Patchy damp around chimney Damp can be a major issue in the home. Find answers to questions or post your own here.

[Dayle]

Hi all sorry if this one has been coverd before but here goes.

Me and the Mrs bought our first house around a year ago its a 1880's middle terraced house and we are having slight problems with patchy damp. The main problem is around the fireplace. The house had a full DPC in 1995 with the injection cream but when i investigated more someone after this has plastered to the floor of the ground floor thus bridging the DPC!!!! Anyhow in the front room i removed the skirting boards and removed some plaster a couple of inches above the injection holes.

If the DPC has been bridged does that mean it will need re-doing? The patchy damp around the room seems to have cured but it has started to come back around the chimney breast especialy on the corners the pain and plaster is bubling and when you rub it with your finger it crubles. The chimney was raining in particualy when raining hard you could hear it dripping on the back of the fire. Think we diagnosed this problem as the chimney was open top and didn't have a cowel which we have now fitted.

Any ideas what to do, im thinking of maybe nocking the plaster off around the chimney breast but not sure how long if ever does it take to dry and once plaster is contaminated are you better off starting a fresh?

Cheers Dayle.

[bd3cc]

Do you have a guarantee for the DPC, normally 30 years?
Doubt that the plastering would affect the walls as the newly installed DPC should go up to 1mtr.
If you have cured the chimney ingress problem, you will still need to kill the mould spores

[Dayle]

Yes i still have the certificate for the DPC but i rang them and they said it was void as the numpty who had the house before me bridged the DPC by plastering all the way to the floor. :roll: Do you think i would be best just removing 3 foot of plaster seeing what the brick work is like behind then i have been looking at that damp proof membrane to just go around the chimney then plaster over the top of that.

[ronmidg]

Had similar problem, two small patches of damp showing in bathroom, spent years redecorating, could not see why dpc bridged, eventually figured out the two patches line up with the cavities either side of the fire place inside the chimney breast in the room behind wall and I reckon the problem was/is rubble in the chimney breast cavities. Fixed, or at least masked, by taking the skirting board off and re-running the radiator pipes in the plaster gap at floor level behind new skirting. Suspect we still have the damp problem but it is dried sufficiently to prevent the visible effects showing above the skirting.

[bd3cc]

Does this mean that the damp is rising through the floor, and into the walls?