Smelly spare room! Chimney? Drying out?

[yamin]

Hi there

I'm a newbie here, we hail from sunny south warwickshire, where we bought an 18th century cottage 2 years ago. Pretty place, apart from an AWFUL 80's renovation (you know whats coming don't you??) - DPCs, non lime plaster, some horrible stuck on balck beams to 'match' the real ones in the older back part of the house, crazy paving fireplace etc!! Anyway, amazingly the house is pretty good dampwise, even the flgstone floor which had been covered with carpet and underlay (yuk) but was spared the DPC and has dried out a treat since uncovering, though looks a mess, but thats another question! The main problem we have is a smelly spare room! This has a chimney stack running through it. Last summer (think rain rain and more rain!) we had the smell investigated and decided that the flashing/chimney was leaking. In actual fact we removed the chimney (not needed and bricks simply lifted off) and had it all correctly capped etc. Smell remains however and actually got worse. Hmmm. Chimney remains checked, its not leaking. In the room below the spare is th kitchen. When we moved in, there was a stanley, heat storing cooker in the old fireplace. And the smell in room above not so bad. The stanly was vented into the chimney void. Was this belting out such heat that it kept the chimney dry? And is our replacement ordinary cooker to blame for sending up less heat, which then can't make it out of the chimney cap before it condensates and leaks through chimney stack in spare room? Flue is running through middle of house so no external walls. Other side of spare room on first floor is bathroom whcih is fully tiled so can't see any damp there. The spare room has been unheated, now we have storage heater in there- how long should we give this to see if that sorts the problem?

 

[Matt Green]

It looks to me as if it's drying out. The wallpaper on the chimneybreast looks to be painted and impervious, yet there's no mould growth on the internal surface. That rules out condensation. There is mould growth on the plaster beneath though, which points to fresh water moving through the plaster from behind.

Strip the paper and live with it for as long as you can whilst it dries. The oft quoted drying rate of an inch a month is a good guideline.


Matt

 

[middi]

Welcome to the forum.

It is difficult to give exact advise as how to cure a damp problem through correspondence. Many factors could be involved.

Nevertheless, When chimneys develop damp within a room it is mainly when they are not used or, worse, when the chimney cavity cannot breath due to the air flow void having been capped off within a room. Once satisfied that there is no restricted air flow, pointing, flushing and exterior flue capping should be also closely looked at, attended to if necessary to eliminate any water being channelled in the masonary or the void.

once satisfied that all the above works correctly, just let the room dry out and redecorate. Also it is not wise to have unheated and unventilated rooms. If you wish not to have heating in a room, make sure it is well ventilated at every opportunity.

 

[Penners]

It might help if you could describe the smell. Is it mushroomy, sooty.... or what?

 

[yamin]

Hi, thanks for all the help so far! Its definately a damp kind of smell. Fusty, mushroomy, mouldy kind of smell. Not sooty in my opinion.


Thanks

 

[Essex]

We had a similar problem, checked chimney, flashings ok and chimney left. Removed wall paper and let the wall dry out, it felt cold and wet for several months but now absolutely fine, just about to be limewashed.

 

[Raylea]

Hello,
Is the ceiling alright it looks like it has wet edges around the left side of the chimney, or is it just the picture.

We have a bad behaving chimney at the moment, previous owner used concrete fillets instead of lead flashing, done one side last summer and now the other side is having a go, drives ya mad. Mind you its a weird chimney it was obviously open when the georgians built and then the victorians bricked it in, made it wider in the process, but never made it flush to the original so it has a ledge as such, we found it when we ripped of some very wet plasterboard, curteosy of previous owner :evil: , enough said about them. It has a wet brick smell to boot (will get it fixed, more money) :roll:
Raylea

 

[yamin]

Hi Raylea

Yes, there was wet paper around the ceiling/chimney junction too - this has dried to about the state of the rest you see in the picture. Really not sure why its ended up being drier in the winter than the summer!! Well, what passed for summer, guess thats my answer!!

Thanks!