Moisture marks on walls

Naux

I'm living in a semi-detached block house that was built approx 4 years ago. I began to notice small marks on the bottom of the walls just above the skirting boards about a year after moving in. At first these marks were very small and appeared intermittantly throughout the house. They are now getting larger and more noticable.

I have attached a couple of pics. Can anyone tell me what they are or what is causing this?? They look like "tide marks" caused by moisture/water rising up from the base of the wall. It's causing the paint to flake off after the moisture drys away.

Any help much appreciated!!!!

muffler

It looks as though there is damp rising up the walls from somewhere. Have you had any water leakages inside the house at any time?

Have you built on to the house to the outer side of that wall or have you put a raised patio/path/driveway there by any chance?

squarecon

Is the wall they are on an exterior wall?
Could be condensation forming on the wall and running down the wall collecting on the top of the skirting and soaking into the plaster. Rising damp would not show at such an early stage unless you built on a bog.

Naux

muffler wrote:

It looks as though there is damp rising up the walls from somewhere. Have you had any water leakages inside the house at any time?

Have you built on to the house to the outer side of that wall or have you put a raised patio/path/driveway there by any chance?

Hi Muffler

There have been no water leakages(that I know of) in the house at any stage.

The house has not been built onto or changed since the builder handed it over.

These marks are occuring throughout the house on internal and external walls?? I have heard from other residents in the estate about similar marks in some of their houses.

Naux

Naux

squarecon wrote:

Is the wall they are on an exterior wall?
Could be condensation forming on the wall and running down the wall collecting on the top of the skirting and soaking into the plaster. Rising damp would not show at such an early stage unless you built on a bog.

Squarecon

These marks have occurred on both internal and external walls.

The land that the estate is built on is not boggy at all. It was good grassland.

Would rising damp occur if the builder did not install a damp course properly? I'm a bit baffler by the whole thing

oneillk

Naux wrote:

Hi Muffler

There have been no water leakages(that I know of) in the house at any stage.

The house has not been built onto or changed since the builder handed it over.

These marks are occuring throughout the house on internal and external walls?? I have heard from other residents in the estate about similar marks in some of their houses.

Naux

Throughout the house and in other similar properties is a bad sign. It sounds like there may not have been a DPC installed. This would be a serious problem and would need to be rectified. And would be difficiuld and costly.

Naux

oneillk wrote:

Throughout the house and in other similar properties is a bad sign. It sounds like there may not have been a DPC installed. This would be a serious problem and would need to be rectified. And would be difficiuld and costly.

oneillk

Would something like this be covered by Homebond?? (How many times have I seen people ask that question on this forum)!!

squarecon

Could be a problem with ventilation. Warm air full of moisture travels to the cold part of the house and condenses as moisture on the wall where it is the coldest eg gable end corner of a bedroom which is not used. Check thatthe vents in the rooms in question are not blocked and you have adaquete ventilation in the warm parts of the house (kitchen bathrooms etc) With out an inspection of the problem that is all the advice I can offer at this stage. It would be highly unlikely that a builder would forget the DPM. Some houses have gone on for years with no DPM and with no effect.

Naux

squarecon wrote:

Could be a problem with ventilation. Warm air full of moisture travels to the cold part of the house and condenses as moisture on the wall where it is the coldest eg gable end corner of a bedroom which is not used. Check thatthe vents in the rooms in question are not blocked and you have adaquete ventilation in the warm parts of the house (kitchen bathrooms etc) With out an inspection of the problem that is all the advice I can offer at this stage. It would be highly unlikely that a builder would forget the DPM. Some houses have gone on for years with no DPM and with no effect.

I think I could rule out possibility of condensation because it has occurred in the middle of internal walls and all the vents are clear and working in the rooms. All the windows even have trickle vents.

squarecon

Quite unusual, I think you will have to schedule a visit from a builder/damp specialist for some exploratory works.
Sorry I can not be of more assistance.

oneillk

As squarecon suggets it may not be that likely to be a DPC problem but the fact that it is happing on all external walls on BOTH leafs does leave room for concern.

"Some houses have gone on for years with no DPM and with no effect."

The above may be true, but i bet these houses are built in well drained areas. In some buildings ive seen, even before the walls are plastered you can see the damp rising up the walls untill it meets the dpc. This can be clearly seen by the difference in the colour of the block above and below the dpc level and this would only be after a few months.

"Homebond"

As far as i know (and i dont know much about it) homebond only covers structural damge. i.e subsidence, roof structures, severe cracking etc and would not cover the likes of installing the dpc. This would be simply a building regulation compliance issue.
This would have been down to the builder (to install it) and the Architect (to check it was installed) who sigend off the building.
But as said before, I think you would have to rule out all other possibilities first.

flocker

There have been no water leakages(that I know of) in the house at any stage.

It looks like it could be a leak in a heating system or domestic supply or a waste pipe if you have pipework buried in a concrete floor. The one leak could be travelling to these other points ..........unusual but l have seen it happen. You could have more than one leak to explain the water marks on different walls.

If you have a header tank for your heating system you could tie up the ball valve and see if the water level drops after a day. You could do the same for the storage tank but you have to make sure that you don't use any water in the mean time....... that's nearly impossible to do when your living in a house. Do you hear the storage tank running or trickling in the night? It could be the incoming main too.
Is their pipework or a radiator near the worst damp area?

eoghan.geraghty

I just looked in my copy of homebonds house building manual.
DPC and damp-proof membrane is all covered.
I have the 5th edition and have referred to it countless times, mainly for personal interest.
Would definitely get a rising damp expert out, as that what it sounds like to me.
Get it sorted, the sooner the better.
Good luck Naux.

squarecon

I've seen that on the stud walls on upstairs bedrooms so DPC makes no odds there. I still think its a condensation problem.

Naux

flocker wrote:

It looks like it could be a leak in a heating system or domestic supply or a waste pipe if you have pipework buried in a concrete floor. The one leak could be travelling to these other points ..........unusual but l have seen it happen. You could have more than one leak to explain the water marks on different walls.

If you have a header tank for your heating system you could tie up the ball valve and see if the water level drops after a day. You could do the same for the storage tank but you have to make sure that you don't use any water in the mean time....... that's nearly impossible to do when your living in a house. Do you hear the storage tank running or trickling in the night? It could be the incoming main too.
Is their pipework or a radiator near the worst damp area?

The damp spots appear intermittantly. They are not constantly wet. They appear and then dry out. If there was a leak it should be constant and they should be wet all the time you'd imagine.

I'm baffled by the whole thing. I can't really afford to stop using the water in the house to check the water tank levels because we have a 9 month old baby.

Naux

eoghan.geraghty wrote:

I just looked in my copy of homebonds house building manual.
DPC and damp-proof membrane is all covered.
I have the 5th edition and have referred to it countless times, mainly for personal interest.
Would definitely get a rising damp expert out, as that what it sounds like to me.
Get it sorted, the sooner the better.
Good luck Naux.

EG

I've never heard of a rising damp expert? Who would provide this service?

Naux

Naux

squarecon wrote:

I've seen that on the stud walls on upstairs bedrooms so DPC makes no odds there. I still think its a condensation problem.

If it were a condensation problem the I assume that you would see the condensation on all parts of the wall. This would then run down the wall to gather at the bottom causing the marks.

Problem with this is that there is no sign of condensation anywhere in the house. Also one area of damp is in the entrance hall where it would not be hot enough to cause condensation in the first place.

eoghan.geraghty

Naux wrote:

EG

I've never heard of a rising damp expert? Who would provide this service?

Naux

The only place i know is the damp store, there seems to be a problem with their web, dampstore.ie, but phone is 18006387048.

I have never used them nor do i know anyone who has used them but i do know they are around a good few years. They used to be based in Store St. but relocated to Blackrock opposite Blackrock clinic a few years ago.

Good luck with it and let us know how this develops.

eoghan

Take a look at this aswell


http://www.safeguardeurope.com/applications/rising_damp.php?gclid=CMiY26nTzosCFR2UEAodVRNGAA

muffler

I would be fairly sure that its not condensation so its either a leak or dampness rising up from the lower base of the walls. I've been reading through the posts and I cant see any way that it would be a leaking pipe or radiator.

I still go with my first thoughts that it is rising damp but this problem is similar to another recent thread concerning a crack, unless you can see it first hand its difficult to be more definitive.

Naux, at the very least you are going to have to get a good builder/tradesman in (someone with loads of experience) to give an opinion. Ideally I would suggest ringing around a few of the insulation firms - a lot of them also deal with damp/condensation/wood decay problems so you should be able to locate someone.

As posted above there is a freephone number for a company but you could just get out the yellow pages and flick through it.

The problem needs sorting sooner rather than later.

Naux

Muffler.

That pretty much sums up my thoughts on this as well. I'm off to get this problem inspected ASAP. I hope this one has a happy ending and that this doesn't cost me a load of money to rectify:mad:

Thanks to everyone for the help/opinions

Naux

Brum24

I've not long bought a house and have this problem. What was it?

michael999999

Naux wrote: »

I'm living in a semi-detached block house that was built approx 4 years ago. I began to notice small marks on the bottom of the walls just above the skirting boards about a year after moving in. At first these marks were very small and appeared intermittantly throughout the house. They are now getting larger and more noticable.

I have attached a couple of pics. Can anyone tell me what they are or what is causing this?? They look like "tide marks" caused by moisture/water rising up from the base of the wall. It's causing the paint to flake off after the moisture drys away.

Any help much appreciated!!!!

have you taken off a part of the skirting board to check if its holding moisture.