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Excellent video.

most sensible thing ive heard so far on the matter. doing renovation and wall is damp up near ceiling and on chimney breast in attic after range was removed some years ago, but flashing and render looks fine on chimney. from watching this i have a sneaky suspicion that there is poor ventilation in attic which might be a big part of the cause.

Always follow the trail

we see lots of this in and around Catford Lewisham south east London.

The brickwork at the top left, maybe an old chimney, needs sorting.

Stevie wonder

Thanks for this Neil. What would you recommend as a good sealant for this?

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Really good video thank you, but how long do your MCs last you ! (-;

Great video Neil........I've lived in my house for 45 years and never had any signs of damp ...last year i painted one of the bedroom walls which has an external chimney stack that has been plasterboarded off before I bought the house...low and behold within 2 weeks a damp patch appeared in line with the chimney stack...At first I didnt show too much concern but having used the same paint in the second bedroom { with a different chimney stack } the same thing happened again....Could the paint cause this, maybe some kind of a drawing effect ? Have you or anyone else experienced similar,,,,Cheers...

Neil are you going to do another video having a rant about it 😂

Found a live infestation on Friday have a video never seen them like that so big around 5mm your course at the pca was a real eye opener to these infestations and helped me a lot to determine what it was . My case was a slab with underfloor heating with ply wood ontop

The plastering is atrocious I would not have paid for that

chimneys are wonky as , is that normal??

in my house the people finished the attic it has windows at each end and chimney is offset to one side and we stopped using chimney for heating with high efficiency direct vent heater so now wall that covers chimney is damp and getting black mold from moisture tried waterproofing chimney and we put the ventilated caps back on chimney to help ventilate inside I was thinking of putting waterproof foamboard and vapor barrier to room to keep room dry and mold free from chimney moisture hoping the moisture will evaporate out inside of chimney out through top caps. is there anything else i can do to get rid of moisture?

why the foil? is it to reduce internal damp or is it to reflect heat back into the property?

Thank you

That's only a problem as you're using a pinless meter, which are more prone to false readings, although in some situations they can detect moisture where a pin meter couldn't. Both pin and pinless meters require correct interpretation but from my experience, using the pins give more consistently accurate readings.

New to your channel, great stuff

Would of been really good to see where it was penetrating from on the outside too.

Normally there is a caulk line used around window frames to catch the expansion of the window frame.

Informative vid .. would you use a carbide test for damp at the lower level ? I know most moisture meter aren’t calibrated for masonry. Although I believe Tramex have one for different materials.

gypsum products draw moisture in on solid walls, your supposed to use lime only to help moisture be able to pass in and out, but who the hell in this day and age is going to pay that, i know the majority of my customers do not!! but back when i started learning i was just told to s&c could i ask what your process would be please, obviously after any external pointing needed correction

I thought rising damp only travels up around 1200mm?

Dabbing on 9” external wall always asking for trouble.

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See this often enough Neil. Good vid.

Hi Neil. Just a quick thank you for the videos on your channel. They are all informative, fair and most of all knowledgeable. Having just purchased a property I’m finding them invaluable so thanks again.

Good video.

Having being able both a homeowner and now builder I blame both parties. Homeowner can educate them self about the type of building they live in . And for the builder , good training and knowledge is key. Also if we base our decision on price then don’t blame others for having made decisions based on price instead on what actually needs to remediate the issue.

What should they have done, or what is it you plan to do putting this right now?

The penny will drop when people stop saying yes to a job. Sadly that's unlikely to happen anytime soon, so instead we have to ensure that professionals are well trained so that they can better advise clients.

even without penetrating damp why on earth would you dot and dab onto external walls

Nice video, thanks. How would this be resolved? Stopping the moisture and more air in to the affected areas?

Pro tip delivered in a pro manner, thanks

hang on .. youre saying there is visible evidence of water ingress from above roofline and you're saying 'ignore it, it will likely evaporate and not get as far as the ceiling or wall of first floor bedroom' .. I think that's a bit 'hope and pray' if you don't mind me saying .. the water ingress you describe is 99% sure to be due to the ONLY thing that makes a seal against the weather ie. the lead soakers and step flashings checking the leadwork costs nothing and re-doing them if they've been poorly installed or perished or missing etc is the ONLY way to sort the issue (and it shouldn't cost a great deal)

it's a good idea to hot limewash the beams as well, it helps prevent further rot.

Which material is it made from? I'm trying to imagine them mass producing sheets of this as plastic in the 1930s and it just doesn't make sense to me.

This is very informative, I’ve spent over £500 on exterior remedies and it doesn’t make any difference, my problem is it has after several years now started to show on the bedroom chimney brest so not sure on my options now other than the £2100 quoted to remove the chimney stack or to use something I’ve heard of called storm dry in the summer🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Hi, hope you are well. Love the video and finding them very educational. Are you based in London?

How can rising damp start half way up a wall😂

I have same in my property which we just bought but its not running, it would be nice to know how can we switch on this?

Just inspected a property which has used this product as the damp proof membrane. Specification for the property dates from February 1963. The property is in Winchester, Hampshire.

Hi Neil refreshing to hear such down to earth but skillful opinions on such a matter. I have a mid terraced victorian house built in the 1860s and someone had boarded up the fireplace before I bought the house. Not long after I moved in I noticed patches appearing arround the chimney breast, and some on the adjacent outside front wall not long after I painted. Had lots of people giving their opinions which always seemed to conflict. One builder suggested putting airvents in the chimney breast by drilling holes through and putting plastic airvents on but I do not know how thick the sides are. After watching and listening to your video and seeing how you view such matters I wondered if you had any ideas about my issue please? Sorry to be so forward, keep up your good and informative work Neil, so refreshing. Kind Regards. Henry Brannigan.

I think what would help this situation is to 'Seal' the brickwork on the chimney stack above the roofline. There are several good brick seals that you paint on. Often two coats ensure a good seal. Water should then, technically, run off the brickwork and down the roof rather than soak into the stack and down into the loft and sometimes down the breast into the house below. Certainly worth a try if you suspect this is the cause of damp on your chimney breast.

My bungalow has these rain marks running down both ends of my chimney and salt marks in my loft but I do have damp coming through the ceiling. It doesn’t drip, just shows up on the ceiling as damp. I’m so worried about being ripped off by a tradesman. Any ideas so I know what to expect one to say? My partner is going to check the chimney stacks on the roof when the weather is better. Flashing, cracked mortar or absorbing bricks is all we know could be the problem.

with all due respect . . . keep the microphone closer to your mouth . . . some of your descriptions were lost as if your head turned away from the microphone . . . other than that, interesting perspective video . . .

Nice to hear the final advice about creating and managing expectations - Older properties were designed/constructed with different expectations of living conditions. Back in the day there was no mechanical ventilation, and central heating was a fire in the living room/kitchen, and jack frost visited on cold winters nights, and all too adequate ventilation (draughts) were the norm! Now it's shirt sleeves, electricity, plastic vapour barriers and mechanical ventilation everywhere. Give it another 50 years ;-)

Can no one else see liam gallagher or just me ??

Found with many "experts" that I always need a big job done rather than a simple fix. They would rather be turned down 10 times and only do 1 big job every couple of weeks instead of lots of small honest jobs. Then somebody trust worthy comes along and tells you the facts. It's done in an hour, they get paid and everybody is happy. Basically, they would rather pull down your house and rebuild it to fix a small crack in the wall