Is this damp or condensation?

goldbyron

Can someone help to diagnose this problem for me?

I live in a flat on the first floor (not ground) and one wall of my bedroom is an external wall. This wall underneath my window and to the left of it has had some mould growing there in the last few weeks. There is also condensation on the bottom of my double glazed windows. I have dried washing on the radiator in there which may also be the cause. I open the window and the wall seems to dry a bit. In addition I did not see this damp during the summer (even with the rain).

The mould or the wet does not seem linked to the rain however there was a slight issue with my guttering which is hopefully now resolved. There was a slight leak down the wall near to the mould but the wall seems to be dry on the outside now (not rained for a few days) and no marks externally. Also the wall is about 30cms thick and I wouldn't have thought a leak in the guttering would penetrate in a few weeks of average rain. Again the leak went down the whole wall and only the bottom part seems wet (about 1/10th of the wall). It is also near a plug socket which may be letting a slight draught in (?) and I am a bit nervous of using this now. I have also be sleeping in there more often (usually at my partners) and not had the window open because it is cold. I have the heating on for part of the day at a low temp (15).

What do you think? Should I just air my room a bit more and not dry washing in there? I am just hoping its not damp coming in!

Thanks for any advice.

Red_Cat

Goldvbyron,

out of interest, is your property an old one?

Anyway, I had this issue in my old house. We got people to look at it, and they all said that it was condensation. I asked my neighbour if he offered the sam prob. but he didn't. However, he did have a radiator under the window, where were expereienceing mould. In the end we moved our radiator and put it in the same place and that seemed to help.

If you had damp, I think you would see mould higher on the wall or your neighbours downstairs might notice something too.

Loobysaver

We get this in the bay of our bedroom. A builder friend said it was condensation and it was cos our bay when it was built in the 1930's was a single thickness wall with no insulation (something like that).

My neighbour doesn't get it as bad as us but he has always got his windows open so I think ventilation is the key.

I try and open the window for a bit when I am getting ready for work but it doesn't appear to make any difference.

economiser

Almost certainly condensation. You need more heat, more ventilation or a dehumidifier.

finallydebtfree!!

I had this problem in a flat that I lived in, it was built in the 90's I think.

I was wondering why the flat was so cold and smelled funny and I took a look down the side of the bed (which was alonsgide the wall) and there was about 3 inches of mould! yukk!
Once we made the effort to open the windows more often and dry our clothes in the tumble dryer rather than hang them around the flat (I know! dont shoot me for using a tumble dryer!) it wasnt so bad.

Also make sure you keep everything away from the wall as every time we moved something from up against the wall we found more mould!

We got some dehumidifier things from homebase, they had sachets of crystals that absorbed the moisture and if we made sure they were emptied regualrly they did a great job! if you have the space and the money (neither of which we did) the electrical dehumidifiers are great, we have one in our conservatory to stop the damp, it also dries our washing overnight!!

EDIT: tried to find the item we used on the homebase website but couldnt find it, it was something similar to this which I found on the b&q website

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9415180&fh_sort_order=1&fh_sort_by=_price_rrp_min&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB&fh_search=dehumidifier&fh_eds=%c3%9f&fh_refview=search&ts=1192395113331&isSearch=true

Hope this helps