Condensation in bathroom

secla

Having issues with condensation in out small bathroom. There are 4 of us in the house and after all showering in the evening the water is literally dripping from the walls. I guess colder temps and the amount of people using the small room theirs just no where it can escape. I open the window full but getting into the winter months that is not overly pleasant.
Would a dehumidifier draw out enough water quickly enough before it condenses, my other option is fitting a ceiling fan extractor which i was going to do when i do the bathroom refurb next easter

Bendy_House

Extractor. Simple. And make it a good one. Possibly even 5" - compare flow rates. Possibly with a humidistat too.

It took me a few years before I got around to fitting a ceiling extractor in the shower room, and it was prompted by kiddies becoming teens...

Before this, I'd open the window too, but - although this helps - what I found was that the cold draught would first cool and condense the steam from the shower, so it was even more 'misty' in there on many occasion, and the walls more wet, until the breeze finally did its job. 

Meanwhile, over winter, I think it's reasonable to ask folk to try and reduce their showering time a bit, and - if possible - leave ventilating intervals between showers. 

But, yes, extractor:-)

Bendy_House

As part of your refurb, also give serious consideration to adding a layer of insulation to the external wall. 

[Deleted User]

Hi,

until the refurb, maybe space out the showering, two in morning two at night, with a gap between each to allow room to breathe.

Might mean folks getting up a bit earlier in the mornings.

rob7475

A decent inline extractor will help massively. Don't buy one of the cheap showerlite things. Also, keep the bathroom door closed while showering and this will help the extractor work more effectively.

You'll never completely remove the condensation though. Our tiled bathroom has some insulation on the two external walls, a good inline extractor and the tiles still get a little wet after a shower. A quick wipe over with a microfibre though and everything is dry within 30 minutes.

shiraz99

A good inline extractor would do wonders for your situation.

Apodemus

rob7475 said:

Also, keep the bathroom door closed while showering and this will help the extractor work more effectively.

Interesting...! While I would guess that few of us (except those with an en-suite) shower with the bathroom door open, I would have thought that when the extractor fan is running, there will be a better flow of drier air through the bathroom if the door was open a bit? The air being pulled to the outside has to be coming from somewhere and the door must be a major restriction to the flow into the bathroom?

FreeBear

Bendy_House said: As part of your refurb, also give serious consideration to adding a layer of insulation to the external wall. 

I'd second that. 50mm or 75mm of Celotex/Kingspan topped off with 9mm or 12mm cement boards will give you a nice solid surface to tile on to (use the warm batten method). With a bit of forethought, pipes & cables can be buried in the insulation (just make sure there are no joints to leak), and back boxes sited where the cable/pipes need to come out (e.g. behind an electric shower).

Bendy_House

Apodemus said:

rob7475 said:

Also, keep the bathroom door closed while showering and this will help the extractor work more effectively.

Interesting...! While I would guess that few of us (except those with an en-suite) shower with the bathroom door open, I would have thought that when the extractor fan is running, there will be a better flow of drier air through the bathroom if the door was open a bit? The air being pulled to the outside has to be coming from somewhere and the door must be a major restriction to the flow into the bathroom?

To some degree. I 'suspect' that, overall, it would be best to have the door closed, or perhaps fractionally ajar.

The extracted air will be easily replaced via the gaps around the door, and I'd 'hope' the air would be extracted evenly throughout the room. If you open the door, there's first the risk of allowing the damp air to get out into the house - bad news - but also the air will probably swirl around quite randomly, and the extractor could be drawing almost neat air from the corridor, missing the bulk of the bathroom volume.

That's just guesswork, of course, but I certainly wouldn't do it from the 'escaping damp to the house' reason.

BUFF

The distance of the extractor opening from the door (or open window) comes into it e.g. if the door is closer to the extractor than the farthest reaches of the bathroom are then the far air won't be drawn to the extractor as the air from the door will "short circuit".

Grenage

A decent fan could very likely be retricted by only the cracks around the door - but bathroom doors are generally 10mm short at the bottom, which will easily cover it.