Hi there,
I was really hoping that one or some of you may be willing to offer me your expertise. I moved into my recently renovated semi detached 150-ish year old cottage (not renovated by me, by the person I bought it off) in summer 2019, by November 2019 I started to see drip marks appearing on and around the area of the chimney breast wall in our main bedroom. There is plaster board either side that has been put there to make the wall flush, the plasterboard also gets the odd drip mark on too. When I moved in there was no working fire but in December 2020 I had a wood burning stove installed. This hasn’t improved nor made it worse.
Initially, I took the assumption it was a roof leak. I’ve had multiple roofers out and it’s become very costly, they all say they can’t find anything major but “I can try this?” Obviously, wanting the problem sorted, I’ve always chanced it and got them to do the job. We’ve had the flashing done, the pointing looked at, the chimney caps changed. All the while, the staining and damage to the plaster is getting worse and worse. Recently, I laid out some tarpaulin in the loft when it was raining to see if any water would drip from the roof on to it - nothing. But plenty of water still showing on my ceiling? On a night of heavy rainfall, water will gather on the ceiling and drip on me through the night. Initially, when it first started showing signs, it was dripping down the ceiling but now it seems to tend to favour gathering on the ceiling instead of drip down the wall, although this also still happens sometimes. The water gathering on the ceiling can stretch about 60cm away from the chimney breast wall.
I’m not at all well off having spent every last penny on purchasing what I thought was a done-up, good-to-go property so sure you can imagine I’m at my wits end with it now and wanting to get to the bottom of the issue before I spending any more money. Does anyone have any suggestions of what it could be?
A damp specialist has suggested to me that it could be hygroscopic salt damp? I have read up on this and while parts of it sound plausible, would this really cause the water to be gathering on the ceiling in the vastness it is and to be dripping?
Someone else suggested to me that because the people who you renovated the house put in copious amounts of fibreglass insulation throughout the loft which wasn’t there before and there are no loft air vents, that it could be condensation? But again, would condensation not have dripped onto the tarpaulin I laid from the roof space?
I’m sure my desperation is readable in this message. Any help anyone could offer, I would take your hand off for!
Thank you
