Bought our house in April this year, full homebuyers survey paid for. Only issue picked up was some evidence of beetle infestation in the beams. This was investigated and no further treatment was required.
So we bought the house and everything has been ok until now.
We noticed a large patch of damp in the kitchen. Initially thought it may be from a pipe but the plumber has been out and has advised it is a rising damp problem. There is also a musty smell from behind the kitchen cupboards.
No pipes or other drains in this area.
House was renovated in 2009with an injection damp course. No damp issues picked up on the survey.
Worth contacting the damp proof company?
Thought the survey would have picked up a damp issue.
It’s an old end of terrace cottage that was refurbished in 2009.
Any help or ideas would be great. 😀

chemical DPC is a con.

check outside, guttering, blocked drains, ground level too high etc.

I’m an expert and slightly damp.

I’m not an expert but I’m very damp.

I’ve seen some damp, moist & absolutely dripping experts in and out.

“House renovated in 2009”

That might be a clue. Has it been sealed to death with everything waterproofed and sealed and insulated and not allowed to breathe?

Since was a plumber a damp expert?

Read this: http://www.heritage-house.org/managing-damp-in-old-buildings.html

I’d hazard the 2009 “renovation” is what’s causing it.

My flat (ground floor) had injection treatment for damp done more than 10 years ago and so did all the flats in this area. They are built on boggy ground which means damp will always be an issue but there are ways to lessen the effect of it. The injection treatment is nonsense and so is the copper electrode/wire method.

My gutters were leaking and the roughcast was cracked and broken so I fixed all that then chipped away all the salt damaged plaster in the kitchen area and let the air at it for a couple of weeks. I dug a drain around the outside to help keep water away from the walls. I then plaster plated the kitchen wall leaving an air gap between the wall and plaster. Hopefully I’ll not see any issues with it for another 10 years.

check out this guys YT channel for advice https://www.youtube.com/user/stibnite11

Cavity or no cavity? If its got a cavity the “rising damp” is condensation or a cavity breach.

If it’s no cavity, then it’s condensation or lack of “breathability”, maybe caused by the render type and/or the rainwater goods/soil levels etc.

Ever put your sports kit away in a plastic bag damp and then found it a week later? It will still be wet because the moisture can’t evaporate. That is what happens to a solid wall that is tanked and cement rendered. Moisture in the wall, which gets there through hairline cracks, can’t escape and so stays wet. A lime mortar which allows moisture to move through it will let it evaporate. The equivalent of leaving the dirty wet kit out the line. It will get wet when it rains but dry when the wind blows.

Rising damp is a myth. As previously mentioned, chemical DPCs are snake oil as are electrodes etc.

Ha cheers guys, I was expecting ” I am damp and so is my wife…”
The property itself is old, 9inch thick walls with little ventilation (no breather bricks). The gutters are fine but the wall that is effected has an external wall on the outside. I think moisture is entering there. Worth getting a damp expert in or not?
Edit. Not sure if there is a cavity, I think the walls are solid.

I’ve never believed in rising damp and when my last house came up as suffering from it in the survey I refused to get it treated – this meant the mortgage company held back a grand on my loan but I was OK with that. Once I moved in I didn’t ever notice any damp problems and a few years later I switched lender who surveyed my house finding no damp.

@cougar, cheers for the article. I have skimmed over it but will give it a good read later. Seems allowing the walls to breathe is key.
Wonder if I can put some sort of ventilation in the wall to allow air to circulate?

Cougar’s link is spot on. When you say it’s old how old, also what construction is the wall, brick, stone etc.

The house is pre 1800 and grade 2 listed. (Used to be a stables but was renovated/converted in 2009) The walls are solid stone with a smooth plaster render. Outside it is a pebble dash type outer painted white.

Right so first thing to do is check the gutters etc. and ensure there is no obvious sign of the damp. Is the damp wall exposed to the rain a lot based on prevailing winds? Is the ground around it boggy? Is the render and paint on the outside breathable? Is the plaster and paint on the inside permeable? You say the damp is in the kitchen, is there a service gap behind the units that allows some air movement? Do you have an extractor that vents to the outside, rather than one that just recirculates the air internally, and do you use it when you cook?

Sorry for all the questions but unfortunately it’s a process of elimination, working through it methodically and addressing any issues you find.

As a short term fix you can always run a dehumidifier but that will only address the symptoms not the problem.

Edit: You could always try something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0074KMAM0

Have you tried taping some aluminium foil as tight as possible on the wall? If it’s a cold wall causing condensation you will see condensation on the foil. Might help rid of one suspect!

@jeff,I will answer what I can. Guttering is fine, no issues, surrounding ground is solid concrete and tarmac. As for breathable plaster, I don’t know. The area of damp is behind a kitchen unit (corner), same wall as the radiator, just above the skirting board. The wall is exposed to the elements. A dry stone wall from outside meets the wall where it is damp, not sure if this may be a problem area.

There is no such thing as Rising Damp – see Ask Jeff link:

http://www.askjeff.co.uk/category/damp/

Suspect water is running off ‘Dry’ stone wall onto external wall or breaching the damp course causing the damp problem.

Before you get an expert in to sell you some snake-oil, try to work out yourself where the water is coming from. Rain being blown against the wall, any sort of dripping gutter might be a culprit. If the wall is thick the leak may start significantly higher up, we found one of these last winter when an overflowing gutter and broken-down pointing led to a damp patch some 6ft lower inside the house. Looked quite nasty at first (damp under carpet, soggy and rotting) but v easily fixed once we had worked out what to do. Waterproofing the inside of the house would have been a complete waste of time and probably made it worse.

Ah, just saw your pebble dash comment. Any signs of cracking in or around the external render? Once water gets under that, its only going to go one way…

Stephen Fry’s take on it

[video]https://youtu.be/FmPcBlWhqtI[/video]

Where shall I start?
Pre-1900 property with solid gable end. Opened up the chimney breast last week to find the gable end wall pretty damp. We’ve been having condensation problems on this wall due to it being cold, especially in the alcoves in the fireplace area.
Since opening up the flue last Wednesday we’ve not seen any moisture on the inside wall.
Unfortunately we do have a cement render that is cracked in places so that probably isn’t helping, but already we’ve noticed the wall inside the chimney breast is noticeably drier.
At first we too thought ‘rising damp’ but all the skirting boards are solid and we only have trouble with this wall in the front room, it runs the width of the house.
Current plan is to leave the brick exposed in the fireplace and hope that the new wood burner dries out the wall & lets it breathe, whilst monitoring the situation before making a decision on where to go next.

Can a wall ‘breathe’ through just a 4ft square exposed section?

That askjeff website is interesting, the section about preventing mould is rather pertinent as the main reason for having a log burner installed is to get rid of condensation and the resultant spot mould.

Just for the avoidance of doubt: Stone, brick and concrete are porous (a brick will soak up a pint of water). Whether you rely on walls to dry out by good ventilation or you completely seal the inside walls (tanking membranes etc) is open to debate but to say that water can’t spread through stone/brick by capillary action might be true on the internet but not in the real world. If I had a pound for every timber window/door cill laid straight down onto stone/concrete without a dpc membrane, that I’ve had to replace, I could buy myself a very nice bike indeed!