chimney got damp

[squelchy]

Hi

I live in a middle terrace house and the chimney breast is on a party wall I have noticed on my walls either side of the ground floor chimney breast there are two damp patches this is not rising damp as the patches are about 1m up from the floor and the plaster below looks dry the patches are about .5m in diameter.

The chimney has been removed all the way up to the roof with the stack gone the only part left is on ground floor I am going to be removing this part as it is not supporting the upper floor as the joists run into the party wall of my Nabors house.

My question is this any ideas where the damp could be coming from and what solutions would be recommended as I have said I will be removing the chimney breast soon I might be able to see more then but wanted to know what to look for when removing bricks to verify where the damp is getting in.

I am turning the room into a kitchen and want to cure the problem before I get to far in I would also like to dry line the wall is there any type of material that is best to use in these conditions ?

I also noticed when removing the crappy electric fake looking fire that there was allot of dust i.e. half a bin liner behind the fire and is damp as well if that helps.

Any advice would be greatly received .

[Phil L]

There's not much it can be really, obviously it's not rising damp, nor is it penetrating damp from rainfall etc, the only other options are:1) condensation, although this is unlikely in such a small area, and 2) a leaking pipe - old houses had back boilers plumbed into the back of the fire, when these were removed, people often just bent the lead pipes over and flattened them with a hammer...if there's one or two of these buried in the plaster, they may be still dripping, albeit very slowly.

[The Natural Philosopher]

If the chimney was damp proofed with a render up to about a meter from the floor. This is not unusual.

The solution is to remove it entirely, and put a DPC at floor level.