Damp behind headboard. Advice please.

brightondave

Hi, we have a extra large headboard behind our bed. It is against an exterior bedroom wall. My wife felt the wall between the mattress and the headboard and found her hand was wet?
I've checked online to see what's advised and people mention a dehumidifier, putting a square of plasterboard the same size as the headboard behind or using polystyrene wallpaper on the wall?
Can't really put the bed against a different wall.
You thoughts and advice on what I've mentioned and what's possibly worked for you?     Thankyou

Jeepers_Creepers

Pull the bed forward to leave an 8" gap betwixt the h'board and wall.

Guess what I use to measure 8"? Correct, a tape measure.

It's caused by a combination of that wall being cold and also the headboard preventing air flow which would normally keep it dry.

Yes, adding insulation to that wall would help - I don't know how far you'd want to go with that? An extra layer of p'board probably won't help as it isn't a particularly good insulator.

But I'd first see how it goes with 4-8" in winter and, say, 2" in Summer. Also, crack open the bedroom windows, especially at night - that will dramatically reduce the condensation in there, you sweaty beast, you. Leave the bedroom door closed during the day, and especially during the heated evenings, and also leave the windows trickling. 

If you want a warm bedroom before bed, turn on the rads in there an hour before - that's it.

DiddyDavies

As a simple first step, totally drying the area out with a small heater then if possible pulling the bed away from a wall a bit further to allow for more airflow wouldn't be a bad idea.
You breathe out a fair bit of moisture and if that wall is cold, the moisture will condense on there so putting a small gap between your heads and the wall may well help a lot.

brightondave

Thankyou so far JC & DD
Here is a pic of the wall with the mega headboard and bed and mattress pulled forward.
Condensation?
And would a dehumidifier work?
Thanks once again.

Jeepers_Creepers

Wow - that's bad. Do the damp patches follow the shape of the headboard? If so, that makes it more likely to be condensation and not penetrating damp from the outside.

Yes, you can use a dehumidifier if you want to speed things up, but it shouldn't be necessary; once you remove the cause, it should dry up pretty quickly. And if it doesn't, you have bigger issues.

Ventilation, ventilation and ventiwhatsit.

Jeepers_Creepers

Can you provide a close-up pic of that lower bit - it looks as tho' it's bubbling outwards? What's on the outside of that wall - is it brick, rendered, painted, has gutters above it, in good order, crumbling - what?

Doozergirl

It isn't just ventilation, you need warmth as well because water condenses specifically upon the coldest surfaces in a room and you're breathing right next to it, so it's exacerbating the problem.   The simple solution is to move  furniture off the wall completely and allow warm air to circulate. 

The permanent solution is to insulate the wall.  There's a lot of stuff against that wall, no circulation and  not lot of opportunity for the wall to warm up at all.  Insulated plasterboard and a reskim is the easiest way of doing it.  

If you simply cannot  move the furniture off that wall to allow air to circulate, then an idea *might* be to insulate fully behind the headboard and seal it somehow, but I'd still worry about kind of ecosystem developing behind it.   

I'd opt for a bedstead that would allow air to circulate under and over the bed, minimising the surface area of anything that needs to be against that wall to pretty much only the mattress.  

tacpot12

pulling the bed forward would be a good start. You could make a spacer to go on the floor to stop the bed moving backwards, and you could put a couple of spacers faced with felt pads (like those sold to go under chair legs on hard floors) at the top of the headboard. I would try one of these in the space between the bed and the wall: Dimplex Thermostatic Tubular Heater IPX4 1ft 40W (toolstation.com) 
It will set up a convection current that will keep the wall dry providing the room has some ventilation. It should be much cheaper to run than a dehumidifier. 

brightondave

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Can you provide a close-up pic of that lower bit - it looks as tho' it's bubbling outwards? What's on the outside of that wall - is it brick, rendered, painted, has gutters above it, in good order, crumbling - what?

Will take a pic tomorrow and resend.  Thanks for your help.

brightondave

tacpot12 said:

pulling the bed forward would be a good start. You could make a spacer to go on the floor to stop the bed moving backwards, and you could put a couple of spacers faced with felt pads (like those sold to go under chair legs on hard floors) at the top of the headboard. I would try one of these in the space between the bed and the wall: Dimplex Thermostatic Tubular Heater IPX4 1ft 40W (toolstation.com) 
It will set up a convection current that will keep the wall dry providing the room has some ventilation. It should be much cheaper to run than a dehumidifier. 

May well go for that
Thanks for your input today and the link.

brightondave

Doozergirl said:

It isn't just ventilation, you need warmth as well because water condenses specifically upon the coldest surfaces in a room and you're breathing right next to it, so it's exacerbating the problem.   The simple solution is to move  furniture off the wall completely and allow warm air to circulate. 

The permanent solution is to insulate the wall.  There's a lot of stuff against that wall, no circulation and  not lot of opportunity for the wall to warm up at all.  Insulated plasterboard and a reskim is the easiest way of doing it.  

If you simply cannot  move the furniture off that wall to allow air to circulate, then an idea *might* be to insulate fully behind the headboard and seal it somehow, but I'd still worry about kind of ecosystem developing behind it.   

I'd opt for a bedstead that would allow air to circulate under and over the bed, minimising the surface area of anything that needs to be against that wall to pretty much only the mattress.  

Thanks for your input today Doozergirl especially the insulated plasterboard / Reskim part.