Damp rising from skirting but no signs of where from?

[kerryj]

I first noticed a patch of damp on my living room wall over 6 months ago. The patch is next to the door to the kitchen, and where the wall meets the kitchen. Directly on the other side is a storage space off the kitchen, which is below the stairs. There are no signs of damp elsewhere.

I drew a line around the patch and have monitored it, but the water mark is exactly as it was 6 months ago. There might be a water pipe leading to upstairs behind the wall, but it doesn't make sense as the bathroom is directly above the kitchen and I would expect pipes to lead from the kitchen sink which is on an external wall, the so the pipes shouldn't be anywhere near the living room. The only other explan is that the radiator pipes are in this wall, leading upstairs but again, it doesn't make sense as the nearest radiator is on a different wall and none of the upstairs radiators are anywhere near this wall. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[JerryM]

is the kitchen a lean to? i have had damp patches caused by water getting through the flashing.

i presume its high up not low down. if low down i don't think it would be rising damp as you would have seen a change over the seasons (albeit this summer was wet).

i presume it's not an external door (damp can get through the gap between frame and brick if not properly sealed).

with these types of damp patches the cause is always a surprise. the only thing to do is to take up the floor boards above to see what services are in the area (Central heating, hot/cold water).

check if any friends have a cable/pipe detector as this would eliminate that anything is in fact in the wall (have seen microbore quite often run in plaster).

don't try to make sense of any service routing as the draw of an easy life is often strong.