Victorian house with damp walls

[Victorian]

Hi all, this year my fiance and I bought a Victorian terraced house which unveils more and more problems since we started scraping all the layers and layers of wallpaper off.
We are first time buyers and thought it only needed rewiring and some decoration, at least that is what the surveyor reported to us. Now, that we noticed damp patches and mould under the layers of wallpapers, we had a builder come in who urged us to damproof the whole house with injections for a couple of thousand pounds!

Having done more research on the topic and especially period properties, i now doubt that it is actually the right course of action and would like to ask you to confirm or correct what I assume could be the causes of damp in our house:

1. Use of modern plasters, making the walls unable to breathe: we noticed most walls were gypsum/cement plastered, partly already patched with some waterproof plaster.

2. Waterproof glossy paint in many rooms.

3. Garden is sloping down against the back of the building, parts of it are either cemented or big tiles were lay there. No drainage was installed.

4. In front of the building, there is a cemented patio, again no drainage visible, and its surrounded by a thigh high wall.

5. Certain walls have been insulated with polystrene mats (not sure thats the right term).

6. The chimney breasts were especially damp/sticky. They have been closed at some point, there are no vents installed.

6. Before we moved in, the house was a shared house, which means probably everyone dried clothes in their own room, doors were always closed, there was 4 times the cooking, 4 times the showering etc. Which is a lifestyle that created a damp environment.

All in all, i do suspect that all these factors together contributed to having damp walls and that injecting the walls is perhaps not even necessary.

But what do you think? Thanks for your thoughts an answers in advance!

[Rorschach]

If you can suffer it, I personally would give the whole house a thorough clean and airing out (easy in this weather) and then do a winter before doing any major work. Winter really shows up where damp is getting in, where condensation builds up, the cold spots, the warm spots etc.

In the meantime so you don't feel like you are wasting time, use the warm weather to sort out garden, rain water running towards the foundation will make the walls really damp. Consider re-landscaping to direct water away, make sure your gutters are clear and working properly and consider installing ACO drains around the any areas where water is likely to stand.

Injected DPC is likely to be a waste of time and money is better spent on ventilation and limiting water ingress.

[Dave54]

https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/hom ... 95.article

Make sure the outside ground level is below the inside level.
Ventilate indoors.

[ronan01]

Doors and windows can be affected due to rain runs down and seeks out joints between the frames, walls. overflowing gutters, cracked downpipes and leaking overflow pipes cause water to splash on hard ground surfaces next to the house or maybe plumbing leaks.

You can repair any leaking gutters, drains or maybe damp proofing can be the final option. Good luck :)

[fin]

chimneys always are problems for damp. in the old days it would have been fine as they had propper fires on the gan all the time. now most of them are bricked up.

what often can affect old houses is when the cavities are blocked up. this deffo causes damp problems and if that is the case an injected damp course only will not work.

you cna also get various tanking solutions if the damp problems are real bad.

also we did work in a victorian terraced house a while back and also in the same house major works about 18 years back. the whole street had horrific damp problems. all the timber floors were rotten. all the walls were damp. there was so many leaks under the ground from water pipes that northumbrian water were on for months finding and fixing them. it was so bad that the gutters were wet with water at the sides of the road even in weather like we have at the moment

[fin]

chimneys deffo deffo need ventilation

[wine~o]

Sorry missed this thread on account of ... being busy.

Those injected DPC's don't generally work, you'll need to get rid of any gypsum plaster and re-render with lime.

As per others posts ventilation is key.