Hi, I have seen many blogs about damp and have decided to write about my own problem in hope that someone can come up with a solution.
We own a terraced property which is 100 years old.
We have seen various damp problems in the home. On the external walls on both levels there was a significant damp problem which we put down to penetrating damp and the following contributing factors (and past cowboy work):
A leaking outer pipe, poorly fitted windows, external plaster not water proofed, external ground level higher than internal (dpc if exists).
As we wish this property to be lifelong we did not shy from having work done. We had builders hack off (and the result was many loose bricks and eroded pointing). The brickwork was fixed, walls were re-rendered and waterproofer used. We had the outer floors lowered and had new windows fitted properly. One damp problem done, and i hope that it has worked.
When we moved in, we knew there was some damp around one of the fireplaces. We have a back room leading to our kitchen. The wall the fireplace is on is adjacent to the kitchen wall and a right hand doorway. The right hand wall besides the doorway is an external wall to back garden (where the ground was lowered). The left hand wall is adjacent to a neighboring terraced house.
The damp around the fireplace was higher than 1m. It included some salt deposits and pink circular mouldy patches. Also black mouldy patches. Best way top describe is like blotted paper.
We had the chimney re-pointed and treated with a waterproofer. However our chimney is attached to the neighbouring chimney, or shared. I would like to know if anyone knows whether water from the neighbouring chimney would seep in to the path of ours. Namely being as their side is not in good condition.
The annoying thing with damp is that nobody seems to want to say what it could be and what it won't be. I'm slowly becoming an expert myself because I'm reading so much about it online. The reason I have written about the first problem is to highlight the ridiculous solution one "damp expert" gave us. He called out, took a look at a few of the problems. His suggestion to the outer problem was that you could inject (note I am not keen on this idea unless clearly necessary) but if the walls are rat trap it wouldn't be an option (they are rat trap). However, he said, if I were you I would just paint the outside with waterproof paint, and he happened to have a number of tubs at home (convenient), but he then followed by saying, he wouldn't have bought the house. I cannot complete this sentence without swearing, so 'll leave it here.
As far as I'm concerned there are thousands of houses, or millions, of old houses with damp problems, the solution is not to NOT BUY but to fix the problems as best we can. Like I said I don't know if our attempts will keep the damp at bay, time will tell.
As for our chimney breast problem. The other thing we have been told is that it could be rising damp. Unfortunately, things keep coming back to rising damp. Which is such a big problem in my eyes. So be it, we'l have to deal with it, but I want an accurate diagnosis and solution. I don't even know the best person to speak to, as many will say a damp expert, but going on previous experience I can't say that's right.
I didn't realise that you could have a rising damp problem on internal walls? can anyone clarify this and give me some information.
Our neighbours have said that the foundations are peat based, so now I'm concerned that the damp is rising through the lower brick work and up.
The floor in the room is concrete and we can see that they have put a sheet layer of dpc. There is no signs of damp on the floors. kitchen side does not seem to have any damp on the walls, however there is a cupboard adjacent to the corner wall adjacent to the neighbouring wall. there are signs of damp in here, and salts in the plaster.
We recently hacked off the plaster around the fireplace. brickwork is very wet at the lower levels and up and around the surround of the fire (same either side). It dries out further up the wall. On hacking off we found that the plaster closest to the brick work was like clay to touch.
If the problem was the chimney (which we re-pointed earlier this year) would the plaster still be this wet.
I hope that someone can help me with this problem, I know the message is long-willed but appreciate anybodies time.
Regards