Rising damp in the entry way behind the electric box

[stomy123]

I am looking for a solution to fix a rising damp on the wall next to the entry door.
Attaching some pictures of the inside and exterior. You can see that the skirting board has water marks rising from below.
Initially I thought it was the hole around the armoured cable entering the house from outside.
There is also the incoming cable from ground into the meter box. the hole is not fully filled in.
However inside I could also see that the damp is all along that wall not just where the hole is.
The peak is actually slightly after the hole on the ground. I can see a gap between the outside paving and the outer wallbrick.
Can I just fillall the holes and will that stop the damp? What can I use to fill the gap and the hole? Can I use foam or cement? do I need add any other damp protection mechanism?
Any advice appreciated.

 

[Paul Cumbria]

Well, where to start? I claim no expertise in such matters, but I offer the benefits of my experience so far.....

Firstly it is not "rising" damp, it is penetrating damp. Yes, it looks like it is "rising" as it travels up your internal walls via the mortar and plaster due to capillary action. I feel I have to point this out as some totally unqualified "surveyor" (i.e. salesman) will try to sell you all sorts of snake oil treatments to "cure" your "rising" damp at massive cost and to no avail. Rising damp is a catch-all phrase intended to scare the bejaysus out of you into taking all sorts of unnecessary and costly precipitate actions

What stands out from what I can see on your photos is that there is no visible DPC. Assuming that the house is not so old that it was built without a DPC, in which case retro-fitting by injection/cream/rods etc is definitely worth considering - do some research before committing to anything. Since the door appears to be at about the same level as the path I guess that a new path has been laid at some point and has raised the external ground level above the DPC. There should be at least two full brick courses between the DPC and ground level. If this is the case then you have no option but to lower the ground level outside your property. That is problem no.1 and unless addressed there is no point going any further.

The pointing on the brickwork looks old and damaged - another possible cause of ingress, which may lead to rusting and damaged wall ties. Another route I found was that the sealant around the door frame was compromised; although it looked OK, there were a few places where there was inadequate adhesion to either the door frame or the brickwork - especially so if the pointing is flaky.

It may well be worth checking that neither the DPC nor the cavity (I am assuming it is a cavity wall) itself is bridged - the only way to do this is to remove a couple of bricks at a time. My cavity was well and truly bridged with soil, building rubble, chunks of mortar from construction ("snots") and debris from various works carried out over the years; this was to a height of three or four courses above the DPC and needed removing by hand as far as possible below the DPC, again two courses or more. If you have cavity wall insulation you are doubly screwed as this will assist in damp migration across the cavity and harbour damp indefinitely due to blocking off of air circulation through the cavity. I had mine removed at a far greater cost than installing it in the first place. A further problem I had was that the upper half of the house is rendered, and the rendering is riddled with micro-cracks (and some not so micro) allowing moisture ingress, which migrated across the cavity due to the horrible CWI.

It looks like the electricity supply in to your house is via the cable which seems to enter through the bricks, which does appear to be a bit of a bodge, unless there is some kind of drip loop or drip nose on the cable itself - might be worth getting a sparky or your electricity company to see if this arrangement can be improved. I doubt whether this cable would have been installed at or below ground level, which is another reason to suspect a raised path level.

I can't make out from the photos whether the internal floor is concrete or wood. If it is a wooden floor there should be a crawl space underneath. If there is no access in the form of cut floorboards as a type of hatch you could remove some floor boards to gain access. This would allow you to see what is happening below ground level - is there a DPC, are floor boards and/or joists damp and rotten?
If a concrete floor, well I found that the concrete wasn't thick enough, and the DPC was one course below the concrete, so the DPC was bridged by damp soil; after some digging down I am considering trying to back up the DPC with cream or rods and then backfilling with a thicker concrete layer where the floor meets the walls.

The main thing is not to rush into trying to fill or seal anything until you are 100% sure of the cause(s) of the damp. Once you know what the actual problem is, there is plenty of guidance on forums such as this one on the way forward.

Good luck!

 

[stomy123]

Thanks @Paul Cumbria , I am also thinking it is more of a penetrating damp due to splash and then rising through brickwork rather than ground water rising up.
The floor is concrete and the walls are just solid brick walls, no cavity. There is a little bit of problem with drainage outside (not too bad i hope) the house is on a slope so water should run down, but do need to observe if there is any waterlogging.
There is a dpc just under the lowermost brick layer you can see in pics. That last brick layer just above dpc is also the most wet. If I understood correctly i will have to install rods between brick layers , so the rods wont help the first layer. Concreting is an interesting option. So the front entry way was added later on to the house, the rest of the house has a concrete base around it.

 

[Paul Cumbria]

Hi Stormy, it is good that there is a DPC, but I would still think seriously about lowering the external ground level. When I had a new path laid some years ago I made sure it was well below the DPC, and fitted a drainage channel alongside the walls to drain away any rain running down the walls, this connects in with the existing rainwater drains.
Having dug out a little of the concrete and soil alongside my main problem wall, I can see that the DPC is definitely working, the brickwork below it is visibly damp, but not above it. A multi-meter on a high resistance range shows conductivity in the mortar above it, which reduces progressively to zero by 3 or 4 courses above. No need to buy a damp meter for this (calibrated for wood only anyway - see various posts on here about these). I bought a tube of the damp proof cream to try to inject into the course above the DPC; after less than 24 hrs I can see that the chemical is being absorbed into the bricks and mortar, but it is very slow, I think the rods will be even slower - I believe the chemical composition is very similar.
Rainwater splash is indeed another problem. The company that makes the rods also have a waterproofing cream which is painted on the walls to stop absorption; it is supposed to be breathable so any moisture already in the walls should be able to evaporate out, but this will be a very slow process in any case. Check out Skill Builder on YouTube etc - that guy seems to know what he is talking about, he uses the rods and the paint on stuff.

 

[piglet11]

In my experience, people who install meter boxes don't take a lot of care.

I'm assuming that there is more depth behind the box and a picture of the open box would be useful.

I have a cavity and the box goes right through the outer sheath of bricks to the inner so the box bridges the cavity.

Water was getting in but where the box meets the brickwork and there was no seal. Once I fixed that with silicone, it stayed dry but for good measure I cut up a length of squareline guttering to make a sort of window cill abbove the box and screwed and sealed that as well.

A BT phone box did the same, leaked like a sieve and killed the phone every time it rained or the worms got in.

Hard to see any DPC. Normally it would be a thicker course of mortar with the DPC visible.

Quite a selection of cables and with respect, the plastering is a little lumpy.

 

[Paul Cumbria]

In my experience, people who install meter boxes don't take a lot of care.

I'm assuming that there is more depth behind the box and a picture of the open box would be useful.

I have a cavity and the box goes right through the outer sheath of bricks to the inner so the box bridges the cavity.

Water was getting in but where the box meets the brickwork and there was no seal. Once I fixed that with silicone, it stayed dry but for good measure I cut up a length of squareline guttering to make a sort of window cill abbove the box and screwed and sealed that as well.

A BT phone box did the same, leaked like a sieve and killed the phone every time it rained or the worms got in.

Hard to see any DPC. Normally it would be a thicker course of mortar with the DPC visible.

Quite a selection of cables and with respect, the plastering is a little lumpy.

Ah yes, I had the same problem with meter boxes - both leccy and gas. In my case they were not deep enough to bridge the cavity, though there is only an inch or so clearance. Neither had any sealant around them, so would have been obvious ingress points, so I took care of that.
In this case though it looks like the box is mounted externally?

 

[piglet11]

Yes Paul, you are probably right and it is external.
Both my boxes are sort of flush mounted instead of surface.
I take your point in the block paving.
My electricity box looks as though someone didn't get the hole size right, and adjusted the box with a club hammer.
The bottom of the box is mortar.
A bit like the kitchen units someone fitted in my kitchen.
Obviously the corner of the room wasn't square so instead of adjusting the worktop and cabinets to fit, they gave the plasterboard the club hammer treatment as well, then covered it with tiles.
One thing that amuses me is the number of utility boxes you see with broken hinges, no door etc.
All those delicate meters inside open to the elements and a bit of vandalism