help - penetrating damp!

[nusdeop]

We have a very difficult wall with numerous damp issues. Threre numerous brown and grey wet spots showing in the house and paint and plaster gets cracked in places. There is also water dripping out of door frame and a window frame where water has gone into the cavity.

It's a cavity wall and there is some insulation material in it like fibre glass (there are lot of botched up jobs here). Nobody know how old this wall is - it may a 100 years old or a few decades.

This is what we have done so far:
- filled in all the tiny cracks in the render with some caul
- new chimney capping and flashing
- new roof
- new gable line (the roofer left some gaps there)
- ditch next to the house to guide the water away
- conservatory fitting to the house completely redone (that seems to be fixed now - no more water coming into the conservatory)

BUT when there is a strong storm there are still new damp patches on the inside wall of the house - mostly upstairs and water dripping from the door frame.

We have been told by the builder to cover the whole wall with something like dulux weathershield.

What are your opinions?

 

[dishman]

You say it leaks upstairs from a door frame? A few questions:

What door frame? To which room?
Where is this in relation to the exterior walls? Where are the damp patches most prevelent?
How does it drip in from around the window frame.?

The insulation in the cavity wall is probably the Rockwool type of cavity fill common a number of years ago. My house was done in th 1970s with it and has not had any damp problems, so it is not always a problem. How big is the cavity? How old is the house?

Was the damp there when you moved in? how long has this been going on for? Does it get worse at certain times of the year? Are you living in an area that has had the heavy rainfall?

Thanks

 

[ree]

As above.

Dont treat the wall until you know exactly what you are treating for or you might make things worse.

Why not post photo's of the elevation and the areas at issue?

 

[nusdeop]

What door frame? To which room?

It's the door between lounge in the house and the abutting conservatory in the exterior wall


Where is this in relation to the exterior walls? Where are the damp patches most prevelent?

actually everywhere. Upstairs is a window and there is damp patch under the right corner. In the middle of the wall upstairs. Downstairs underneath a window.


How does it drip in from around the window frame.?

well, it just drips from the top of the window (where the lintol should be) onto the window sill


How big is the cavity?
Can't exactly say - I think I could put a hand and half an arm down there from above

How old is the house?
300 years and cobwalls. this is the wall that has been rebuilt in brick and cavity but nobody knows how old it is.

Was the damp there when you moved in?

No, the previous owners hid it and repainted everything that could have given it away. they also lied about other things (water supply - spring) - all things that a survey did (and could not) spot.

how long has this been going on for?

18 months but the drip only started with the storms this Christmas. The roof had been newly made at the end of Oct. We called the roofer back to redo the gable line, which had holes in it but it made no difference

Does it get worse at certain times of the year?
Yes, in winter and the drip comes only on with the heavy storms that we have had recently


Are you living in an area that has had the heavy rainfall?
Yes

 

[dishman]

So, the walls were originally cob walls? And at some point a new exterior skin was built with brick and filled with insualtion?

Is the whole house cob wall with a new exterior skin or just certain elevations?

Just to clarify, is the damp limited to forming on external walls only? Is it all external walls or just one? Is their damp forming on internal walls at all?

 

[nusdeop]

the wall was probably a cobwall but now is entirely made of bricks with a cavity. the other 3 walls of the house are still cob and have no damp problem.

The damp problems are internal with brown and grey wet patches and plaster busting open and paint peeling in places.

 

[dishman]

So the original cob wall was removed and a new brick cavity wall build when the conservatory was added?

When I say internal walls, what I mean is, do you get damp inside on a wall which is an exterior wall? Or do you get damp on internal walls which have no exterior face?

 

[nusdeop]

nobody knows when the brickwall was build - it could be quite old.

the damp is internally on a wall that faces externally.

 

[dishman]

Internal and external pictures of the offending areas would help.

When you had all the work done (the repairs you mentioned in your first post) to try and rectify the problem, was this done on the advice of a surveyor or just what you thought needed doing and what a builder advised?

 

[nusdeop]

just what a number of builders adviced.
I just a builder here and he said - try painting with some sort of weather sealant and he'd bet that will cure it. The other builder who did the flashing on the conservatory said the same thing. So we are probably going that way.

If that does not work we need to put trays above the windows and door.