How much for a damp-proof course?

moneyistooshorttomention

Thanks Thunderbird and hope you are soon feeling better.

I had a bit of economising last winter and tried not to use the central heating quite so much, but came to the conclusion it might be "false economy" to the structure of the house to do that.

This winter - it's central heating as normal - ie both the morning and evening sessions and the radiator is on in that room.

In hindsight - when I had the radiator position swopped some years back (from right-side wall to back wall of room), I think I might have possibly been wiser to put it on the window wall to the right of the window. It is where it is now and my "final" floor covering is down (ie the mid price range fitted carpet in neutral colour). The price that carpet cost me I don't fancy mucking around with doing anything that would cause it to have holes in it (ie where the radiator pipes come up through the floor currently).

I have a dehumidifier en route from Amazon now - dessicant type (as I gather from posts on MSE that is deemed to be the best type).

So - I believe it would be best for me to put this in the sitting room and run it constantly till the wall feels dry and warm (maybe a couple of weeks worth?) and then perhaps shift it round the house for a bit of work in other rooms too.

I presume doing this and then making good the wall with antimould, then oil-based sealant and then a bit of paint retouching if need be should be all I need to get that wall "right and tight" - problem solved?

At a guess, I think maybe those of us in old houses should maybe take the advice to have humidifier containers on our radiators with a pinch of salt. I've had them on mine (apart from kitchen and bathroom ones - due to their steamy nature) for years now - but I think I might possibly have been in error in doing so.

Thunderbird_2

Thank you.

It is an idea to try the dehumidifier. I would try llandyrnog's suggestion as well by switching your gas fire as you used to before and see what happens after a week.

All the best.

moneyistooshorttomention

Update - I've now got a dehumidifier (dessicant type) and its working away steadily in that sitting room.

It's taking pints of water out of the room! I've got it on the high setting and the tank is filling at the rate of about half a pint of water per hour approximately (which I guess rather confirms that it is indeed condensation that is the problem - rather than damp - iyswim).

I wouldn't feel safe about going out for that long at a time and leaving it to run on its own - and anyway that tank needs emptying about every 6 hours I estimate. So - I estimate I'm currently running it for about 7 hours per day (and trying not to think too hard about the size of my electric bill at the end of this).

The room is about 11' x 10' - so only a small one.

Has anyone any idea at all of how long it's going to take to dry that room out totally (or is that one of those "how long is a piece of string" questions)?