Condensation Issue

Imperial1847

I have some elderly relatives who have a real issue with condensation on the ground floor of their house, in the mornings windows are streaming with water, walls are damp, the backs of cupboards are going mouldy etc, they contacted a local company who advised re-doing the damp proofing would solve the problem, they charged them a £1000.00 for the works and the condensation problem is still exactly the same, the company are now not responding to any form of correspondence with regards to the work (it was done in February this year) what would be the best advise going forward?

FreeBear

topley4718 said:

I have some elderly relatives who have a real issue with condensation on the ground floor of their house, in the mornings windows are streaming with water, walls are damp, the backs of cupboards are going mouldy etc, they contacted a local company who advised re-doing the damp proofing would solve the problem, they charged them a £1000.00 for the works and the condensation problem is still exactly the same, the company are now not responding to any form of correspondence with regards to the work (it was done in February this year) what would be the best advise going forward?

Give them a deadline to come and rectify the problem, then file a claim to get the £1000 back.

If you have it in writing that they said the damp proofing will cure the condensation problem (which it will never do), then it will be an easy win in court.

In the meantime, get a decent dehumidifier and run it for a few days to try and get the humidity down to a manageable level.

neilmcl

Finding out why the condensation is there and rectifying the source is the what they need to doing rather than waste money on so-called damp proofing remedies that don't actually work and in a lot of cases make things worse. Are they heating there house properly, are they using any form of ventilation, is there an actual "damp" problem or is it simply condensation. These are the questions you need to be getting answers for.

Mardle

Maybe contact Trading Standards to see if they could help with dealing with the company.

Do they have an extractor fan?  A trickle extractor might be the best option for them as it will run continuously without them needing to do anything. 

Imperial1847

neilmcl said:

Finding out why the condensation is there and rectifying the source is the what they need to doing rather than waste money on so-called damp proofing remedies that don't actually work and in a lot of cases make things worse. Are they heating there house properly, are they using any form of ventilation, is there an actual "damp" problem or is it simply condensation. These are the questions you need to be getting answers for.

Finding the cause is the main issue the house has been in the family for generations and the problem only seems to have started in recent years.

tacpot12

Condensation can have a number of causes. You should check them all to see if you can idenitify any as the culprit: 

Causes might include: 

• not having the heating on enough (or having it on upstairs but not downstairs)
• drying clothes on radiators
• a vented tumble dryer where the hose has not been installed correctly or has been disturbed
• boiling/steaming vegetables for evening meals
• hot showers/baths with no effective extraction
• using gas appliances for heating, e.g. a gas fire
• 
  

The fact that the condensation is appearing in the morning suggests that the house (or at least downstairs) has a lot of moisture in the evenings, but overnight, as the temperature is allowed to fall, it is condensing before the moist air has been extracted.

The fact that both the windows and walls are wet suggest that it is not double-glazed windows where the seals on the units have failed that is showing up the moisture as this would only leave the windows wet. 

In my experience, the cause is unlikely to have been rising damp.