rising damp 
noun [mass noun] British
Moisture absorbed from the ground into a wall: he is looking at ways to halt rising damp...
- Recent projects in Mexico and Nova Scotia have used gravel-filled bags as foundations for straw-bale walls to minimize rising damp.
- Because only the piles - the posts they stand on - are in contact with the ground, rising damp is not a problem.
- More than 10,000 council homes - branded ‘non-decent’ in a local authority report - are said to be suffering from defects including rising damp and structural weaknesses.