Unexplained moisture in external brick

[Andy Dv]

Hi....

Anyone can offer advice on why the outside of this gable wall has a "damp" or darker stripe running horizontally across it.

The height correlates to about waist height internally....so it's not coming from level.

The pathway that you can see was dug back about 2 years ago when we moved in as the path had been built over the air bricks (by at some points 6 / 7 courses deep)of the house amd I was very concerned that this was causing a lot of damp issues.

However the walls are just so odd. The bricks themselves physically look damp, but the mortar seems dry in places.
But it dosent stretch to the ground.

Any advice at all welcome.

Cheers

 

[John D v2.0]

Looks like where the moisture has been evaporating out of the wall, lots of salts etc have been left behind up to a certain level

 

[^woody^]

It's had crap random repointing causing light and dark arears, and the lower wavy line is from rising damp