Condensation and Damp problems - next steps?

benjumi

Hi all,

New to the forum so I hope I have posted this in the right place (Sorry for the long(ish) post in advance!). I live in a first floor flat with my wife and 19 month old daughter which has a condensation and resulting damp problem. We live by the sea. In the past few years during the winter months we get a lot of condensation on the windows in all of our rooms; lounge, kitchen, bathroom, main bedroom and nursery.

It has been so bad that windowsills have pools of standing water on them and several outer facing walls have a layer of water on them which has damaged picture frames and my (prized!) sub-woofer on the speaker system. We have had to run a dehumidifier constantly along with patches of damp appearing on skirting boards and at points where walls meet in the corners.

Historically only storage heaters were fitted for heat but we now have 1 large double radiator in each of the rooms bar the kitchen, nothing in the hallway. Our management agency for the flat also arranged for the cavity wall insulation to be completed as part of the government scheme which was completed in February 2014.

With the cold weather coming in we have yet to put the heating on but we have started to see a small amount of condensation after we have showers. I've been looking at options online such as Envirovent and Nuaire systems to see if they will be a good investment. I know we haven't put the new heating system to the test over a full winter season and the cavity wall insulation may well do the trick but if it doesn't and the water starts to pool again, what are the options?

1. Would we be better off running the heating for longer periods of time to dry the air out and absorb the cost of higher bills over the cost of a vented / heat recovery system installation?
2. Who can I get to come and assess the property and the potential humidity issues? I don't mind paying for a survey if it is reliable and can offer actionable solutions.
3. Does the management agency for the building have any obligation to rectify condensation / damp issues if the problem is found to NOT exist inside the property, e.g. a brickwork issue?

Sorry for the long post again and thanks in advance to anyone who can give some advice.

Cheers,
Benji :cool:

Chunks

Condensation is a product of living in a warm space coupled with surfaces that are colder (i.e. windows) and unless you ventilate rooms (allowing warm moist air to escape) I don't think turning up the room stat is the answer. Do you dry washing indoors? Does the bathroom have an extrator fan?

I live in a late 1980's well insulated detached house, which has cavity wall insulation and is double glazed. From October through to April I get a similar problem. Every morning, a squeegee and a cloth on the worst affected surfaces and we're done for the day (5 mins tops). Throwing the bathroom window open after bathing/showering works wonders too.

A dehumidifier will dry out the air. They work and are relatively cheap to run. If you can, borrow one and see how you get on.

No expert, but if the building is subject to penetrating damp (unlikely but possible) then you may have recourse. What do the neighbours say about their experience?

Good luck.

benjumi

Thanks for the reply, Chunks.

We do pretty much the same as you do with the squeegy sponge but we have one of those Karcher window vacuums that sucks the water off (quite effective too). We have a decent sized dehumidifier as well and do keep the windows open as much as possible but with a small child in winter, it is difficult.

The main issue for my wife and I is the effort of it all. All of our rooms have at least 2 large windows (double glazed) so the effort of doing that everyday can take 15 - 20 minutes, plus we need to move several large bits of furniture out of the way to check for damp where the air circulation is not great.

Perhaps I am making more out of it than a sane person should but I am fortunate enough to have the means to look at intervening options to make it so that we don't have to stress about it.

I'll keep on researching and see what I can find! Thanks again for the input!

DRP

Where do you think the humidity is coming from?

IS the subfloor wet/damp? - ours is and causes high humidity and condensation in the house. One solution may be to introduce more ventilation (e.g. airbricks) under the floorboards.

benjumi

DRP wrote: »

Where do you think the humidity is coming from?

IS the subfloor wet/damp? - ours is and causes high humidity and condensation in the house. One solution may be to introduce more ventilation (e.g. airbricks) under the floorboards.

Hi DRP. We have carpet across the flat except for laminate in the kitchen and bathroom. Under the carpet / underlay is a tile/laminate base (which is cold to the touch but not wet) but no obvious moisture was seen when they were laid circa 12 months ago.

Thanks

Chunks

No worries. If the problem is internally created condensation cooking, washing, breathing (!) then a dehumidifier in each room would fix it. There are other systems (sorry don't know about the ones you mentioned).
As a parent too, I understand; we all stress about kids especially when they are young. Get him/her out in the fresh air, well wrapped up, while you ventilate the flat; should reduce the problem and the beach is always fun!

adamslinger

If you don't want to remove the water from a dehumidifier every day and put one in all the rooms that have a problem then you might want to consider an PIV unit which cost around £6 a year to run.

WestonDave

Bit problematic being a flat as without loft space some options are ruled out.


Firstly I'd look at why you are getting condensation after showering - that suggests 2 possibilities - firstly that you aren't being fastidious enough in running the extractor, opening a window and keeping the bathroom door shut during AND after showering. That needs to go on for long enough to clear the moist air - not just for 2 minutes on the switched overrun. Secondly if you hold back on the heating you are allowing surfaces to drop in temperature - cold surfaces are ideal for condensation.


PIV is an option but its only half the solution. They push in fresh air and in the process force wet air out (typically through places where draughts occur). If your house is pretty air tight (and that could be the case if you are getting a lot of condensation) then it simply won't work - the fan won't be able to overcome the increasing pressure caused by pushing air into a space that it can't escape from. If it does work its shoving in cold air and pushing out warm - good for ventilation - not so good for saving heat energy.


The next level up is a MVHR system which works as an extractor in the bathroom and kitchen, passes that wet air outside via a heat exchanger. At the same time it draws in fresh air from outside, passes that through the heat exchanger to pick up the heat from the outgoing air and then pumps it in to living spaces like bedrooms and lounge. They aren't cheap and they work on ducting into each room. I'm about to have one put into our house during some work which makes it possible as a once in a lifetime chance. However the fan box is going in the loft which you probably can't do. There are however wall mounted options and this cooker hood based option - https://www.airflow.com/AIR1/AIR1-TEST/pdf/Heat_Recovery/Duplexvent_DV90SCK.pdf Worth a look and maybe contacting airflow - they've drawn my system up and have been very helpful providing different versions to work with us. They also have a smaller ducting system which may be less intrusive than others. (No connection to the company other than having chosen to buy our stuff from them - not got it yet so can't comment on quality as such)