Humidity & Dust in a one bed flat

purt

Hello everyone,

I hope I've posted this in the right category. 

I'd really welcome some advice on my current predicament. I live in London. In 2013 I purchased a small studio flat as a means of getting on the property ladder. It was small, but it saved me renting and allowed me to build up equity. In 2020, a month before lockdown, I decided to sell it. After a protracted and frankly nasty sale, we finally completed three days before Christmas that year. I purchased a one bed flat nearby and we completed on it the same day.

The flat was built in 1999 by the same company that built the development my previous flat was in. I had no issues with the previous property so made the dangerous assumption there'd be no issues with this one. It's a first floor flat, the majority of which is above a garage, self-contained with its own front door. The kitchen and bathroom are the original from when it was built. Although they both work perfectly well, they could probably do with some modernisation.

The flat is timber frame construction, brick exterior and all of the internal walls are dry wall. The floor, including above the garage is timber. The garage ceiling is plasterboard and I'm certain there's nothing by way of insulation in the cavity beneath. 

So what's the issue? Primarily, it's the humidity and maintaining an optimum temperature in the flat. There are double radiators under every window in the flat. Given the lack of insulation in the floor, it can get really cold in winter and even some spring/autumn days if it's particularly cold or windy. The flat is draughty too and the walls can feel really cold at the bottom, which I attribute to how the overall flat has been constructed. 

I have a hygrometer and although most of the time the humidity is between 30 - 60%, in the depths of winter it can go below 10%. I do use a humidifier but it doesn't seem to improve things. In the autumn and winter months the air can feel incredibly dry. Most mornings I wake up with that horrible scratchy throat and dry eyes and it's horrid. In the summer months, the flat is a proper heat magnet. At the peak of the summer heatwave it was 32 degrees inside my flat at midnight (so probably closer to 40 during the day).

The other issue is the amount of dust in the flat. No matter how much I clean, it accumulates really, really quickly and on virtually every surface. 

In truth, I hate living here and I really regret buying it. It's making me ill, both physically and mentally. I've had more colds and viruses since I moved into this flat than I would ever normally get and I genuinely feel trapped in a home that I don't want to be in. 

It does feel like a flat that's little over 20 years old should be like this, but I guess that's down to the construction.

Right now I feel like I want to sell it and move somewhere else, but one bed flats in London have fallen a lot in value and I probably wouldn't get back what I paid for it. I've contemplated selling it at auction too. Whether there or on the open market, I don't think I'll get back what I paid for it and losing the equity I built up in my previous flat feels like a real possibility. 

The alternative is to try and make the most of the flat until the market perhaps improves. That would mean at least upgrading the kitchen and trying to fix the humidity issue. On the former, I don't have much spare cash to fund that and it's an investment that I won't get back. On the latter, I'm honestly not sure how to solve it.

Feeling a bit despondent about all of it at the moment.

shiraz99

Have you though about getting a good air purifier?

As far as the cold floor is concerned, what base it, concrete, floor boards? Have you spoken to the management co to see if they'll put in insulation?

purt

shiraz99 said:

Have you though about getting a good air purifier?

As far as the cold floor is concerned, what base it, concrete, floor boards? Have you spoken to the management co to see if they'll put in insulation?

Thanks for your reply. An air purifier for the dust? Yes, but not sure if that would make any dent in the problem?

The floor is chipboard floorboards. There isn't a management company as the flat's only one of two in the 'development'. I did get a builder to quote to insulate the floor but it's prohibitively expensive given the floor would have to be ripped up etc. (Can't do it from below as that would involve removing part of the adjoining property's ceilings etc.)

MovingForwards

How big is your flat as internal insulation might be the way forward @FreeBear has done that.

Aside from the floor area, where else are the draughts coming from?

Have you followed any of the information from your other post last year.

I've gone round all my window surrounds and resealed them, went round all the skirting in my lounge and filled all the gaps, put draught excluders round the front door and hung a curtain in the porch area. I removed the carpet and underlay, leaving the laminate and whatever else is between that at the original floorboards. My property is over 90 years older than yours and it's comfortable, I've not even got the heating on yet.

purt

MovingForwards said:

How big is your flat as internal insulation might be the way forward @FreeBear has done that.

Aside from the floor area, where else are the draughts coming from?

Have you followed any of the information from your other post last year.

I've gone round all my window surrounds and resealed them, went round all the skirting in my lounge and filled all the gaps, put draught excluders round the front door and hung a curtain in the porch area. I removed the carpet and underlay, leaving the laminate and whatever else is between that at the original floorboards. My property is over 90 years older than yours and it's comfortable, I've not even got the heating on yet.

Thanks for your reply. It's about 34 square metres so not huge. 

I tried to get a surveyor to do a property survey of the building/flat to assess where some of the issues might be coming from. Of the 20 or so I approached, most said it wasn't something they could do. 

What do you mean by internal insulation?

I think part of the problem is the dry wall construction. There's obviously a cavity immediately behind the internal walls which I don't think is insulated. Alongside the floor, cold air gets trapped in there too.

I've looked at replacing the carpets with luxury vinyl flooring (Amtico type) with a layer of insulation underneath. I wondered if that would solve the draughts and provide some layer of insulation against the cold. Have also considered replacing the double radiators with single, thermostatically controlled radiators. I'm not sure a flat of this size really needs three double radiators and two small single radiators. 

Mistral001

Ahve you tried to find out exactly what insulation is in the walls, floor and ceiling?  Usually timber frame construction will have insulation inside the timber frame part of the wall, but sometimes they have it in the cavity. 

theoretica

It sounds like you have a rather draughty flat - my first step would be to hunt down where air is getting in from - skirting boards? windows? doors?  A bit of fluff on some sewing thread and a lot of patience should help you find them.  Then sealing up gaps to keep cold air and dust out. 

I would keep the double radiators - running big/more radiators at a slightly lower water temperature can be more efficient than running small ones flat out - and you already have them - but if you don't already have thermostatic valves, they are a relatively cheap and worthwhile addition.  In winter, I dry laundry on the radiators when I want to put more moisture into the air.  Sometimes I put a bowl of water on top of a radiator.

What did the EPC say when you bought the flat?  Any obvious targets to improve it?

MovingForwards

There's insulation boards or something you can fix to interior walls to insulate the property. I've not really got any knowledge but they've been mentioned on the forum a few times. The downside is they do take a few inches off each wall, making the room a little smaller.

You don't want to be swapping to single rads, if your home is already cold. I've got one in my main bedroom (end building and that room is north facing). The room is half the size of my lounge, which has a double rad, and wouldn't want to be sitting in it watching TV over winter! I've got valves on each rad in the flat and manually control how warm each room gets, the main bedroom is full on when my heating is on to take the edge off the room.

Have you gone round with a candle to see where draughts are coming from, or even used your hand. Find out where they are and plug them. Think it cost me about £15 for all the sealant/ caulk stuff and the trigger thing, plus a few weekends of my time.

The flooring I'd be putting ply wood or something down, then decent underlay with decent carpet on top. 

Honestly, start with the cheap, quick fix things first, before looking at bigger, expensive fixes.