Hi @PigletJohn damp issue, please help!

[Saz909]

Hi @PigletJohn I'm wondering if you (or anyone else with the knowledge!) can help with my damp issue.

We live in a converted barn (converted roughly 1980) and for the most part it is very solid - no leaks etc. However, we have one patch of damp in our downstairs room which has been there since we moved in 7 years ago. When we moved in, the original wooden windows were rotten so we thought this could be cause and there were replaced. To be honest I'm not sure how much worse the damp has got during those 7 years as I don't have pictures to compare, but as you can see the plasterboard behind the skirting is now rotten.

The affected section of wall is adjoining our neighbours property but the front of their house is elevated over 1 meter above ours and is set back too (so the affected wall of our house is effectively next to a void which can't be seen or accessed. As soon as the wall of our house meets the start of the house next door, there is no damp.

I went and had a look at next door's bottom bricks in the affected area (about 1m above our floor) and there seems to be mortar missing, so water is possible going straight down into the void where the bottom or our wall is - do you think this could be repointed to solve the problem? Or would the moisture then be trapped and make it worse?

Sorry for rambling I am not sure if any of this makes sense but hopefully someone can help!

Pics attached are of said damp and neighbours wall.

Thank you!

This is fascinating PigletJohn. Thank you!

If that’s a patio, does it run down to that corner?

In your picture of their retaining wall, there is a quarter brick missing. Is that supposed to be a drain for their patio?

@C4tastrophe yes, there are actually 3 or 4 of those holes along the length of the wall so presumably to drain water.

the patio is flat so I presume if the water should run down through those holes, the section next to our wall is currently running straight into our bricks 😭

Im going to try and get someone out to have a look but I’m not even sure where to find the right person. From what I gather, damp
proofing experts will just sell me silicone injections?

The patio won’t be perfectly flat, it must run down to the wall.
You can either tank the wall inside, which is less disruptive but is trying to prevent the damp leaking out of the wall, or prevent the damp in the first place by digging out the patio and preventing the wall getting damp in the first place.
A general builder should be able to explore and advise.
I would expect that some sort of damp prevention ‘engineering’ was used during the build though. You’ll need to expose your wall in the room to get a clue, maybe even remove a bit of the wall and see what’s on the other side.

Thanks for all your help, we will get a builder in and next time it rains I’ll go round there to see exactly what is going on.

If you can manage to find the source, repair that, and the damp should slowly dry out. The improvement will be noticeable, especially if you have photos and can track the damp patch getting smaller. Don't render or seal over it as this will prevent the water getting out.

"I went and had a look at next door's bottom bricks in the affected area (about 1m above our floor) and there seems to be mortar missing, so water is possible going straight down into the void where the bottom or our wall is - do you think this could be repointed to solve the problem? Or would the moisture then be trapped and make it worse?"

If it is an old wall with lime mortar, water can slowly wash it away. Repointing will not repair the leak, if there is one, but I would pack the joints with cement mortar (which resists water) after you have fixed the fault. These joints are often full of mud, which you can wash out with a hose.

Thanks @PigletJohn 😊

To update - @PigletJohn you were right about a water source. Went round next door this morning in the pouring rain and their gutter is completely blocked and rain pouring down the side of our wall 😑

Promptly phoned letting agent so they can come and sort it out! Then we will get our interior sorted.

Follow up with a very short letter in case you need to claim for damage.

They might be able to evade responsibility for negligence if they claim they were not aware.

I'm glad you've found the source of the problem, but gutters have a tendency to keep getting blocked.

We have this issue with our neighbour, who is higher up than us, which means our garage is partly below the ground level of their side path. Their gutter gets blocked quite regularly and overflows, causing all the water from their roof to flow into our garage wall, rather than a much smaller amount that falls onto the path.

What we have done is tank the interior wall of the garage, which has completely stopped the water and damp ingress, so even if they clear the gutters, you might be better to tank your interior wall as a back up, for when the gutters invariably block again!

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjxkbnS97v-AhVTkFwKHfCGDroQFnoECA0QAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.permagard.co.uk%2Fadvice%2Fwall-tanking-guide&usg=AOvVaw1sdP6HtuJe5LbsZ8bEhuId

This is a very useful thread for me as we have what seems to be penetrating damp on an interior wall affecting DD room on one side and DS room on the other. It's only been like this since Oct 22.

It's so annoying and we can't work out where it's coming from.

I've had the guttering replaced and a roofer has had a look and replaced some tiles so the water definitely goes into the gutter.

I'm waiting to see if this is what it is and it's now sorted. I'm thinking probably not as DD room still smells damp. I had to remove the plaster as it just came away from the walls, really easily.

The damp is a light brown and more in the middle of the wall on DD side but middle and top of DS side. In his room it is also a bit on his other wall which is an external wall. The bottom of this wall seems a bit sort of furry ?!? White the same colour as the wall not brown like the other patches.

Any ideas?

Here are photos. DD room before I pulled off the plaster. I thought maybe it was coming in from the window frame but the plaster stayed hard around the frame

I would love some advice please from @PigletJohn @C4tastrophe @Diyextension and anyone else

These walls were pristine white and freshly painted last year and then Bam all of this just came out of nowhere

I would add that the brown patch of wall by the fan heater seems to match the worst brown spot directly on the other side of that wall at the bottom of the window frame in the S shape

I can post a photo tomorrow of the wall where I removed the plaster, it came away very easily and is pretty much the whole wall in the middle but not the edges of the wall

@HappiDaze It seems a bit of a coincidence this has come out of nowhere and after you've recently painted the rooms. Could it be something in the paint that's gone off, or damp that was already in the walls that you may have sealed in with the new paint?

Externally, it could be rising damp, or water coming down from the roof. Do you know if the walls are solid construction, or cavity brickwork? What is on the other side of the walls?

Internally...mould will grow from moisture condensating on the coldest surface, if the room isn't heated and ventilated properly, but the fact the plaster is coming off means there must be a fair amount of damp in the wall.

I hope you get a solution, it must be worrying it's in your children's rooms

@HappiDaze do you have cavity walls? And have they been insulated? If so, it is possible that water got into the cavity before the gutter was fixed. Some kinds of insulation unfortunately hold on to water like a sponge and the retained water can lead to this sort of problem, as the water would still be there even after the leak was fixed. (Assuming these are external walls, ignore me if they aren't)

And the feckers never bothered to mention it?

@HappiDaze got and external pics?

As the house is rented out I think it’s easy to ignore! The letting agent phoned the tenant who then said he would try and fix it himself but we explained it needs to be done professionally. We made sure to email them too as they didn’t sound too bothered on the phone. The tenant has only been there about 2 months so I don’t know why they expected him to sort it out! It’s clearly been like that for a long time.

@HappiDaze i hope you manage to get it sorted. It’s so frustrating isn’t it not knowing where it’s coming from!

@Hallmark1234 thank you, I will be going round their checking their gutter regularly now that I know about it.

Thank you everyone for throwing out ideas.

Definitely well heated and ventilated

Could well be damp insulation in cavity walls perhaps. That makes sense

In which case do I just wait for it to dry out or do I need to get it sorted out

Where the guttering has got blocked with moss in the past it has caused some of the exterior paint to start to cause giant pockets of bubbles in the paint / I am planning to get house exterior repainted.

It's a Victorian 1830 terraced house. Under the house is a crawl space of around 2 metres or so . Next door have recently put concrete in theirs

I'm pretty sure the walls are solid construction though but could be cavity walls (but I really don't think so in which case it can't be damp insulation)

@Saz909 I hope your issue gets sorted out

I felt now was the time to jump on with my issue as you were getting such good advice

Again thank you 🙏🏼 everyone for your advice

And if you have more ideas please please let me know what to do about these walls