Removal of textured wall coating

[Matt Green]

One bedroom has lots of what I would call "mini volcano's" circular shapes that crunch when pressed. This wall also has fine salts on the wall.

Using an electrical resistance meter on salt damaged plaster is pointless. It will give spuriously high readings regardless of whether the wall is damp.

It may be that the render and/or the paint are doing their job very well- if you cover one side of a wet wall with something impervious the water trapped in the fabric can only go one way. This may be the remainder of an historic issue.

Another bedroom has a small patch of green/brown mould in the corner under one of the windows. (after reading some of the forum posts, could this be mould be caused by condensation?). I'll try and up load some pics tonight.

Seems good for condensation. A cold spot and there's a requirement for fresh water to account for the mould growth. If water was moving through the wall, the chances are it would deposit so much salt on the internal surface that mould growth would not occur.

Two different symptoms of damp suggest two different causes, and possibly not the one suggested by the surveyor at that.


Matt Green

 

[pollster]

Hmmm, interesting! I wonder if its my bathroom is casuing this! The previous owner had a new suite put in but didn't bother fit an extactor fan? (i'm waiting for a builder to fit one). I purchased a dehumidifer last friday and placed it on the landing outside the bedrooms and bathroom. Yesterday i left it running from 8am to 6pm. When i checked it, it had collected over 2 litres of water!

 

[MdB]

...Yesterday i left it running from 8am to 6pm. When i checked it, it had collected over 2 litres of water!

I assume you bought one with a humidistat built into it. Set it to something like half way. You don't need to have it running non stop unless the roof is missing in your house... Drying the house out too quickly can cause problems as well. NT is your expert in dehumidifiers and will correct me if I'm wrong I'm sure.