Damp penetrating into rooms from external wall Damp can be a major issue in the home. Find answers to questions or post your own here.

[Beckface]

I live in a solid brick terraced house, 2 up 2 down. This month I've noticed the wallpaper is lifting badly in the same place of both the upstairs bedroom (bottom corner) and the dining room (top corner) - one is above the other, both where the external wall is.

This has never happened before and is only happening in that one corner, so condensation isn't the issue. The only thing that has changed this year was our front guttering was replaced, so I think it could be related to that.

We have a vertical piece of guttering going down the front wall between mine and my neighbour's house. In March this year they had a problem with a leak in THEIR front downstairs room where the wallpaper was bubbling. The original cast iron guttering was replaced for plastic. Fast forward to now and WE have a leak.

Our neighbours no longer have a leak or similar problems.

A few questions:
1) Could the leak back around March have affected our house as well but we're only seeing the effects 8/9 months later? (This seems unlikely to me as the wallpaper bubbling appeared end of Nov and has definitely gotten worse over Dec, but wanted to check.)

2) I don't know if the tradesman who replaced the guttering filled in the holes in the brickwork left from where the original guttering was. Could this be the cause of penetrating damp?

3) Obs we'll have to get someone in to look at this, but how do we fix the damage done to the wallpaper? Repapering isn't an option at the moment. Thinking of sealing the wall behind the lifted bits and then sticking them back down. (I can post this elsewhere in the forum if needs be.)

Many thanks

[stoneyboy]

Hi beckface
You definitely need to get the gutter checked but do a bit of investigation yourself - when it is raining heavily go outside an look up at the gutter/downpipe. Is there water pouring over/out the system adjacent to your damp wall.
You could try cutting down the bubbled paper with a sharp knife, opening up the cut and brushing wallpaper paste into the bubbled area. Then use an edge roller to push it back down.
Regards S

[Beckface]

Hi

Thank you, that was really helpful. We did as suggested and noticed that there was a slight overpour. We got someone out to replace the guttering and also redo the pointing in places, and fingers crossed the issue seems resolved.

Thanks as well for the advice about fixing the wallpaper. Once the two affected rooms have had chance to dry out I'll follow your advice.

Best wishes!