Damp Problem Post-Redecoration

[u01mbp]

I painted various rooms in our 1890s ground floor tenement flat in Edinburgh over the Xmas break.

The top left-hand corner of the main room (the external wall of the room) had some water staining (about 5 inches across) - I was unsure whether this was new (hadn't noticed it in the 1yr we've been in the property). I bought a sealant and sprayed it over the area then painted over it hoping that would be the end of it.

I noticed the next day that the dark patches had reappeared, so I repeated the process. Now though the whole area has grown quite a lot and spread down the wall. I noticed when I sanded the surfaces down originally there was a crumbly raised surface which gave way to a hard surface underneath.

I checked with the lady upstairs and had a feel around her floor in the cupboard directly above this corner (where her boiler is) and sadly it was all dry (no easy diagnosis there).

The line down the wall follows the external drainpipe for the block which is not in a great state.

I should point out I'm a rank amateur at this, so I'm really after tips re. where to go from here. Any / all advice very gratefully received - I'm getting a bit nervous about what this might involve.

Pics follow - the incision in the ceiling is from my attempt to see if the blister contained water.

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[corrie]

Get the drainpipe fixed. It may involve a cherrypicker or scaffold. Although the walls are thick the water can find a way in through a hole where a branch or bracket could be bridging to inside.......especially if it`s choked and overflowing. Sometimes ingress in those Tenements can come from a window above.............defective sill or pointing

Check the plumbing again cos stranger things have happened....

Alex

 

[JerryM]

You need to find out if the water is from outside or inside. Looking at the picture my gut feeling is from inside.

However given that you don't want to put your neighbour out unnecessarily the best place to start is outside as corrie suggests. Go outside when it's throwing it down. Make sure the water off the roof is being carried down to the drain in the ground without any leakage ie via guttering and down pipe. Given that the position is halfway down the wall then any problems should be easy to spot. It's also possible that water is getting into the cavity around a window. If there is a window nearby then you would need a ladder to check so i would move inside first.

Checks inside are not so easy as you need to be able to look under the floor boards of the upstairs flat to find the source of the water (ie central heating, cold/hot water pipes). Alternatively you would need to take down a section of your ceiling. I think if the problem is in the upstairs flat then it may be better to get a plumber in to minimise the upset to the neighbour (and have a case to pay if the leak is on their property)

I guess you could also try and monitor it for a while to see if rain affects it. I believe it’s been there for sometime and just gone undetected. The window is a possibility i had about 1" of mastic missing along the top of a window once and the rain still got in and showed up on the head of a ground floor window.