My rear upstairs wall is f***d where the hell is the water coming from??

limestonenoobie

limestonenoobie

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Hi fellas, this has been a pain in the side had fixed the roof etc but but here’s a picture of my second floor external wall which is covered in damp half way down.

The roof is bone dry i checked the attic but i can’t seem to spot where the water is getting from externally, i have a boiler to the right (that area is completely dry)

i included two pictures of the same wall a month apart (in the summer) and now when it’s drenched.

i also included a picture of the wall externally


just to note the downstairs wall underneath is also dry..
 

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Last edited:
Could very well be condensation.

Do you heat that room?
Is the room ventilated?
Do you dry clothes in there or in the house?

Failing that, it could be penetrating damp/water.
 
Penetrating damp may be the problem but sems excesive in the first pic. to be that if it's a cavity wall. I assume first pic is before roof repairs and third pic is now. If that is the case it may just need more time to dry out or there may be an obstruction in the cavity that is wicking water to the inside skin.
 
jj4091 said:
Penetrating damp may be the problem but sems excesive in the first pic. to be that if it's a cavity wall. I assume first pic is before roof repairs and third pic is now. If that is the case it may just need more time to dry out or there may be an obstruction in the cavity that is wicking water to the inside skin.
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Koolpc said:
Could very well be condensation.

Do you heat that room?
Is the room ventilated?
Do you dry clothes in there or in the house?

Failing that, it could be penetrating damp/water.
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it could be condensation there’s no heating in that room but seems excesseive

sorry should have said this is a solid wall house no cavity and both pictures are AFTER the roof works, the latest being the one that’s really bad so it seems it got worse when it rains now that we’re entering winter

i suspect it is penetrating rain but the question is from where since the render externally doesn’t have obvious signs of entry points for that area even though the render is old and cracked i don’t expect it to let in that much water concentrated on that spot without showing signs externally..
 
I would guess in that case it needs to be knocked off and re-rendered with plenty of waterproofing added.
 
jj4091 said:
I would guess in that case it needs to be knocked off and re-rendered with plenty of waterproofing added.
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Correct, the whole house needs an external rerender + new windows..

But this is the only problem spot i need to address to get me through the winter, clueless as to where the water ingress point actually is..
 
Can you take a better picture of the outside wall.

It looks like there is some staining from water running off the roof and down the wall on the centre line, but difficult to see. It looks like it aligns with the right hand side of the gap in the facia under the ridge. I suspect you've got water coming off the roof and getting behind the render.

If its got worse after the roof works, thats probably where the problem lies.
 
OP,
The different size gable barge boards would have looked odd meeting at a mitre but they perhaps look even more odd as they are.
What is the metal/plastic square cover just below the ridge & above the alarm?
There are a few cracks in the render and a definite line of water staining on the LH side below the boiler flue(?) & overflow (?) - is there a water tank in the roof space?
Are you able to go into the roof space & examine the gable wall, & any fixtures?
 
You need to go out when it next pours with rain and look very carefully at everything, maybe with binoculars.

Is there any issue with drainage from the flat roof to the right in the external photo?

Don’t rule out condensation. Is this likely to be the coldest wall in the house? How do you dry washing? How do you ventillate kitchen and bathroom? How many living in the house? Get a couple of cheap humidity / temperature meters from eBay and let us know the humidity in various places.
 
^woody^ said:
That was my first thought, and there does appear to be a ash plate between the ground floor windows.
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Alastairreid said:
Was there ever a chimney on the gable?.
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Hey guys that might actually make sense since i sometimes see random damp spots on the ground floor too thats aligned with the leak up stairs.

I dont actually know if there was ever a chimney there, this is like a 180 year old house so there could have been

How can i actually check? below is a picture of the back
 

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Check that there's no pipes buried in the wall.
Pretty common with bodgers.
 
That patch between the windows does look like an old soot box..give it a tap and see if it is hollow.
There is something not right with the verge causing water to run down the gable.
 

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