Chunks are falling off the wall due to damp. Advice needed:L

[noobee]

I live in a ground floor rented studio above a cellar in an old house converted into flats & studios)

The whole house has a problem with damp for a while but particularly the cellar and ground floor flats.

Recently, large sections of material have been falling off the wall. I'm unsure if this has exposed the plaster or render, I cannot see brickwork. It has the texture of fine brown sand with white crystals and is slightly damp to touch.

So I was wondering firstly, what's on the wall?
Could a novice repair this? and how?
Will it cost a lot?

Someone told me that this is could be caused by rising damp and this would need to be sorted before repair. Also I don't want to cause more damage with my non-existent skills! As you can tell I'm a bit ignorant about all this.

My landlord/agency is responsible for repairs but they are slow to carry anything out (or just don't) unfortunately.

I get a really scratchy throat while at the flat now (which is probably just coincidence lol but I wanted to try to fix this if I can quickly. View media item 82899

 

[ree]

You have damp, probably penetrating damp.


You have gypsum plaster on the wall.

Could do what? You will have to investigate and find the cause(s) and the extent. You do this by researching your questions on here and the building forum.

Do you have basic plastering skills?

What will cost a lot? Determine the extent and cause.