Damp. :( self help required.

[Hanlonsamazer]

This is an internal wall, brick and flint (was external about 150 years ago). New roof and nothing unusual above the wall. Have had the dehumidifier running for about a week and zero change. Lived here 15 years and it’s not happened before! it was behind a sideboard which has now been moved.

I absolutely cannot afford to do anything to the house until the new year, until I can get someone to look at it, what should I be doing.

We bought a house with very wet inside walls like this. After much investigation it turns out the drains that the gutters go into were blocked underground. So all the roof water was just POOLING around the outside of the walls and coming under the house and up.

I think you should look into your drains and gutters

Also there is a really knowledgeable group on period property forum. I would ask there.

The other thing to check is raised and paved impermeable external ground. We had tarmac right up the the house. So the rain came on to the roof, went into the gutters, down to the tarmac and sat under it and found its way up through the walls as it could evaporate.

Heavy rainfall on non functioning gutters and drains can cause a dramatic amount of damage really quickly

All on the other side of the house, nothing drains underneath thankfully. The path outside is lower than the floor of the house as well.

That is not rising damp due it being an old house and not being able to breathe 🤨. For that to happen so fast and not in the previous 14 years the op has been there then there is water coning in from somewhere. Either a leak or like others have said drains somewhere and then its coming under the house and up the wall .

it’s possible the mains water pipe could come in somewhere under the floor and be leaking ?

if it was slow damp the the paint would have flaked off and salts coming out the bricks would have shown.

There are no utilities under this side of the house, it all comes in from the other side as we share part the mains and sewer bits with next door (on the other side of the house). Difficult to explain but defo no pipes or drainage of any sort under the house.

i think you’re right about the paint etc and no black mould etc although which makes me think it’s fairly new. Our external drainage is a soak away. Next door have had some work done but again, it’s kind of uphill from here (hard to explain hotchpotch of old cottages) so I don’t think anything unnatural has affected the water table etc.

Now I look at the two photos together it looks like the source is over on the right of your first photo, because the drop off to the left behind the chair is rapid. Obviously it can't go past the doorway to the right which is why it stops there.

There must be another wall after the doorway, is there any sign of water damage on that ?

You said it was an old external wall. Maybe there is an old soakaway running parallel to the wall that was built over and water is finding its way into that from the heavy rain we have had over the summer, then it is creeping up the wall. Is to the right of your first photo uphill ?

The doorway is right against the other outside wall of the house so no wall or plaster to speak of. It’s got a wooden frame (with about 600 layers of paint on it), this part is one room wide. It’s possible there was a soak away but I’ve no idea how I’d find out for sure. The house is three cottages built one after the other with a 1980’s extension on the back. The wall in question is the outside of the first cottage which became the inside of the third cottage.

Possibly makes no sense but then neither does the wiring or the layout of the gardens!

The right is downhill… the street is partly terraced and we are at the top with part of our garden behind a retaining wall about 3m away from the wall in the second pic.

Is the floor solid then? Is it laid Straight on to the ground / earth?

floor is solid. There’s concrete and then goodness knows what…

I guess then it could be ground water coming up - needing to escape and not being able to go anywhere except up the walls as the floor is impermeable.

Has there been a lot of rainfall where you live?

is the garden permeable ground? We had to hack away a fair bit of tarmac and replace it with shingle so that water could evaporate outside the house and not be forced to evaporate up using the walls

also I would say it is possible for an underground spring. Our cellar floods in winter as there is an underground river that is seasonal.

Thank you @cherrypeachparfait the garden is very erm, natural, (Read overgrown) not much impermeable. In fact it’s slightly more permeable than it was as I’ve broken a slab chopping logs.

I’m inclined to think it’s something underground based on previous experiences. It’s definitely not drainage or pipes as there’s nothing there. Will see how the next 6 months goes and keep saving!!

Good luck! And do ask on period property forum if you can. V knowledgable people there. You might need to draw up some plans though.

One last thing from me: my mother lives in an old cottage and parts of the walls are always damp. Not drains or gutters or anything except it’s an old stone building without a damp proof course built straight on to the earth. It’s just the way it is. She just used distemper not emulsion and lives with it.

It does look like a leak.

It looks like the wet patch is mountain shaped so the source is probably under the highest part of the mountain. Stand back and take wider pics of all the walls.

IMO probably a forgotten water supply pipe. As it used to be an external wall there might be an old forgotten drain but what would cause water to suddenly start emerging from it?

Find your external stopcock (probably next to where the front gate used to be when the house was built) and your internal stopcock (probably where the kitchen sink used to be when the house was built) and press the tip of an engineers stethoscope against them while they are turned on and off. Also do this on the floor and wall while an assistant turns them on and off. This is best done in the middle of the night when all is quiet, and preferably using a young person who hearing has not been damaged by loud music or machinery.

If you can't find the source I think you will have to dig the floor up and have a look. Was the floor always concrete, or was an original floor taken up and replaced?

Do not try to cover the damp up.

Do not allow anyone who sells silicone injections near your home.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=engineers+stethoscope&_sacat=0&LH_ItemCondition=3&_udhi=10&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=1

P.s.

If your house used to be three cottages it probably once had three kitchen sinks.

Thank you! Really interesting. The kitchens were external lean tos, most recently made out of wriggly tin (that are now sheds in the field) but it’s a good shout that the pipe work could have been there.

Ugh. Definitely won’t be covering it up but will try to work out the source using stop cocks. Incidentally, we still have two water supplies from when it was finally knocked together (means can use the taps downstairs whilst having a shower upstairs! Luxury!!). All from same external stopcock though, so will get to work on the stethoscope plan.

No idea on the floor. The guy we bought from was a complete cowboy so it’s been like a really Shit advent calendar every time we take a cupboard down or strip wallpaper. Something bodged underneath it 🙄

FWIW, it’s a tabletop mountain shape more than an Everest.

If it is a mains water leak if you have a water meter you could try shutting everything off and seeing whether it upticks.

Problem is that it would require quite a leak to register or waiting a long time with the water off to see any movement. But it is possible that a lot of water is coming out. Which is another really good reason to fix it.

My guess is you don't have a water meter :)

I wonder if a metal detector could be used along the floor of that wall to detect a mains water pipe if it is not buried that deeply. If you know someone you can borrow one off ?

Ha. No water meter! Interesting idea for metal detector. Will ask in the pub!

That amount of water ingress will not be caused by the wrong plaster or paint.
And I say that as someone currently replacing cement for lime indoors and outdoors in my old, rotting Victorian.

Throw yourself at finding the water source. Personally, I'd do a test dig into the floor next to that wall. There might be a reasonably simple problem to solve under there.

And I wouldn't be so sure about there being no pipes in the particular spot.
So I thought about my house... Then, whilst investigating the water sources feeding a dry rot outbreak a couple of unexpected things were uncovered:

I found that the wall I share with one of my neighbours is a cavity wall (thought to be caused by different parts of the terrace being built at different times) and water from a leaky roof join was running down under the floor.

Secondly, upon digging outside, I found two of the original clay pipes cut off in the front garden with the other end disappearing under the hall floor. A perfect water-channel to bring water from the garden to under the house.

None of the problems were obvious and I had to listen to no end of tripe about rising damp and damp-proofing instead...