In the corner of the master bedroom (1st floor), behind the POs nasty 1980s fitted wardrobes, we uncovered a rather horrendous damp patch, lots of black mould, about 3 ft up from floor level, and about 4 ft at its widest point - gypsum plaster I should add.
Upon hacking it off, there were a lot of fine roots (tendrils?) behind the plaster, where I presume the damp had tracked in from the ivy that used to reside on the corner of the house. Ivy is long gone, and wall was in fact completely dry behind the plaster, so I replastered in NHL, couple of coats of clay paint and job's a good 'un.
Interestingly however, there is a window about 3ft from this corner - when the new hardwood DG windows went in (replacing the ill fitting PVC) I asked the fitters to leave the internal making good to me. Leaving it all to dry out for a few months, I then plastered in the reveals, using hydraulic lime with hemp for the dubbing out and scratch coat, before finishing with my usual 3:1 plastering sand to NHL3.5 - all left to dry out, then a couple of coats of clay paint again to finish off, again seemingly job's a good un.
I put in the new internal window sills/cills at the weekend, and went back this evening to tidy up the edges of the paint where I'd inevitably made a mess - and noticed the corner side of the reveal was absolutely covered in salts - something I've never had before with lime plaster! It may well have been there before but I only noticed it when some had landed on my prisitne new bit of timber! Additionally, it is probably worth noting that there is still some masonry paint on the outside of the wall which I have only partially succeeded in removing before summer ran out.
Now, learned ladies and gentlemen of this fine parish, having never experienced this before on lime plaster, is this a good thing (trapped moisture is escaping) or a bad thing (as is the case in my inexpertly tanked cellar)? In short should I be worried!
Upon hacking it off, there were a lot of fine roots (tendrils?) behind the plaster, where I presume the damp had tracked in from the ivy that used to reside on the corner of the house. Ivy is long gone, and wall was in fact completely dry behind the plaster, so I replastered in NHL, couple of coats of clay paint and job's a good 'un.
Interestingly however, there is a window about 3ft from this corner - when the new hardwood DG windows went in (replacing the ill fitting PVC) I asked the fitters to leave the internal making good to me. Leaving it all to dry out for a few months, I then plastered in the reveals, using hydraulic lime with hemp for the dubbing out and scratch coat, before finishing with my usual 3:1 plastering sand to NHL3.5 - all left to dry out, then a couple of coats of clay paint again to finish off, again seemingly job's a good un.
I put in the new internal window sills/cills at the weekend, and went back this evening to tidy up the edges of the paint where I'd inevitably made a mess - and noticed the corner side of the reveal was absolutely covered in salts - something I've never had before with lime plaster! It may well have been there before but I only noticed it when some had landed on my prisitne new bit of timber! Additionally, it is probably worth noting that there is still some masonry paint on the outside of the wall which I have only partially succeeded in removing before summer ran out.
Now, learned ladies and gentlemen of this fine parish, having never experienced this before on lime plaster, is this a good thing (trapped moisture is escaping) or a bad thing (as is the case in my inexpertly tanked cellar)? In short should I be worried!