I moved into a ground floor victorian terrace 6 months ago. The first day i moved in i noticed there was no cold water out of the kitchen tap. I looked under the cupboard and apart from the unbelievably strong damp smell i noticed the cold water valve had been completely corroded shut due to a small leak. I replaced this and fixed the leak but to be honest god knows how long the previous owners left this like that.
I'm now replacing bits of the kitchen, and ive bought a replacement cabinet for the mouldy old one. So ive taken the old one apart, and taken off the work surface to see what damage the leak had caused. Im just a bit concerned with what i now see.
There is a 15mm copper cold feed pipe that is half plastered into the wall, There is some old old gas copper pipe (im assuming its gas) that has completely corroded through leaving a big old hole. this alarmed me, but im assuming its ok as there is no smell of gas, and its been like that for a long time by the looks of things so surely its out of use. I tried seeing where it leads to, but cant see as its been plastered straight over.
I have chipped off the flaking top coat of plaster. i've tested the remaining plaster for moisture with a meter and some places are reading 50%. ive got a dehumidifier running on it now. Its in a corner and one of the walls is an outside brick wall, where the high moisture readings are coming from.
My idea is to just leave it open so it can fully dry out. Its going to covered by the new worktop and cabinet, so looks wise i'm not worried. Should i try and replaster it or leave it to breath. Ill put a vent in the kitchen plinth and try and keep air flowing.
Cheers