Why has this made my damp worse?

[Dylan T]

Hi all -

We live in a house that had damp issues when we moved in and we had a damp proofing company come in and treat the main living area of our home (they removed plasterboard, drilled and injected a damp course and replastered the walls. It's worked well, but they left our main entrance hall which is at the side of the house (detached) because down the exterior side of the house (a path between us and next door) the ground level was extremely high. They said to save costs and because the damp wasn't as bad in the entrance hall and if I dig down that ground then the wall should dry out and damp wouldn't be as bad as it wouldn't have wet soil sitting a foot up against it.

However I've now dug down and removed all that soil and topped with a light layer of gravel and the damp seems to have gotten worse! Inside on the wallpaper we are getting a combination of black mould and white salt deposits. So my question, why would it get worse? There is now the portion of the exterior wall exposed without the main render but I've been told that the wall needs that to breathe. I'm wondering if that needs to be rendered or at least treated with a waterproof sealant? However I don't think too much water is hitting that part of the wall as it's been quite dry here and this is in a small gap between two houses.

I've attached some photos to help - the wire mesh has been laid to stop cats crapping on the gravel, so ignore that!

Any help GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

 

[foxhole]

Photo’s of little use (we all know what a damp wall looks like). Damp company work was probably pointless . The source of the damp needs identifying and resolving. Too little info here. A surveyor should be able to identify the problem.Could be combination of problems , from leaking gutters and down pipes to cracked render (unless 100% the render can cause severe damp trapping moisture which gets behind it)

 

[footprints]

No expert but perhaps the soil although it harboured damp did in fact deflect the rain away to some extent, now the drain you have installed (quite rightly) may be allowing water to run down the wall and soak in and perhaps pool there. I know a lot of people may say damp treatments are a load of nonsense (and some like magic wires and Holland hollow pots are) but if you have an existing DPC that has failed, injection works well as you saw with the other walls.

 

[Footsoldier888]

Dylan your render seems to be lacking a bellmouth drip at the bottom, which will deflect the water away from the area below. I think the water may be dripping onto the concrete and then coming up behind the render. Possibly your gravel is too high and maybe a bit too big in size. Perhaps water is hitting this gravel and deflecting onto the concrete below the render.

The other thing to consider is the porch is unlikely to have a dpm under the concrete and the concrete may have failed, in which case it would have to be dug out.

Unfortunately it could be both of these issues but the lack of a bellmouth drip is a very common cause of damp in older houses so that could be the area to look at first.

 

[JohnD]

you have damp, and it's getting worse?

Damp is water. Where is the water coming from? Do the gutters spill onto the ground? Is there a drain gulley nearby (probably cracked)? Is there a water pipe under the floor or beside the house (may be leaking)?

Have you got a water meter?

 

[cwhaley]

We had a very similar issue in our hallway. By the right of the front door, there was a damp patch spreading upwards in the winter - at its height it had spread upwards around 14" off the floor. Door was sealed properly, no water supply pipework nearby, etc.

Fast forward to when we had the new driveway put in, we found the source of the problem. The drainpipe from the guttering ran on that outside wall. It wasn't damaged, but it went through the concrete and then into... well, nothing. Below the level of concrete on the old drive was a large cavern that the old pipe was simply draining into.

It had been pooling up inside there with no proper soak away. The trench blocks were drawing up the moisture and that was somehow being transferred to the walls (we have concrete floors downstairs). After discovering that, we re-cemented the blocks and put in a pipe to take the rainwater to a soak away. Since then, not seen an issue.