Damp - water main duct

I got a call to my daughter's last night to look at a damp patch at the back of her understairs cubby-hole. The very end is blocked off creating a void - it was this plasterboard at the low end that was damp. The floor was damp and it had risen up the wall and plasterboard. The incoming plastic mains water pipe enters the cubby-hole through the blocked off end.

I decided that the area needed some ventilation and some trimming of the plaster to keep it off the floor. I cut a hole in the plasterboard to fit a vent. On taking a good look inside I pulled out some plasterboard off-cuts (typical) and concluded that the damp had been caused by water coming up the flexible pipe duct that the mains pipe is carried in.

The area is fairly damp and I am assuming that heavy rain had entered the pavement stop tap shaft and had been carried to the house where the mains water enters. A bit of wind in the right direction may have been responsible for pushing it up a bit at causing it to overspill onto the floor in the void.

Any suggestions on how to stop water coming in via this route? I am thinking that an external airbrick at floor level may serve to dry the area and act as a drain.

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John
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