is the pointing in the wall okay? Dehumidifier will be your best friend.

OP, I had the same issue. Turned out that the drainage on external side on driveway was inadequate so when it rained it was all collecting there and getting "sucked up" by the wall. What's the drainage like on the external side?

Agree about dehumidifier too. I got one from Argos and was shocked at how much water it collected.

Agree with PP about dehumidifier. You can often hire really good heavy duty ones that work wonders, and also checking the guttering/pipework, cracks in render etc. Also check you havent got any plants growing up against that external wall, they can bridge over a damp proof course and cause damp issues. Good luck, it can feel very stressful but damp issues are common and can be overcome with a bit of investigation.

Just seeing all the replies, thanks everyone. In work so cant take a look at the outside but I spoke to a friend about it and he asked was there any work done on the outside and I explained that the lady who we bought the house off had paving put down on the outside just before we bought it and he said it may have been put down above the damp proof or course cant remember exactly and that could be the issue. He also said if its rising damp it will be over £3000 to get fixed eek. Gonna have to bite the bullet and pay for someone to come out and have a look 😔

Don’t get sucked into chemical damp proofing snake oil or anything like that! Paving is easily fixed: get someone to cut through it and put gravel in the bit right next to the house to make a French drain.

My uncle sent the pics to his friend who works in insulation and he seems to think its cause theres not enough ventelation in the room, its the hallway outside the kitchen with cooking and the tumble dryer on and I have a unit in front of it. He suggested moving the unit scraping the wall and putting a primer on it before i repaint it then i'm gonna use a dehumidifier as other posters have said to try 🤞

@Mumof22020

Thanks for the reply, yes its an external wall on the other side. I need to ring a damp specialist but just worried about the cost, everythings so expensive 😫

do not allow anyone who sells silicone injections into your home

stand back and take a wider pic with something in it to show scale. Do the same outside, including the gutter, downpipes, drains, manhole covers. Show the dpc and how far above ground level it is. Show airbricks.

In the inside floor concrete? Is it damp?

Draw a line between the outdoor stopcock, and where the kitchen sink used to be when the house was built. is the wet patch near this line?

how old is the house?