Damp wall in Bedroom

[Quaintcottage]

Hello , the wall in my bedroom in my circa 1800 , Cornish Granite cottage is damp. Please see photo.



The roof is apparently okay ; I had some roofers come and look at it , but clearly water is getting in, or that bedroom has the worst case of condensation.

I have been in the attic and the only thing I noticed is that the roof above this wall is insulated down to the eaves. Could this be causing the damp . I have included a photo



The photo is not great ; I noticed on the left of the photo , the insulation stops before the eaves and there is no damp on that section of the wall .

I should note , on the outside of that damp wall is a large Wisteria plant , which I am sure must contribute to the dampness. See photo . I have circled the damp section of the wall in red .



I would be grateful if anyone could offer any advice .

I am dealing with damp problems in other sections of the property, but i don’t think they are related, as they are at completely opposite ends of the cottage .

Thank you for your help .

 

[Cubist]

With no signs of leaks from the roof or gutters and it being highly unlikely to be rising damp from the ground floor that leaves only two options. Moisture absorbed from the bedroom atmosphere which, some cad may suggest as possible when it gets a little steamy in there, or the Wisteria.

I mean no slight but it is most likely the Wisteria. The wall behind is in constant shade and there will be little air movement. Also, with the recent weather, that foliage will be constantly be wet. As a consequence the unexposed walls not have had an opportunity to have moisture carried away by local air movement and this leading to a build up in the walls from both internal and external sources,

I know its pretty but you'll have to cut the Wisteria back.

 

[Stevers]

That is not a well groomed Wisteria, it does need drastic pruning, but as a result may sulk and not flower quite so well next year. Fun fact, wisteria resists being shredded extremely well, but might 'munch' OK in one of those quiet but expensive 'shredders'.

What is the wall covering though? It looks like a modern masonry paint designed to lock moisture in. Have to say a painted house + wisteria - are not natural bedfellows.

 

[Quaintcottage]

Hello Cubist and Stevers, thank you for your quick replies . I did wonder if it was the Wisteria, but I have never lived in a property with vegetation growing up the wall , and was not sure if it could cause a problem. Cubist, thank you for your explanation with respect to air flow , that makes a lot of sense .

Below is a photo of the cottage prior to my purchase in June ; it looks like the Wisteria will die back come Autumn . See photo

Stevers , I think the paint is a type of standard Duluxe Matt . I have seen an old pot of it in the garage , that the last owner left. Would you suggest another type of paint?

Yes, the Wisteria certainly needs trimming . It covers two other cottages to the right of mine.

Is the insulation running down to the eaves a contributing factor? I have a lot of conflicting information when I Google it .

Thank you for your help

 

[DaveG]

Clay or mineral paint is what you want but not cheap. Perhaps scrape a small amount of paint off. If it peels off easily then that will be part of the issue. Also worth confirming what the surface is underneath, hopefully not pink gypsum plaster.

 

[Stevers]

Your Wisteria will shed it's leaves in the Autumn, but won't 'die back' since all the long shoots that it's thrown during the Summer will still be there. The long shoots need cutting back in July/August to something like three shoots but I haven't done mine yet. Then in Spring as the buds start to break, prune to about four buds per shoot. You may also want to thin the number of branches to avoid overcrowding, whilst there's a better view of what's going on - on Wisteria the flowers come out slightly ahead of the leaves..
https://www.wikihow.com/Prune-Wisteria

I can see from the winter photo that the Wisteria is on a frame so it can be moved away for painting - that's good practice and it looked under control then.

It's most unlikely that it's Dulux Matt on the outside walls. You'll need to pick at a bit of wall to know if it's Sandtex/Weathershield or some other masonry paint - it should be a bit plasticky and will probably peal off. There may be places round the edges where it's already started to blow. In stone houses, damp can build up in the fabric so heat and ventilation are important to avoid this.

I can't see any huge problem with the insulation as it is, but there is certainly an issue to resolve.

 

[DaveG]

Just checked the paint we bought recently. The company is called earthborn. I think it was near enough £100 for 5L but I think it does go a bit further than other paints

 

[Quaintcottage]

Hi . Stevers . Apologies I thought you were talking about the paint on the inside of the bedroom wall . I believe the outside of the wall is painted in some sort of masonry paint . I asked my neighbour and it has been painted for at least 50 years . I have taken a photo of where the paint has peeled and cracked and you can see the original stone . Thank you for the link to the Wisteria information . I shall read through that this evening.


I will pull the insulation away from the eaves and see if that makes a difference to the damp.


DaveG. Thank you for the information regarding the paint . I will look at that this evening. I suspect the interior bedroom wall will be Gypsum plaster, as the other walls in the property are Gypsum Plaster . I have read it is preferable to replace it with lime plaster.

 

[DaveG]

That makes both of us thinking he meant internal paint
Sounds like it’s sealed in on both sides then so the wall will hold moisture unfortunately.
If it makes you feel any better, I’m halfway through doing one room pictured and the wife thought she was doing a standard wallpaper strip and paint in the hallway today and we’ve found more gypsum halfway up the wall so what was going to be a quick paint has turned into another major hack away everything job!

 

[Quaintcottage]

DaveG. Crumbs!!! That is the all in approach . Good going ! Are you going to chip all the plaster off the stone and leave it uncovered? Or are you going to re plaster the wall in Lime ?

 

[Stevers]

@DaveG. Are you going to restore the staff beads when you replaster?

Have to say that I've only removed the gypsum plaster (that I paid to put on in 1997) where it's failed, but may pay for that later.

 

[DaveG]

It’s a big job and a lot of mess and I’ve never done anything like this but it does sort of feel necessary. The room pictured really does smell damp and the stone behind visibly wet in places so it feels like the building will thank me to be able to breath again. The concrete floor is also coming up as it was very obviously pushing moisture into the walls, so much so that some of the original wood studs set into the brick internal walls have completely disintegrated at the bottom.
In the hallway I considered leaving it but the base of that wall has been catching a lot of moisture and the plaster was visibly cracking too. It’s not something I wanted to start with the other job being in process but we’re committed now!

Stevers that’s a good question. I was originally looking at replacing the windows with high quality heritage approved pvc sash units. Some will be replaced because they’re totally rotted through but these large windows at the front elevation are in reasonable condition so I’m starting to think they should be restored.

One other fantastic find last night was that the big chunky outside window sills are actually slate! Covered in 4 layers of paint at the moment so a job for another time but who on earth paints a beautiful chunky slate windowsill?!