Feltwell
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- Messages
- 6,363
- Location
- Shropshire, England
Nice to have one where I think I've definitively found the cause, so thought I'd share.
In our kitchen is the fireplace that held the range (original range ripped out just 7 years before we bought the house ) - it's on an internal wall between us and our neighbours, the house being semi-detached.
When the range was ripped out everything was gypsum plastered, but it's all internal walls so shouldn't really matter. However - I noticed damp staining appearing at the base of the chimney breast, then we found mould in the cupboard in the alcove to the side of the chimney breast. I could only think it was damp from the sub-floor - it's a solid floor in this room, but it's all original, seems odd that after 120 years of being quite happy we should start to get damp issues. No pipes in the area at all. The external chimney stack was in a terrible state (https://periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16671&hilit=chimney - 2nd Chimney) before I repaired it, but that is 2 floors above the kitchen and neither room in between shows any signs of damp.
Anyway - the neighbour asked me the other day to look at a damp problem on his side - in the same area. Lo & behold, passing through an adjacent wall is a 15mm pipe, the feed to his boiler, and a bit of exploratory digging shows the adjacent plaster is very damp - Have the pipe out and sure enough it's corroded and has been leaking very gently for Lord knows how long. Now the question is how to dry it out - I don't really want to be hacking plaster off if I can avoid it, it's still sound, just stained. Neighbour's side is badly cracked in his fireplace though (he's got a log burner in there) so hopefully I can persuade him to take the plaster off for a while......
In our kitchen is the fireplace that held the range (original range ripped out just 7 years before we bought the house ) - it's on an internal wall between us and our neighbours, the house being semi-detached.
When the range was ripped out everything was gypsum plastered, but it's all internal walls so shouldn't really matter. However - I noticed damp staining appearing at the base of the chimney breast, then we found mould in the cupboard in the alcove to the side of the chimney breast. I could only think it was damp from the sub-floor - it's a solid floor in this room, but it's all original, seems odd that after 120 years of being quite happy we should start to get damp issues. No pipes in the area at all. The external chimney stack was in a terrible state (https://periodproperty.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16671&hilit=chimney - 2nd Chimney) before I repaired it, but that is 2 floors above the kitchen and neither room in between shows any signs of damp.
Anyway - the neighbour asked me the other day to look at a damp problem on his side - in the same area. Lo & behold, passing through an adjacent wall is a 15mm pipe, the feed to his boiler, and a bit of exploratory digging shows the adjacent plaster is very damp - Have the pipe out and sure enough it's corroded and has been leaking very gently for Lord knows how long. Now the question is how to dry it out - I don't really want to be hacking plaster off if I can avoid it, it's still sound, just stained. Neighbour's side is badly cracked in his fireplace though (he's got a log burner in there) so hopefully I can persuade him to take the plaster off for a while......