Good afternoon everyone,
I was hoping someone could offer me some advice on what you would do if you were in my shoes. I purchased my first new home last year in September which is on a slight incline and built in 1924, all new plaster and paintwork and no damp was recorded during the survey, great. Come winter there were the tell-tale signs of damp with tide marks appearing on two internal walls and in the utility room. After a bit of a panic I called out a few people to have a look, and all of them said “rising damp†and that it would need treating. My next-door neighbour had the exact same issue in the same places as me so I did some investigation as it seemed like something between the two properties was the cause.
Found that the drain pipe at the front of the property dividing our two homes was actually fractured with a large vertical crack about 2 inches by 5 inches which was the original iron pipe, this was in the ground where the pipe was then goes horizontal into the sewer. This meant that I had 5 roofs worth of rainwater coming down said broken pipe and going under my house. Managed to get the water company to replace this so now the leak is fixed (Nov last year).
I’ve had many quotes now to fix the damp walls inside the home, (£4200, £4000, £2000, £1650 £675) to do the same job. Obviously with this kind of variation it doesn’t fill me with confidence in the “damp curing†trade. So, I was wondering, the tide marks are still on parts of the wall and are still damp, however now that the water ingress is fixed, would the walls and plaster dry out on their own after x amount of time? Or would I need to hire a trades-person to either inject the wall with a DPC or place a membrane and re-plaster the affected areas?
P.S I believe that the previous owner has re-skimmed the walls with a gypsum-based plaster.
Many thanks Tim
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