Damp? Cause? Costly to fix?

[HummingbirdSong]

Thinking of buying this old victorian terraced house. This internal wall sits at the end of the kitchen. Adjacent to one side of the wall is the garden door (which you can just about see in the photo).The boiler is in the kitchen on the other side of the wall. What is causing this? Is it easily remedied? Costly? Any advice or thoughts needed please!

I think there's a leak. The kitchen floor appears to be tiled concrete and wet.

The leak might be coming from the boiler but if could equally easily be a 100 year old water pipe buried in the floor.

Pipes typically start leaking when they're 60 to 100 years old.

If you are going to renovate the house it would be a good time to dig up the kitchen floor and relay it to modern standards with DPM, insulation and new pipework.

It will be a bit messy, but no harder for a builder than digging up a road or pavement, which is done every day.

The entire pipe out to the pavement stopcock or meter should be renewed, preferably in 25mm blue plastic, which will also give better flow for baths and showers. The house was probably built with a half inch lead pipe which is very restricting,

Ask your water company to test the drinking water for lead content before starting work, there might be a lead replacement subsidy, or at least free reconnection. You do not have to employ a water company contractor, but they will inspect to verify you have met regulations before you fill in the trench. If there is a water meter you might get a refund for wasted water.

A plumber or a young person can detect a leak, either with a glass of water, or by listening for the change when you turn the outside stopcock off and on,

Your house is not unique, this job is often needed on old houses.

It’s problem enough that someone has removed the door frame and also chopped out the floor, then stopped.
That’s often a sign of ‘Oh shit, this is not what I expected’.

What’s the story with the house? Is this the only issue?

It also looks like someone has replastered the wall in gypsum plaster rather than lime which will be trapping moisture in the wall and making the damage to the wall look a lot worse that it actually should be.

Thanks for your very helpful response. Would you happen to be able to guess roughly how much it could cost? And how much less should I offer on the house?

If you need to put a new kitchen in to get to the problem then you could be looking at £15,000_£20,000?

Thank you for responding to me. It's been a rental property for a little while. Not been maintained very well. Hmmm, there may be other issues with the house, but I'm going to have another look at it. This wall was definitely the most concerning, though!

My first rule when buying a house is it must have cavity walls.

that's a figure chosen by the sort of person who has £20,000 to spend on a kitchen

A lot of people nowdays don't do much DIY and generally get people in to do a whole kitchen as a single job without project managing it, which I think for an average sized kitchen would be around that price. If you are prepared to project manage it and or do diy stuff then you can probably get it down to maybe five to ten grand including a new kitchen floor and digging out for drainage? Do you think that's an achievable DIY price @PigletJohn ?

I definitely don't have £20,000 for a new kitchen but I can diy and project manage so can save myself a few quid 🙂

@PigletJohn what is the young person glass of water test with the stopcock? Sounds like a useful tip to know

I'd suggest a damp specialist. It could be all kinds of issues. That floor is wet and it's rising up the wall. Is that kitchen part of the original house or a later extention? I would get a damp specialist to come and take a look.

You find a young person whose hearing has not been degraded by loud music, machinery, or engines, and put them in the kitchen when all is quiet, and no water has been used in the house for long enough for flow to stop, and preferably the neighbours as well. You turn off extractor fans and fridges. You then go to the outside stopcock, and turn the water fully off, then on, then fully off.

A leak makes a constant faint hiss. You don't notice it. Until it stops. If you have been in an office when the heating and ventilation turns off, or a train or ship when the engines stop, you will know what I mean.

A plumber fills a glass of water at the kitchen cold tap, then turns it off. No water must be used anywhere in the house. She turns off the external stopcock, raises the glass so cold water spout is immersed, and turns the tap on. A leak below the level of the tap will suck water out of the glass (a leak above will let air into the pipes, and draw water out of the pipes and fill the glass.)

If you already have a cooker, sink and washing machine, and know which end of a screwdriver to hold, you can buy a few kitchen units for a few hundred pounds.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/168000388846?itmmeta=01KJ0PMXVQYFE8B21G6C0E5FG8&hash=item271d9a7eee:g:6pUAAOSwu0Jl4ZiZ

If you have a hatchback car, or can borrow a van, you can collect all the used kitchens you want, from people fitting a new one. Either free or at nominal cost.

I've been hard up.

Sorry, that was mostly doors.

Here are some units

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/116641182545?_skw=240cm&itmmeta=01KJ0Q1JCY2TSAJRXK3GGABFP6&hash=item1b285b3351:g:kR8AAOSwCBJoRZVn

And here are some used ones

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=kitchen+units+used&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_sop=15

If the floor is wet it's not usually rising damp ! It's more likely a leak somewhere also it could be a build up of condensation that is dripping down the wall !
Ring your local damp specialist and ask if they do quotes or look at jobs in the buyer seller process ! (They might not due to time scales )
If you want to know how much it will cost or size of the problem make sure u get a survey of the property! if it's the first 2 reasons I have mentioned it shouldn't cost that much to be honest
Hope this helps