Re-plastered bedroom wall but it's still damp ? Damp can be a major issue in the home. Find answers to questions or post your own here.

[Tomas90]

Hi all,

Hopefully someone can shed some light into my current bedroom wall situation.

I have attached 4 images in order of the problem and how i went about in fixing it.

Picture 1

For many, many years this wall was problematic due to what we now found was a very small leak from a bathroom that is behind this wall. The wall on the left is neighbors kitchen which has no units on, and its not wet or damp on his end.

We have now refurbished the bathroom completely, fixed the leak, added waterproof membrane on the wall etc.

There is no plumbing in this wall or the wall on the left.
I always ventilate / heat / use dehumidifiers in rooms and manage condensation levels pretty well.

Picture 2

We stripped the wall down to the brick, and let it try for around 6 weeks (2x dehumidifiers on almost 24/7). When it felt that the bricks are dry we then called a contractor out to do the bonding/skimming of the wall.

Picture 3

This is a completed job, been told it will take a week to dry and i can paint over.

Picture 4

This is the wall 4 weeks after the job is completed, and that corner (same place where it took longest for bricks to dry in the first place) is simply not drying as fast as the rest of the wall. Only couple of days ago i bought the electric heater and the progress has been noticeable but still quite slow.

I understand that bonding may act as a sponge and it sucks in the moisture that could have still been in the bricks - could this be the main issue ? I am pretty confident the leak has been stopped. IS there anything i am doing wrong?

On some dark patches where its dark i touch it, and it doesnt feel damp/wet but its dark. Whilst on some patches it definitely still feels wel/damp.

Any ideas, should i just leave to dry? should i use the heater or not? I am keeping the heater on and off, putting dehumidifier for few hours a day too.

[stoneyboy]

Hi tomas90,
It looks like you have a plastic DPM, this should be lapped into the DPC in the brickwork. I suspect you have a bridge over the wall DPC (if there is one) which is causing rising damp. Is it a new concrete floor?
Regards S

[Tomas90]

Hi

Thank you for your reply.

There is no plastic DPM, unsure about DPC though.

This is not a new concrete floor, I live in a block of flats and I am on the ground floor. This wall however is not facing outdoors, its bathroom on one side and neighbors empty wall on the other.

Been drying this wall for good few days with heater on and its made no progress at all, i am touching a wall and it seems to be dry - could the plaster be simply stained now?