Submitted by victor0nl1n3 t3_yj3v8o in DIY
Hi everyone,
We bought a house in early 2021 had it refurbished. Unfortunately, we are now only 1 year later and many of our walls are already badly damaged with paint flaking off because of humidity. Before repainting everything, we need to find the source of humidity and fix the problem. However, despite our best research, we are still left clueless today.
Hopefully, some of you have expertise in this and will be able to help us out!
I am not sure how much info you need to help the diagnosis so please don’t hesitate to ask questions. As a starting point, here’s a layout of the ground floor showing the 5 spots where we’ve noticed humidity. Hereafter are the pictures for each area.
What do you think is causing this issue? How would we fix it?
Sidenote: The whole street seems to be having humidity problems. We talked with a neighbor that has recently done injections in his (exterior) wall but it doesn't seem to have done him much good.
EDIT FOR ADDITIONNAL INFO:
- We have checked for leaks using the leak-indicator on the water meter and everything looks perfectly fine.
- I placed a hygrometer in the kitchen. The RH is quite stable at 65%.
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HUMIDITY ZONE 1
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HUMIDITY ZONE 2
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HUMIDITY ZONE 3
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HUMIDITY ZONE 4
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HUMIDITY ZONE 5
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_TEOTWAWKI_ t1_iulzhid wrote
Just taking a stab here, but I'm going to guess this is an older home with plaster walls and built on a grade level masonry foundation in a wet climate (UK?). My best guess would be that the garden doesn't grade away from the flat(s) and the foundation/slab aren't waterproofed. Masonry is essentially a sponge, and the only place for the water to go is up into the walls since you have impermeable flooring. Here in Seattle, a common retrofit for slab-on-grade homes is to trench a perimeter footing drain around the house to relieve hydraulic pressure under the slab since our water table comes right to the surface in areas during the winter. (Water wells will become artisan in winter)