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Here is the image from the ground floor kitchen. This patch appears on wall between the two windows in the kitchen:

enter image description here

Here is what is on the other side of the wall. Please note that the black gutter and the black pipes are all newly installed around 6 months ago. This meant lot of new holes being drilled into the bricks. However, no wet patch appeared on the inside until now. Rain is common in the UK so I am not sure what is the actual reason for them appearing now.

enter image description here

Now similar but smaller patches are appearing on the first floor bedroom as well.

This is a circa 1900 semidetatched house in the UK. The patches appeared suddenly few weeks ago during very severe rain and have not gone away since. Overtime it has become more dark and has this yellow patches within it. I am not sure what I am supposed to do. Do I wait or do I call someone to have a look. If I call someone then who would that be.

MonkeyZeus
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quantum231
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6 Answers6

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It is evident that water has infiltrated the wall. It has not manifested itself until recently because it took some time to leach into the wall cavity. This can come from any or all of the drilled holes or possibly through the mortar between bricks. There may be cracked bricks as well. An examination is needed to determine the entry points.

The exterior need to be sealed and waterproofed.

The interior is showing the result of water. The black spots are mold. You will need to have the wall opened and any damp insulation and any other materials removed and the framing given time to dry out. When it is confirmed that there is no longer a moisture issue the wall can be closed.

Find a professional in your area that builds or renews exteriors. Or a general contractor as we have in the US. If you are not in charge of maintaining the building, alert the building manager.

RMDman
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The new gutter installation is faulty, or clogged; any what way, there is a major leak on top that lets water flow down the wall. Looking at the damage, it is possible that it also comes onto the top or even down the inside of the brick wall. That a lot of water flows where it shouldn't is evident by the dark patch on the exterior wall running all the way from the gutter to the bottom of the image. That is the root cause and needs to be fixed asap because, as is obvious, the water seeps through into the interior, ruining interior walling and decoration and causing a mold issue. Over time, it also compromises the wall structure.

If there is interior insulation and drywall, that needs to be removed and discarded. Chances are that the water has flown much farther downwards, undetected, behind a drywall. If there is only solid plastering, it depends whether it has become brittle and soft. If so, it needs to be removed and replaced.

In any case, the mold is a serious health issue and must be dealt with immediately. A first aid measure is to use a chlorine solution. Many anti-mold fluids from home improvement stores are actually nothing but that, which can be easily self-made from chlorine bleach sold in those blue bottles available in drug stores, mixed with water. This arbitrary page has some good recommendations, except that I'd still use it on drywall as well; not as a permanent solution but until it can be removed. The main thing to observe is that chlorine itself is a health hazard as well — ventilate well so that you don't drive out the devil with the Beelzebub. Perhaps, especially if this is a sleep room or if one inhabitant has asthma or similar, consider using hydrogen peroxide. I also would not spray hydrogen peroxide or chlorine, even if that is the recommended way to apply it on those websites (what are they thinking?). Simply sponge it on, with rubber gloves, and only as a first aid.

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  1. Black dots are mould.

  2. Yellow spots are caused by water "dragging" material from the wall as it flows

I would suspect the new pipes and gutter. Not because of the new holes, but for leakage. It may have clogged during the heavy rain and soaked the wall. All in all, your case suggests poor installation or failure short after - get the pipes and gutters inspected, serviced or redone (covered by the one who installed the current ones).

Then you can start thinking of drying the wall, cleaning the moss and painting the wall.

brhans
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Crowley
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The patches appeared suddenly few weeks ago during very severe rain and have not gone away since.

So water is getting in during rain.

Overtime it has become more dark and has this yellow patches within it.

Mold is growing.

I am not sure what I am supposed to do. Do I wait or do I call someone to have a look.

Waiting has proven detrimental, I advise against doing nothing twice.


The gutter is likely clogged at the top there and is causing a diversion of water into vulnerable spots.

Address the water infiltration issue first; start with a gutter cleaning.

Now for the inside of the house, that wall is a hazard and will have to be addressed.

Assuming it's plaster directly on brick? If so then chiseling off the plaster, killing the mold, applying new plaster, and painting should suffice


If you can blame the issue on improper gutter installation then all of these expenses could be covered by someone else but good luck with that route...

MonkeyZeus
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As already stated, the black is mould. You need to clean that with bleach, potentially sand down to remove all elements of mould, etc, and repaint the wall ONCE the problem is solved.

As for the actually problem, the obvious guess to me is the pipe installers have crossed the cavity. In UK homes you have effectively 2 walls next to each other. If someone has screwed a long screw spanning the cavity, then water on the outer wall will get to the inner wall and hence your problem. If they dropped debris down the cavity, again it would cause the same problem.

As others have suggested, there may be a blockage in the pipe which will make the outer wall wet as water saturates the outer wall, but again, unless the cavity is crossed with a screw or debris, I do not think you would get a problem as bad.

Maybe debris was already in the cavity, but a blocked pipe with water overflow is only showing it now.

As others have suggested, see what happens on the outside when it is chucking it down. See if there is an obvious water overflow.

Rewind
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A 1900 house almost certainly has not got a cavity wall.

The narrow pipe is an overflow pipe from the cold water tank and provided that this is not dripping in dry weather, this is not a problem.

The damp appears to originate from where the vertical pipe joins the gutter, so it seems likely that you have a blockage at this point.

Jeremy Boden
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