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
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