Loft condensation?

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Hi, I am I’m posting this in the right place and also hoping someone can point us in the right direction of what we have in our loft and how to treat/cover it up? We don’t even know where to start & we’re worried it is only going to get worse.

We have a mid-terrace 1900 house. We moved in in January 2018. Our house has a converted attic, which is where we sleep, so ground floor, 1st floor and attic. When we viewed the house there were round patches on one wall in the attic (the blue wall in the picture) which is the wall that our chimney breast belong to. Both of our fireplaces are in use, although they have not been swept since we moved in. our surveyor said they were not actually damp but likely to be salts. We had new pots and caps put on our chimney in August 2018. We redecorated in April 2019 and the round patches have come back through in the same places. I’ve attached a picture.....they are not damp to touch but are cold and sometimes feel like they have a ‘grease’ or something on them.

the opposite wall (the light grey wall) had no problems when we moved in, this is the chimney breast belonging to our neighbours. We don’t know if our neighbours use their chimney or not. There were no marks at all until we decorated in April 2019. Our decorator had trouble getting the paint to take to the wall, as though there was some coating already on it, and he also put a blocker on it before painting over the top. Since then we have had discoloured marks come through the paint, I’ve attached another picture......again, these aren’t wet but some bits sometimes look shiny like there is a greasy bit on them.

We currently have a dehumidifier running, which is taking in quite a lot of water but doesn’t seem to be making a difference to fading the marks. The marks are only in the attic and aren’t on the 1st or ground floor walls.

if anyone had any advice on what these marks might be and how best to go about fixing it we would really appreciate it. We aren’t from this area and if we even know what direction to go in we can start to look for someone reputable to help us out !

thanks in advance
 

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Hi KenGMac,

thanks for replying, there are flue liners in both of our chimneys and these are both wood/coal burning stoves. These are the chimneys that go up the blue wall.

the light grey wall chimney breast is our neighbours chimney and we don’t know what they have or if they are in use or not.

thanks
 
they do look similar to our salty damp from the soot where the plasterboard was on the old chimney breast. Our solution was to get a spray tin of damp blocking paint and give it a good spray before, although it still come through in places. We are going to try again with some paint on stuff instead of the spray next time.

Not totally helpful, but at least I can sympathise!

Also as an unrelated point, don't burn solid fuel as it produces a lot of particulates which are very bad to have lots of in your local area!
 
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What heating?
Daily heating patterns?
Any extract fans?
Type of windows/glazing?
What vents exist
Occupancy?
Occupancy patterns?
Pets?
 
LesC, good evening, again.

Following on from "Woody" above.

There is an outside possibility is that [deep breath] the flue gas is being conducted away to atmosphere inside a "tube" leaving the void between the liner [tube] un-vented, this area is being heated and cooled so a perfect breeding ground for condensation to occur??

Are the flues on external walls or on party or internal walls?

Ken
 
Woody & KenGMac -

Gas central heating, there is a radiator in the attic rooM.

The heating is currently on for a couple of hours in the morning and then a couple of hours in the evening, however during the summer we hadn’t had it on at all and the fires weren’t lit either. It gets quite hot in the attic during the summer so there is almost always a window open.

No extract fans

double glazing, there are 3 velux windows in the attic.

no vents either. There was previously a plug & cables coming out of the light grey wall as the previous owners had a tv on that wall, we took out the plug and plastered over the hole for the cables when we decorated earlier in the year.

there are two of us, we sleep in the attic room every night. We also have a dog but she doesn’t get upstairs !

the flues are on party walls. Our two stoves on one party wall (the blue wall) and our neighbours chimney is the other party wall (the light grey wall)


thanks
 
Also as an unrelated point, don't burn solid fuel as it produces a lot of particulates which are very bad to have lots of in your local area!
Never did me any harm - our estate was in it's own coombe and used to fill like low cloud.;)
 

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