Damp in our flat - oil based undercoat

nick5573

I am due to go over to a flat I rent out this weekend to repaint the bedroom. It is a small 1 bed flat with 2 people and a dog.

The also have a tumble dryer in the bedroom.

I have a recurring damp issue that keeps happening. Have checked everything looking for leaks etc and fitted a storage heater and provided the tenants with a high quality large de hum which they use all the time.

The problem must be condensation.

I have decided to go on Friday bleach away all the damp, clean the walls and treat with spray (any recommendations what to buy?)

Then return Saturday and paint the damp areas with oil based under coat.

Then finally Sunday repaint with magnolia bathroom paint.



Can someone in the know clarify if this is the way to do it or not.

And can someone recommend some oil based undercoat that can be painted over with emulsion or bathroom paint. I cant find any anywhere!! I was hoping b&q would do it as my tenant works there and can get 10% off.

Any help appreciated

thanks Nick

nickj_2

any solvent based u/c will do the trick , make sure the walls are dry and clean before painting .
also consider using perma white paint
it's mould free for 5 years , scrubable so you can give it a good wipe down

as for condensation , plenty of info and products here

budgetdiyer

Its probably the tumble dryer that is causing the problem, even the condensing models generate moisture into the air.

I would recommend using either an expensive mould resistant paint (not just bathroom paint) or buy an additive that you can add to normal paint.

Also before painting thoroughly wash the affected areas with a fungicidal wash which will kill the 'roots' of the mould (bleach won't)

kingpin1

i would drill a few holes in the wall and stick a vent cover over is it as they arent opening the windows when needed

nick5573

Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated!!

They say! and I do believe them, that they always open the window and take the vent from the tumble dryer out of the window when they use it. I am going to look at putting it in our shed but the only way it would work is if they run an extension lead every time they use it. (not massively practical)

There is already 2 air bricks in there and a vent.

Bloody nightmare!!!

That perma white looks like decent stuff I will read through the info properly

Thanks again

nick5573

Can you paint over the perma white with emulsion or does that defeat the point

terra_ferma

nickj wrote: »

any solvent based u/c will do the trick , make sure the walls are dry and clean before painting .
also consider using perma white paint
it's mould free for 5 years , scrubable so you can give it a good wipe down

as for condensation , plenty of info and products here

just a word of warning, we have used this type of paint and it's made condensation worse because the wall now doesn't absorb moisture, so the amount of condensation on the windows has increased considerably and the water drips down into the skirting boards.
The walls are also dripping wet, it's really bad.
The walls are mould free though, at least were we have used it (we didn't used it for the whole room, just external-facing walls).
We are going to remove it and paint with ordinary paint before the next winter.

nick5573

terra_ferma wrote: »

just a word of warning, we have used this type of paint and it's made condensation worse because the wall now doesn't absorb moisture, so the amount of condensation on the windows has increased considerably and the water drips down into the skirting boards.
The walls are also dripping wet, it's really bad.
The walls are mould free though, at least were we have used it (we didn't used it for the whole room, just external-facing walls).
We are going to remove it and paint with ordinary paint before the next winter.

Really worried now!!

The worst effected wall which has drip marks was painted with damp proof paint some time a go and has since had several additional coats of emulsion.

However it was only painted about a meter up with the damp paint.

I am now wondering that maybe this is the problem.

Out of interest how will you go about removing it?

terra_ferma

nick5573 wrote: »

Really worried now!!

The worst effected wall which has drip marks was painted with damp proof paint some time a go and has since had several additional coats of emulsion.

However it was only painted about a meter up with the damp paint.

I am now wondering that maybe this is the problem.

Out of interest how will you go about removing it?

I don't know, maybe we'll use a paint stripper, need to do a bit of research on this.
Maybe we did something wrong, and won't happen to you.

nick5573

terra_ferma wrote: »

I don't know, maybe we'll use a paint stripper, need to do a bit of research on this.
Maybe we did something wrong, and won't happen to you.

yeah maybe but if it can go wrong with this flat..... it probably will

terra_ferma

nick5573 wrote: »

yeah maybe but if it can go wrong with this flat..... it probably will

didn't mean to scare you
there could have been a number of reasons, maybe there was something wrong with the paint we bought it, who knows.

Condensation is a big problem for us as well, double glazing helped.

In our case we get mould mainly on external-facing walls when they get very cold in winter.

Applying the paint only on very small areas (like the corners or bits of walls where you have mould) may help, we used it in a couple of places before and it was ok, probably because the remaining area was enough to absorb moisture.
This time we used it in larger area, although never an entire wall, but we also have very large windows.

(hope someone who knows more about this can give you less 'anecdotal' advice)