Bottom Corner of walls wet!

[Links2]

Afternoon all,

Recently moved into a new property and discovered that two corners in the living room are wet to the touch right at the bottom corner, this is on the wall that connects us the our neighbours. In the spare bedroom which is directly above one of the corners we also have a wet corner directly above.

I will attach photos below

 

[_bitbybit_]

We have the same problem. It’d been going on for four years. I’ve had three different surveyor companies out to look at it in that time, but only the last one had any definitive answers. (Thank god they did because I was losing my mind from constantly cleaning down the mould that developed from the walls being wet.)

They told us the cause is the wall temperature being too low, and the solution is to internally insulate the walls. He recommended thermal lining paper. So, we’re buying Wallrock thermal paper and installing it next weekend.

Of course, we could have insulated wood panelling installed instead but that would be very expensive. The thermal paper is £55 a roll and we only need two rolls. It’s straightforward to hang by DIY, but needs two people to make it easier to handle.

You should have a surveyor round to check for damp in case the cause of your wet wall is not condensation caused by cold surfaces (which ours is) but actual penetrating damp caused by a leaky pipe or something.

Hope this info helps.

 

[piglet11]

I have a friend with exactly the same problem.

This is damp at the bottom of the external corner of the house, just like yours.

Unlikely to be condensation and more likely to be be rubbish bridging the cavity, or some building defect in the DPC at the corner.

It's quite common on the ground floor, but bedroom as well is unusual.

I can't be of much more help, but one thing I would say, is don't try and fix damp from the inside, you need to get at the source of the problem.

Have you asked your neighbours if they have the same problem?

As you are UK based, we have had quite a lot of rain this year and that will have uncovered a ,lot of pre-existing faults.

Looking a bit more closely, the skirting looks a bit bubbly too.

Also make sure things like gutters and downpipes are working properly especially in downpours

 

[piglet11]

Just a thought.

In your first photo, it looks like you have floorboards.

There is the risk of rot getting into floor joists as well so it might be worth pulling up a few boards to see what's going on, plus let some air in.

 

[_bitbybit_]

Please don’t assume it’s caused by damp. That’s what I thought for four years but the last surveyor investigated the crawl space and the pointing outside the problem wall and confirmed it was bone dry under the floor and in the cavity space, and that the pointing was not faulty either. (Our flat is elevated ground floor, so it take a lot of water on ground level to penetrate above the DPC.) He used a thermal imaging camera inside the problem room and in adjoining spaces (living room and a communal cellar cupboard in the communal stairwell) and that’s what clinched it for him: the temperature of the wall inside where it gets wet is several degrees lower than the rest of the wall. He recommended insulation inside.

So, before you get stressed out at the prospect of damp, get a surveyor round and ask them to inspect the subfloor space and the cavityif you have one. And ask them to use a thermal imaging camera and damp meter. That will tell you whether thecause is water ingress and damp, or, condensation due to very cold internal walls.