Extreme sudden condensation in kitchen or damp problem

[faggster]

Hi All,

We have been in our house for about two years. Over the past couple of weeks we have noticed water marks coming through our tile grout in our kitchen floor, we also noticed a water line going up the interior wall (this wall has no exterior face and connects to the living room next door and the party wall between us and our neighbor).
We started to mark the line and we could see it rise by about 5mm overnight. We started to look for leaks but couldn't find any pipes in the area. We found a lot of wet behind our kitchen sink cupboard so looked for leaks. We recently put in a new washing machine about 6 weeks ago but the connections are dry and sound. Behind the cabinet all the cold pipes including the mains pipe, the stopcock and even the water meter were dripping wet. I have lagged most of the pipes although i cannot get to some of them to lag them! I think the excess condensation is the cause of the issue but I am not sure. I have two questions regards to this.
Firstly, what could have caused this sudden moisture change? We dry clothes on an airer the same as we have always done we use the same cooking the same everything we have for the past two years the only thing that has changed is the washing machine. We have tested for leaks and cant find any and we also looked at the fine movement dial of the water meter to see if there was any movement and there is nothing.
Secondly the water is still rising, although now slower than before however the floor looks to be drying out and salt crystals are forming which i think is a good thing. So why is the wall still rising? or will it take a while for the wall to evaporate the water and is it this cycle that is putting the moisture back?
Also we can see moisture dripping from the pipes that i cannot get into to lag is there something i can do for these? i have covered everything else i can get to even the back of the water meter, the stopcock (although removable easy if needed) We are at a loss at what to do next.
Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Burnerman]

Initially I'd say you need to increase the ventilation of the kitchen dramatically, and this sort of situation is crying out for a dehumidifier.
You don't say if your floor had a damp proof membrane laid before the (presumably concrete) was laid......the water table is so high these days that damp is occurring where it was never seen before.
You also need to determine if you can if there are any pipes (including drains) that run under the floor that could possibly be leaking.
John

 

[faggster]

Initially I'd say you need to increase the ventilation of the kitchen dramatically, and this sort of situation is crying out for a dehumidifier.
You don't say if your floor had a damp proof membrane laid before the (presumably concrete) was laid......the water table is so high these days that damp is occurring where it was never seen before.
You also need to determine if you can if there are any pipes (including drains) that run under the floor that could possibly be leaking.
John

Hi thanks for your reply. The floor underneath is concrete but we didn't lay the tiles so could not be sure what is underneath. I will have a look at the water mains map tonight that we got from the solicitor for anything running under the property but as far as pipes go the mains comes up from the floor in the corner with the damp but i am unsure if it runs under the property or just straight out.
I can understand the water table part but the floor seems to be drying now and the wall water line is still moving would this be the case if the water was coming up from the foundation or under the floor?
I thought about a dehumidifier but this is just masking the problem really I would like to know how such an excess of moisture in the air has started two years after living in the property without any change of habits.

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

a water line going up the interior wall (this wall has no exterior face and connects to the living room next door and the party wall between us and our neighbor).

Maybe your neighbour has a leaking pipe then or perhaps your water service [before the meter] has a leak.
If its the latter you can often hear it. When I suspect a leak I use a long screwdriver as a listening stick on to the main stopcock, works great for metal pipes but not so well if you have an alkathene water service but these don't fail often anyway.

 

[faggster]

a water line going up the interior wall (this wall has no exterior face and connects to the living room next door and the party wall between us and our neighbor).

Maybe your neighbour has a leaking pipe then or perhaps your water service [before the meter] has a leak.
If its the latter you can often hear it. When I suspect a leak I use a long screwdriver as a listening stick on to the main stopcock, works great for metal pipes but not so well if you have an alkathene water service but these don't fail often anyway.

But the floor is drying and wall is still moving? pre stopcock leak would be showing under the floor still no? Also this doesn't explain the sudden jump in condensation?