Rising Damp...what to do!?

[matmushroom]

Hi

We have recently replastered, repainted the house ready to sell. Now, over the last few days with all the rain we have noticed that some of the walls are damp at the bottom.

The walls are damp in two places..

1: front of the living room, meter wide and about 6 inches high

2: on an internal wall around chimney base in living room, im guessing that water is coming down the chimney and finding its way into the wall. In the chimney stack is a gas back boiler.

The house of 80 years old, and has a concrete floor.

These are not dripping wet, the only reson I noticed was because we painted those sections in the cheepest paint in the world (very chalky) and and damp looks pretty obvious on it.

Now im looking to sell the house (145k) how much would this cost me to fix before i sell, what might a survayor say, and what kind of cost would be resonable to deduct from the cost of the house for a protentual buyer to deal with?

cheers!

 

[matmushroom]

Small update....

after looking at the damp in the front room, and the looking outside it would seem that maybe the problem was being caused buy some large tiles that my wife had put on the soil to place pot plants on. I think (hope) that the rain water was getting trapped underneath these tiles and then because the tiles where covering the water it could not evaporate away

Also....I now don't think that water can be coming down the chimney stack, because one the 1st floor the chimney stack has been modified to be a airing cupboard

does anyone have any thoughts!?

 

[AndersonC]

Are the external walls of the property cavity walls?
If they are cavity walls then the tiles on soil argument isn't the simple answer - the cavity may be bridged.
Has the re-plastering extended to, and become in contact with, the concrete floor?
Is there any plumbing in the vicinity which could be leaking?

On another note:
Apparently you have a back boiler in a chimney at ground floor level when the first floor section of the chimney has been turned into an airing cupboard? If the back boiler is still working, how is it flued?

 

[matmushroom]

i belive they are cavity walls. The new plaster does not contact the floor, its around 1 to 2 inches off the floor.

"If the back boiler is still working, how is it flued"

thats a good question, I dont know...The boiler still works, but theres somthing else I notice from time to time. When it rains for a long time we can hear a "ting" as if water drops landing on metal/tin, it seems to come from the back of the boiler...that atleast tells me there water running down the walls from somwhere.