RISING DAMP

[several]

I agree that chemical DPC's are a waste of money. I'm not really interested in getting involved in this debate but, from my experience....

We own 8 two bed terrace properties in yorkshire, all built mid 1800's, solid 2 skin wall construction brick built, some never been modernised. Every single one of them suffers from rising damp in some form in my opinion.

To give one example, a few weeks ago we're stripped out a mid terrace back to brick, everything out leaving just a shell. The ground floor was yorkshire stone laid directly on top of earth. Every single wall on the ground floor, including all brick built *internal walls* suffered from damp up to around 500mm from floor level. There were never any leaks in the property. We find similar scenario in almost every time we strip one out.

There is simply no other explanation for internal walls being damp at low level other than rising damp when you rule out everything else.

 

[gregers]

as thought no decent answer to my above enquiry.
now theres a surprise

 

[stuart45]

When I worked in Holland and Belgium in the 70's they used a DPC.
There was also a Dutch firm who invented treatment or rising damp, so I'm not sure why the Dutch architect said there was no rising damp in Holland.
http://www.schrijversystem.com/schrijver-damp-proofing/

 

[sophski]

Well this debate isn't really helping me. Just very confusing

 

[TonyW2]

Well this debate isn't really helping me. Just very confusing

+1
Back to the start.
If this damp was not seen before, then why would rising damp have only started this summer?
Exactly which wall is affected? (Any chance of a plan)How high above floor level is the damp area and is it spreading.? Does the weather affect it? What is the wall made from and what supports it?

 

[pinenot]

Just ignore all the encamped rhetoric, concentrate on the actual advice already given and you'll get there, forums are like this...pinenot

 

[sophski]

Yes the damp is spreading, i first noticed it on in the hall walls(blue line only) and then has spread across all of the hall walls. The living room has white paint and only noticed when I was looking for it so may be the damp on those wall were at the same time as the first hall walls. Here is the plan. The coal fire is situated in the kitchen.thanks Sophie

 

[sophski]

Damp

• sophski
• 25 Oct 2013
• 1

Walls effected by damp

 

[sophski]

To be honest seems to look the same what ever the weather. And it's about 1 foot, in some places higher or lower. The walls are brick as far as I can tell.

 

[sophski]

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• sophski
• 25 Oct 2013
• 1

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• sophski
• 25 Oct 2013
• 1

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• sophski
• 25 Oct 2013
• 1

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• sophski
• 25 Oct 2013
• 1

 

[sophski]

This is a pic of inside the cupboard in hall way, hopefully you can see in the pic that the floor under the laminate looks wet, but stops at the inside of cupboard

 

[sophski]

This is a pic of inside the cupboard in hall way, hopefully you can see in the pic that the floor under the laminate looks wet, but stops at the inside of cupboard

Untitled

• sophski
• 25 Oct 2013
• 1

 

[dormermike]

I had something similar in my hall, base of internal wall, and i've posted on here about it a while back (and several threads with varying angles on the same issue).

Anyway, this particular case was caused by the plaster touching the floor slab and the plaster was basically wicking up moisture in the solid concrete floor which was then going up the wall in one very localised place by about 1 foot.

Edit: see here:

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• dormermike
• 23 May 2012
• 2

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• dormermike
• 24 Feb 2012
• 3

(looks similar?)

I chopped back the plaster so it no longer touches the floor and that problem has gone away.


The underlying problem (i think) was a soil pipe in the concrete floor about 6 feet away was leaking underground inside the boundary of the floor area for a very long time indeed. As the ground is a heavy clay with poor drainage, the water from the soil pipe (and a nearby outside gully = shower and sink going to ground too) was finding all sorts of routes around the interior.

Most prevalent was actually about 4m away at the base of a wall at the opposite side of an adjacent room, which has improved markedly since the drainage issue has been fixed (about a week ago). Early days yet, but at least that is another "not helping anyway" issue sorted out. The rooms "feel" better too, and we've had an awful lot of rain so i'm really hoping that is sorted at least a big part of the interior damp issues out.

Hope this helps in some way.

 

[Perry525]

Damp

• sophski
• 25 Oct 2013
• 1

Walls effected by damp

From your drawing, I would suggest you need to take a look in the loft, use a strong bright light and check the location of the chimney and look all round it if you can.

 

[TonyW2]

Its on the ground floor internal wall, so not guutters. Chimney flashing would affect upstairs. Chimney flue and rain would not affect Hall
Under laminate is said to be wet in hall. Is this a screeded solid floor? Anybody been putting long nails /screws/plugs into floor...eg door strip and central heating pipe?
Or where is that soil pipe able to leak?