Damp Proofing

Damp around chimney breast, internal walls and kitchen wall.

Anonymous user 28/02/2024 - 2.59 PM

Purchased a semi-detached house (converted from 2 flats) in February. Originally noticed wallpaper was coming away from bottom of walls downstairs but just thought old paper, we were gonna redecorate anyway. A month and a bit ago noticed mould growing on the back of my sofa. The sofa was on an internal wall. Dug deeper, pulled off skirting boards (plastic) and found a fair bit of damp on the wall. The floor is half concrete and half timber construction in this room and the floor is dry (cement part). All the walls in this room the wallpaper tears off easily. The plaster is touching the cement wall and the gaps where plaster should have been has been filled with what I can only describe as plaster of Paris. Behind the plaster seems to be a black coating on the bricks (about half a cm thick). The plastic skirting boards were wet when I took them off. Most recently I pulled paper and skirting off the chimney breast and the plaster is just crumbling and more scary than that the mortar on a couple of bricks there is damp and crumbling. Had 4 people out and told me 3 different things. Condensation, rising and penetrating from chimney. I'm at a loss at what to do because budget is tight and don't want to spend money on something that might not fix it. There was black mould growing on one of the outside walls. Tore paper off, cleaned it off and now seems to be drying nicely. The plaster is damp in the kitchen too and just breaking away in my hand. Damp smell in kitchen cupboard ajacent. There was a leaky pipe there but I am unsure how long it has been leaky. The house did have cavity wall insulation installed 7-8 years ago. We want this fixed before we decorate, but really unsure of what to do. I just wanted advice. Thanks for reading if there is any more info you require feel free to ask. Edit; with it being 2 flats it had a fireplace removed from upstairs. There is no vent or anything in place. This will have been done about 30 years ago when the flats got converted. Also I have a hygrometer in the sitting room and it was 75% rh. Kept windows open and it's dropped to about 60. Thanks Michael