Damp in bedroom

edgex

50Twuncle wrote: »

Thanks for the link - however there are no prices on the site as far as I can see!!

'Model range' shows prices


or these, which are a bit cheaper
http://www.vent-axia.com/range/lo-carbon-tempra.html

Doozergirl

50Twuncle wrote: »

No - it's definately originating from inside the house - from showers !!
The temperature is too cold (13 degrees this morning) and my wife will not put the central heating on
She believes that it is better to open all the windows and let the fresh air in - rather than using heat and the dehumidifier !!

Divorce?

Your problem is right there

If the walls are cold, they will cause condensation to occur. Ventilation is good, but not freezing cold air.

Look at what happens to a car overnight. Ventilation is obviously good outside, but if the car is cold then it will attract water to condense! Ventilation alone is not a solution.

wrightk

we've had similar problems with condensation and rising damp issues for years. The damp issues got sorted but there was just a constant humidity issue despite never drying clothes indoors/trying not to breathe etc.
In the end we took the plunge and got a family member with a core drill round to make holes in all the bedrooms. We then installed ducting and internal/external vents, so there was a constant supply of fresh air, this is turn has helped to push the stale/musty air out.

Its important to heat your house well too and we have a solid fuel central heating system so it often gets too hot anyway, so the vents help.

Since we did this we havent seen a spot of mould in over a year

pc1271

If you think the humidity originates from the bathroom, make sure you've got a good extractor in there (either a bigger diameter like 150mm or a good inline fan) and get one with a timer or humidistat so it runs on for half an hour. No need to vent freezing air through the whole house if that gets rid of the moisture.

50Twuncle

How do these vent fans work ?
Is it simply a case of "sucking" rather than "blowing" through a carbon filter - or is there more to it ?

50Twuncle

Doozergirl wrote: »

Divorce?

Your problem is right there

If the walls are cold, they will cause condensation to occur. Ventilation is good, but not freezing cold air.

Look at what happens to a car overnight. Ventilation is obviously good outside, but if the car is cold then it will attract water to condense! Ventilation alone is not a solution.

I agree - but my wife feels the "heat" - so no over heating is possible !!
The walls are cavity filled before anyone ask..

alejamruc

As people have advised above, the only long-term solution is to find the source of the water ingress and stop it. That is the number one priority.

This is obviously easier said than done. Water will travel wherever it can, so a damp patch in one room can sometimes be caused by an underlying problem much further away.

We moved into a victorian terrace 2 years ago that had a wide range of damp and mould problems. One visible damp patch was in the top corner of our lounge at the back of the house. After much investigation, it turned out that the source was actually the window sill in the room above. There was a tiny crack running between the window and the solid stone sill. Small amounts of water were getting in, travelling down the wall, hitting the old wooden lintel of the window below, running along it, and eventually working it's way to that corner. A fresh silicone job around that window and along the crack stopped the problem. We dried it out, redecorated and it has not returned.

The advice I would always give is start top-down with any water ingress, as your first line of defence is the roof and guttering:
- Get your roof and guttering properly checked over for cracks or points where water is not flowing away and straight down the drain pipe (we also had a point where guttering was backflowing and running down the outside wall, causing another damp patch in our master bedroom)
- Check around windows and doors. These should all be properly sealed, water should run off window sills etc.
- Check for cracks in the external fabric where water can get in (small cracks are usually not a problem unless you live somewhere where rain drives really hard against the building in high winds. Most walls should be able to withstand a normal level of water on them and dry themselves out. It would need to be something pretty constant to create a noticeable damp patch on an inside wall - such as water running down the side of the house instead of off the roof and down the guttering)


That's DAMP
(excluding rising damp, which is a whole other can of worms).


As for CONDENSATION/MOULD (a separate issue, although commonly lumped together), if the water ingress is stopped, there are not other sources of excessive moisture-production in the house, and the house has suitable ventilation, then condensation/mould shouldn't form. With good ventilation, moisture should be driven out of the house, therefore removing the very thing that condenses and creates the conditions for mould growth.

However, modern living produces a lot of moisture and our houses are sealed to reduce ventilation, so condensation and mould is a very common issue (and often no fault of the building itself).

For that, for a truly effective fix (without significantly altering your living habits with dehumidifiers, constant heating, opening windows all the time etc.) I cannot recommend positive pressure ventilation units enough.

After undertaking all of our damp/roof work, we still had condensation and mould forming in problem areas (cold spots of places with poor air flow, such as where furniture is pushed up near to an external wall).

Since installing a positive pressure unit (which we did ourselves for about £400 with the help of a very simple how-to YouTube video) we now experience no condensation or mould problems at all.

We have put the unit through it's paces in the cold winter months. Condensation used to form so much that it dripped down windows and pooled on our window sills - there is now not even a hint of condensation on a cold day.

Hope the above helps other damp and condensation sufferers tackle this tricky issue more strategically