Plaster shot and dampness in wall?

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Afternoon all.
Hope I'm posting this in the correct place.

When I moved into my gaff (mid terrace, built 1966) in 2009 I noticed that the paster looked shot at the bottom of a wall next to the chimney breast, and was coming away a bit. (See pic below)

I didn't think too much of it, thought I'd deal with it at a later date, put an armchair (the black one in the pic) in front of it and forgot about it.

When I pulled the arm chair away this morning I noticed it has got worse over the time. It looks to me that the plaster is blown, but there's also 'bubbling' at the bottom bit directly above the skirting board.

We was flooded a bit (not very deep but water penetrated the walls) in 2012. The armchair is permanently in that place so does not allow much airflow.

The only thing that concerned me was that there is an unused gas fire to the left. It hasn't been used since we moved in and it switched off at the safety valve in the wood fire surround, but I just wondered (as a very long shot) that the gas pipe wouldn't be buried in this (solid) wall? Like chased in? and it was causing the damage to the wall?

This is on the far wall away from the kitchen (where the boiler is) the floor on ground level is concrete and I would have thought the gas pipe feeding the fire was buried in the concrete flooring? My only concern was that if the pipe was in the wall that it might have corroded and be causing these issues. There is no visible gas pipe in that room, and to the right of the picture is the front of the house, and the cavity wall, but I have no idea if there is a gas pipe in there)


I plan to pull the damaged plaster off (which smells 'musty' underneath, not 'of gas!') and let it dry out for a while, then treat and make good.

There is no other dampness on any of the walls in that, or any other, room.

Just thought I'd ask on here.

Any experience of such things (like gas pipes in 1960's walls causing issues, or if anyone recognises what it looks like from these pics) I'd be very grateful for any advice

As I say I've never smelt gas before and there has been someone doing a safety check last year and picked up no gas smell at that time, otherwise I would have called Gas Emergency Services straight away.

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First thing to check is the chimney top, is it capped and ventilated properly to stop water entering. Also you should ventilate the bottom to allow an air slow all the way up.
Second is what is the hearth like, there may be rubble etc in the bottom of the fire place wicking the water up from below. Might need to take up the floor boards to deal with it.
 

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