Hi,

Today at my mum's house, at 10:30am I noticed this frost patch at the rear of the wall.

The frost trail runs from the top corner of the house, to under my younger brother's bedroom.


I'm thinking the most sensible place to begin, given evidence like this, is to get ladders up to the gutter, around the downpipe? In Summer I did pay for a few new roof tiles to be fitted to replace those which had slipped, but didn't get the gutters cleaned, and they are likely to contain moss that has rolled off the tiles above. Was going to get the gutters cleaned out next Summer. They were last done about 3 or 4 years ago.

If the water ingress problem is something we can ID with ladders up to the gutter, and hopefully get resolved... would be need to do anything about the water that has already seeped in to the brickwork? Might it dry up from the brickwork of its own accord or would we need to treat it somehow? I'm just thinking that frost trail, well it looks like it could be a significant amount of water that has got in.

There is no obvious sign of inner damp on the walls inside the house... maybe shadowy in the upper corner wall side of wallpaper but might just be the light and shadows.

Any other suggestions? Thanks. Also, sorry but I'm going to have to check in to the forum tomorrow to see if any informed thoughts or opinion has been forthcoming, because I'm so dropping with tiredness.

If you check the gutters any water that is on the wall will eventually evaporate.

It does look like you have a little bit of pointing missing from behind the rain water down spout, but it might just be the engle of the picture!

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DIY | Donnas dream house

Thanks for your reply ultimatehandyman.

Sorry for my delayed reply. I set up my Ulimate Handyman forum account when sat at my mum's computer, encrypted my login/password details on her computer, and have only just got back to her PC to recover my login. This website was the first place which came to mind to seek thoughts after I've watched a few good Ultimate Handyman how-tos on YouTube.

It turns out the gutters were cleaned only 18 months ago by the window cleaner (mum told me). The weather is not condusive for further investigation at the moment, nor for any gutter cleaning work for any debris in there will be frozenish solid and hard to move, but as soon as it warms up a little I'm going to book and pay for someone to come and see if they can work out what's wrong and how it can be fixed.

It's only the really cold weather which has shown this issue. I didn't notice it last year in Winter. I just hope water has not been slipping in for that long and that it'll be like you say with evaporation. I don't like the prospect of the bricks getting damaged/damp through water freezing in them.

Pointing? I think it might be the angle of the other photo. There is this photo I also took on the same day. The holes in the soffits are gridded venty things.

Just an update. Slightly embarrased but I thought I might as well admit it.

I no longer am too worried about any water penetration from the inside, from a leak in the roof, or a broken gutter or blocked piping, causing concentrated wetting of the inner leaf brickwork. I'm still definately going to get a few things checked out and the gutters cleaned out when the weather warms up a bit.

This morning I de-iced the car, then came back in to put some food out on the birdtable in the back garden. Someone upstairs was running the hot water, and I noticed the combi-boiler vents steam in the exact shape of the frost pattern on the brickwork. With no breeze that steam just rubs right across the wall. I've got to suspect the moisture is partially sticking and then freezing up against the bricks. The most concentrated part of the vent is where it also frosts up the most, underneath the window. It's too much of a coincidence for it not to be a factor, with the steam takes that exact path.

I ran the kitchen tap on full hot, and went out to take a pic, but my camera is a bit old now and only 3.1mp so it didn't pick up the vent trail as clearly as my own eye. Honestly though, it's there and the steam just brushes the same trail as the frost patch. Thanks.

Thanks for letting us know the outcome

It's something I have never seen before, but I am sure this will help anyone that has a similar problem!

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DIY | Donnas dream house