Penetrating damp and damaged bricks - what is wrong?

Neobright · 7 Oct 2008

Hi,

I live in an end terraced house. The exterior facing wall at the end of the house is showing some signs of penetrating time = cold to the touch, wrinkling wall paper etc. As the house had been empty for sometime when I moved in and subsequently the heating had been off, i suspected this may have been the culprit.

However, I have had the heating on for a couple of weeks. Last night I noticed that the despite the boiler having been on constant for most of the evening, the wall paper appeared cold/mildly damp to the touch.

On inspection the bricks appear to be ok. There are no large cracks, but the bricks, on the surface, appear to have very fine black cracks. I suspect the damp is therefore getting through this.

As the cracks are over a number of bricks, would it be possible to get some sort of silicone sealant for the bricks and put it over the majority, if not all, of the wall? Or is there some other solution?

Thanks in advance for any help you maybe able to offer.

J

tuckjointer · 7 Oct 2008

do you know how old the house is? Also do you know if the wall is north facing?

Generaly speaking you should have a cavity wall, which means a skin of brick work, then a cavity, and a skin of blockwork. If water is bridging the cavity it could mean you have a problem.

End of terrace walls are notoriously cold anyway and can attract alot of condesation, this can cause mold and damp and obviuosly feel cold. It doesn't mean water is penetrating from outside. You might want to check the insulation in the cavity, maybe some new pump filled insulation would help. You might even be able to get a grant for the work.

Neobright · 7 Oct 2008

Hi,

Firstly thanks for the advice. I should have been clearer in my explanation. My house was built circa 1930 and is of single, solid brick construction. Therefore the is no cavity and hence no cavity wall insulation.

Any advice welcome.

Cheers.

tuckjointer · 7 Oct 2008

Ok, you have a 13" solid build. This wall is going o be cold !! and condesation may be the problem.

Alternativley, during the time your house was built cement dust was very expensive. It's probable you house was built using a mix of sand and lime then a sand, lime and cement mix was only used to joint the brickwork. This was widely common practice. Over the years the jointing can degrade and water would then reasonabley easily penetrate over long wet periods. You may need to re-point the wall.

Neobright · 7 Oct 2008

Hi,

Thanks for the advice. I've attached an image of both the inside and outside of the wall in question. You can see outside that there are fine black lines. I don't know if these are just that the wall needs a good clean/is old or weather the brickwork is actually damaged?

Cheers, AGAIN!

OUTSIDE:

Untitled

Neobright
7 Oct 2008
1

INSIDE (not the wrinkled wall paper):

Untitled

Neobright
7 Oct 2008
1

tuckjointer · 7 Oct 2008

It looks like your house is built with a semi enginering brick which is very hard and certainly wont allow water penetration. Unless you can actually see holes in the jointing I would say it's just due to cold damp weather and shouldn't cause to much damage.

tuckjointer · 7 Oct 2008

Come to think about it, since the damp is so low down you might need to re-point just the damp course. Thats the only direct route through the wall. Do you know if the floor boards are getting damp too.

Neobright · 7 Oct 2008

Thanks so much for your help.

One final question. As you can (probably see) from the photo, the mortar isn't too bad. Do you think I should just re-point anyway or do you think it's just the weather? I don't mind re-pointing but I'm not whether that is the best action as I'm not sure if that is the problem to start with....

THANKS in advance!!!

tuckjointer · 7 Oct 2008

I don't think the whole wall needs re-jointing by any means, maybe just the damp course.

stuart45 · 7 Oct 2008

The problem may be condensation. Even with your heating on condensation can occur if the temperature of the wall falls below the dew point. For example if the room temperature is 21 and the relative humidity is 80% then if the surface temperature of the wall is 17 or less condensation will occur.
The wall is probably 9 inch brickwork. It looks in good condition, but if there are slight cracks in the bed joints water running down the wall can enter. This problem is actually worse with engineering bricks as a softer brick will absorb a lot of the rainfall and then allow it to evaporate later.
With the bricks on your wall most of the water runs down and in to the cracks. It is known as the overcoat/raincoat effect. The engineering bricks being the raincoat. As long as there are no rips it is impervious.

TheDampDetective · 15 Aug 2010

Can you use a damp meter on the wall and see if it is recording damp. Condensation comes from damp air. It may not be your wall that is damp. It may be coming from somewhere else

Blagard · 15 Aug 2010

TheDampDetective said:
Can you use a damp meter on the wall and see if it is recording damp. Condensation comes from damp air. It may not be your wall that is damp. It may be coming from somewhere else

The post was in 2008 he may have moved now!

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Penetrating damp and damaged bricks - what is wrong?

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