Damp house help please

Taffyscot

Hi there,
Haven't posted for a while but always know where to get the best help on line and it is right here. Moved into a bungalow in october 2010. It was very cold I was actually crying with the cold here in sunny Scotland. My hubby was wearing a knitted hat in bed. Got double glazing put in big front bedroom and lounge and more insullation in the loft and under the cellar. Had a new central heating system put in a month ago with all new radiators. Yippee thought problems were solved.
Well I have a few questions if there is anyone out there that could help us. Had people to come in to put wall insulation in but we had mildew in the pantry and they said we should get it checked out as if they did the cavity wall insulation the damp might travel through the whole house, so we have put off having the cavity wall as yet.
There is mildew in the cupboards in son's room and mildew on the blinds and curtains in our bedroom still. Keep cleaning it off with dettol bleach but it keeps coming back. Cleaned out son's room over Xmas and went to rearrange towels in a drawer under his bed and they were damp. Went to get tablecloths for Xmas from the cupboard in his room they were mildewy. I don't know what to do. There is a cellar under the bungalow with pipes, had dynarod come and look at them and they said they were all fine. Have had builders in to put a new wetroom in and they don't know where the damp is coming from. Can anyone out there tell me anything at all what they think is the cause of it or where I should start looking at for someone to come in and look at it please? I don't know where to start.
Of note is that my son is disabled and spends about 22 hours in his room and insists on closing the door. Is the condensation of him being in the room so much causing all this damp and mildew in his room or is it something else? His clothes in his wardrobe have small amounts of mildew on them.
In our bedroom my hubby has Parkinson's and sweats a lot and is also in bed a good deal of the day. Is that causing condensation and damp or is something else we should look for? We try to keep the rooms moderately heated in the day time but not during the night. We don't open the windows much because it is just too cold and damp here in Scotland.
Anyone with any advice to what we should do or what kind of firm we should contact to sort us out would be gratefully accepted. Thanks everyone.
When anyone suggests this and that and suggests Martin Lewis I always say it is my bible and has helped me not just with money saving but all kinds of predicaments. Taffyscot

ariba10

Condensation. Have a read of this.

http://www.harfordsonline.com/downloads/condensation%20info.pdf

ariba10

You should be able to get suitable dehumidifier from Amazon for around the £100 mark.

Taffyscot

ariba10 wrote: »

Condensation. Have a read of this.

http://www.harfordsonline.com/downloads/condensation%20info.pdf

Thank you so much for that and we do have a dehumidifier which we were running daily. It was always full and i was afraid we were just paying to take all the vapour out of the air and not solving the problem. So in that article is it suggested that we just use a dehumidifier then and it will help ease the problem? Thanks for taking the time to reply. Is it wise to have cavity wall insulation or not then do you think? Taffy

Taffyscot

ariba10 wrote: »

You should be able to get suitable dehumidifier from Amazon for around the £100 mark.

I have one from b and q and it was exactly that amount thanks again maybe should get another one for the son's room.

johnmc

Can't praise dehumidiers enough. Not only dry the air but warm it as well.

Ours iced up last month and when I took it apart the fins were all clogged with lint and fluff = really scanky! Well worth cleaning it in the spring ready for the winter (will do next year anyway!).

Taffyscot

johnmc wrote: »

Can't praise dehumidiers enough. Not only dry the air but warm it as well.

Ours iced up last month and when I took it apart the fins were all clogged with lint and fluff = really scanky! Well worth cleaning it in the spring ready for the winter (will do next year anyway!).[/QUOTE

Thanks for that.
My trouble is that we used one consistantly just about every day, after we got the double glazing, for about 6 weeks and it just kept filling up every day so I thought it was something else and stopped using it. Is it expensive to run? What about cavity wall insulation any thoughts on that in our circumstances?

Marves

We had a problem similar to the one you describe in our holiday home, where use of a dehumidifier wasn't ideal as guests never used the one we provided. I have now fitted a Drimaster ventilation unit (other products are available that do the same job). This cost around £250 and I fitted it myself in under 2 hours.
These ventilation systems sucks air from the loft space and force it into the house through a vent cut in the ceiling in a central location in the house. This air is warmer than the outside air as the loft space is warmer by the sun (or losses from the house) and there is a version that incorporates a 500W heater also.
The air finds its own way out of the house through gaps where drafts would normally come in as well as trickle vents in double glazed windows. The continually changing air in the house stops the build up of damp, stale air. It operates all the time and costs very little to run. There are different settings to suit user requirements. Just about all the evidence I read on the web prior to choosing this solution was positive, it is still early days for us but so far so good.
I believe it takes more energy (and cost) to heat damp air than dry air so this should make the house feel warmer too.

ariba10

It is not expensive to run, about the running cost as a small fridge I should imaging.

I don't see that wall cavity insulation would make much difference -But I stand to be corrected on that-.

Do you dry washing indoors? That would account for a lot of condensation problems.

ed110220

ariba10 wrote: »

It is not expensive to run, about the running cost as a small fridge I should imaging.

I don't see that wall cavity insulation would make much difference -But I stand to be corrected on that-.

It makes a difference because condensation forms on cold surfaces. If your walls are poorly insulated, they will be cold, and so more condensation will form. Insulate them better, they will be warmer, and there will be less of a problem with condensation.

Jnelhams

You need to look at what's the root cause for all this mildew. Are you running gas / paraffin fires or cookers, and do you have an extractor fan in the bathroom and cooker hood? - These will all help reduce the levels of moisture in the house. Double glazing, carpets, wall insulation and not drying washing in the house will all help.

Talk to a surveyor or you local building control officer at the council to see if they can help pin point the causes.

It really should not be necessary to be running dehumidifiers and such like. (oh and avoid the specialist damp companies, until you have had a structral surveyor out, as these damp companies always find damp....even in the Sahara.)