Is this Rising damp

Jo2107 · Post by **Jo2107** » Sun Oct 18, 2020 11:45 am

Hi, this in the bottom of our staircase. It’s the only place in the whole house this is happening.

wes56 · Post by **wes56** » Sun Oct 18, 2020 2:15 pm

Could be. There's also shadows on the return panel to the right.
Any pipework below the stairs or floor?
Is the floor solid?
Have you been into the space below the stairs and looked for damp signs on the other side of the walls, and on any outside walls?

Surveyorman · Post by **Surveyorman** » Sun Oct 18, 2020 3:49 pm

What is the age of the property? Can you send a photo of the house from the outside?

Jo2107 · Post by **Jo2107** » Mon Oct 19, 2020 9:06 pm

I’ll try and get a photo tomorrow, apologies for the delay. The floor is concrete, it’s a 1947 house and does need repointing, in our survey it was noted some damp around the front door, next to the bottom step, due to old mortar. I’m trying to arrange the repointing, the other side of the stairs is the downstairs toilet, but no pipes in that location behind these patches, i also think the damp was there before we had the toilet installed as the old wallpaper was lifting in that corner

Jo2107 · Post by **Jo2107** » Tue Oct 20, 2020 9:40 am

Pictures attached, as mentioned it really needs repointing and the guys who did the drive in September 2019 pointed out bits of the lower wall where the mortar is bad. We have also noticed a couple of days ago damp patches on the upstairs portion of the chimney breast (purple photo), downstairs is fine, we have a log burner and a flue which was cleaned a couple of weeks ago, could this damp be due needing to be repointed? When we find someone to do it we’ll be asking them to do the chimney too so the whole house is covered.
The external photos show the area outside that aligns to the damp patch on the stairs.
I pulled back the carpet and the concrete floor and carpet are fine, no damp, feel totally dry. Only the wall is damp

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Tue Oct 20, 2020 10:28 am

When I first looked at this I thought it was damp penetrating from a sleeper wall underneath the stair wall and side stairs. I would pull back the carpet and investigate. Is it a suspended floor, is there an accessible space to get in to look underneath. If it is a solid floor then again it will be necessaryto find the source. Are you sure there are no pipes close that could have a small leak and is this wicking out? I think the pointing is a red herring as this appears to be well inside the house and I am sure if the DPC was breached you would have more localised evidence than this.
If it is rising damp here it can be tackled with an injected chemical damp course which is DIY'able.

DWD

Jo2107 · Post by **Jo2107** » Tue Oct 20, 2020 11:11 am

Not a suspended floor, solid concrete. There is no access behind the walls unfortunately, the large wall is brick, small panel I believe plaster board.
Tried to show a photo close into the corner

Jo2107 · Post by **Jo2107** » Tue Oct 20, 2020 1:46 pm

Hi, we’ve just been thinking, the large wall is the wall between the stairs and the utility room, until a couple of years ago the utility room was just painted brick and was therefore very cold, the side of the wall behind the damp patch, the utility side, did get mold regularly in winter, could it be that the cold on one side would result in condensation on the stair side causing the salts? The utility room is now fully lined and a warm space with no mold or damp issues, but when we re decorated the stairs side we didn’t think to remove the damaged plaster and plasterboard which I now understand can retain the salts and re form the damp patches as they draw in moisture from the air (which there can be a bit as it’s next to the kitchen)
The patch hasn’t increased in size in the last couple of years

dewaltdisney · Post by **dewaltdisney** » Tue Oct 20, 2020 2:22 pm

That might be a clue. Pull the washing machine out in your utility and check the water inlet connections. You would not believe that a small drip can saturate the screed, creep along and wick up the wall. I found exactly the same issue in my neighbours house. He had an expert tell him that the floor had to come up etc etc. I had experience of this in a house where the downstairs loo had the water problem. The owner had pulled up the floating floor but could not find any defects in the pipes. I traced it back to the washing machine connection and replaced the inlet hose for a couple of quid. It cured it and it slowly dried out. Back to my neighbour, exactly the same when we pulled the washing machine out a slow drip over many months caused the same issue you have.

So check the washing machine connections and any associated plumbing in the area. Water drips gradually soak through the screed and find the wall where capilliary action draws it up to stain like that.

I hope it is that as it is an easy cure.

DWD

wine~o · Post by **wine~o** » Tue Oct 20, 2020 4:01 pm

dewaltdisney wrote: ↑Tue Oct 20, 2020 10:28 am If it is rising damp here it can be tackled with an injected chemical damp course which is DIY'able.

DWD

Pic 3 above shows signs of a previously done cream injection, From that I surmise that this has been an ongoing problem.

Surveyorman · Post by **Surveyorman** » Tue Oct 20, 2020 7:12 pm

Some observations:

The blue engineering bricks seen around the base of the wall serve as the original damp proof course of this property.
The built up brick door step can clearly be seen to be bridging the engineering brick DPC, you would be better off removing the brick built doorstep so as to relieve the original DPC and leave it free of impediment and external abutments as stated in BS 6576 (Code of Practice)
Somebody has attempted to inject a chemical DPC above the engineering blocks. This was unnecessary and will have served little if any purpose.
Once the original DPC has been relieved you will need to consider replacing some of the internal plaster work using a 3:1 sand cement mix incorporating a suitable waterproofing additive.
With regard to the staircase area! Remove the existing skirting and see whether the existing wall finishes are in contact with the sold floor screed. If they are this could be what is known as wicking. If in doubt take a photo of the removed skirting and post it here for further comments.

Jo2107 · Post by **Jo2107** » Thu Oct 22, 2020 7:53 pm

Thank you for all your replies. The outside step was only built last September so we’d rather not remove it ideally, we’re aware of the poor state of the mortar in the area, I’m hoping some repointing firms will come and give us a quote soon. If they were to fill all around the step would that help?
We’ve decided we’ll take everything off the staircase wall and have new plaster board etc
I’ve not yet taken the skirting off as can’t find how to. I assume it’s reassuring that the wooden carpet grippers are fine, not damp, not rotten etc, so assume the floor is fine? The carpet has been down around 8 years.
There are no leaks from the washing machine or dishwasher, there is the downstairs toilet between them and the stair wall (was one large utility room, we had a stud wall put up and part of it converted into the toilet, again no leaks there)