Condensation in corners of bedroom

diego_94

Have terrible condensation in main bedroom on the windows which I wipe off every morning, but what is concerning me more is that it is happening in the corner of the bedroom with some water running down the wall. Its started to go black, and has funnily enough got worse since we had new windows.

We are an Semi detached and the bedroom is on the outside corner, so 2 of the walls are external, these are extremely cold to touch especially in the cold weather we are having this week, and the cold weather we had before Christmas. There is no cavity wall insulation in the house, we looked to have it and were advised against it by the surveyor. As a result it is a cold house, and with the energy prices the way they are, we try to keep the heating off as much as possible. The bedroom gets down to about 12-13 degrees overnight

I open the windows every morning for 15 - 20 mins but it just gets wetter when I do this, I cant keep them on vent lock overnight as its so bloody cold and I'm not keeping the heating on all night. The windows don't have trickle vents. We do dry clothes inside, but this is in another bedroom (not no a radiator) and we keep the windows on vent when clothes are drying.

At a loss, what else can be tried? Thinking of a dehumidifier and maybe internal wall insulation? Any advice appreciated.

ThisIsWeird

diego_94 said:

Have terrible condensation in main bedroom on the windows which I wipe off every morning, but what is concerning me more is that it is happening in the corner of the bedroom with some water running down the wall. Its started to go black, and has funnily enough got worse since we had new windows.

We are an Semi detached and the bedroom is on the outside corner, so 2 of the walls are external, these are extremely cold to touch especially in the cold weather we are having this week, and the cold weather we had before Christmas. There is no cavity wall insulation in the house, we looked to have it and were advised against it by the surveyor. As a result it is a cold house, and with the energy prices the way they are, we try to keep the heating off as much as possible. The bedroom gets down to about 12-13 degrees overnight

I open the windows every morning for 15 - 20 mins but it just gets wetter when I do this, I cant keep them on vent lock overnight as its so bloody cold and I'm not keeping the heating on all night. The windows don't have trickle vents. We do dry clothes inside, but this is in another bedroom (not no a radiator) and we keep the windows on vent when clothes are drying.

At a loss, what else can be tried? Thinking of a dehumidifier and maybe internal wall insulation? Any advice appreciated.

Far better than cavity wall insulation is Internal Wall Insulation added to these two walls. Yes, it's disruptive, especially if you have radiators or units built against the walls in question, but if you want to transform the insulation levels of that room, that's the biggie.

Yes, I know it's bludy cold during the night if you open the windows, but if you meanwhile want to transform the condensation levels in that bedroom, that's exactly what you should be doing; you can keep warm by having an overnight leccy blanket running on '1' = very few watts.

First thing in t'morn, wipe away any condensation, keep the heating off (ie on 'frost'), crack open the windows, shut the door and vent that room for the day and eve. Near bedtime, by all means you can close the windows and turn on the heating a half-to-one-hour (or whatevs) before bed so it's a pleasant greeting for you, once you are ready to dive under the duvet, heating off and windows on 'vent' - more than one window if possible. Door always closed so you don't get the warm damp air from the rest of the house.

Have the heating set to come on a half-hour or whatevs before you get up, push partner out of bed to shut the windows and make a cuppa, and get up.

Once you leave the room, heating off, windows on vent, door shut. Repeat.

This will almost certainly transform the conditions in there.

diego_94

Venting it all day will just make the walls colder than they already are surely.

FreeBear

A damp wall is a cold wall which attracts condensation - Ends up being a vicious circle. Short term fix would be to try and keep the temperature above 16-17°C, but this is not always possible or practical. Thermal wallpaper may help to reduce the effects of condensation, but don't expect any real level of insulation from the stuff.

Longer term, and more expensive, would be to insulate the walls internally with 50-75mm Celotex/Kingspan. Done a small boxroom here (two external walls), and it has made a huge difference. Much easier to heat to a comfortable temperature, and I can get away with a dinky little radiator to do the job. Also got smooth flat walls to boot. The room is roughly 2.4m by 2.5m, and the loss of 75mm of floor space is not noticeable. If you want any advice/guidance on doing the work, I'm more than happy to post pictures & tips.

Ho good is your loft insulation ?

ThisIsWeird

diego_94 said:

Venting it all day will just make the walls colder than they already are surely.

Yes - the room will feel colder, but it'll be much drier.
Do you have an electric blanket with 'overnight'? If so, why not try this for a couple of days? Compare the state of your windows in the morning, before and after trying this.

Everything as I suggested - no cheating! Treat the bedroom as a separate envelope within the house - keep the door to it shut. Keep the 'living' areas warm as you need to,  but keep the bedroom cool and ventilated. You could have it warm and ventilated too, of course, but what a waste of energy. Instead make it warm only at the precise times you want it - just before bed, and just before get-up.

ThisIsWeird

This is just to tide you over until you ideally have the room insulated.

diego_94

FreeBear said:

A damp wall is a cold wall which attracts condensation - Ends up being a vicious circle. Short term fix would be to try and keep the temperature above 16-17°C, but this is not always possible or practical. Thermal wallpaper may help to reduce the effects of condensation, but don't expect any real level of insulation from the stuff.

Longer term, and more expensive, would be to insulate the walls internally with 50-75mm Celotex/Kingspan. Done a small boxroom here (two external walls), and it has made a huge difference. Much easier to heat to a comfortable temperature, and I can get away with a dinky little radiator to do the job. Also got smooth flat walls to boot. The room is roughly 2.4m by 2.5m, and the loss of 75mm of floor space is not noticeable. If you want any advice/guidance on doing the work, I'm more than happy to post pictures & tips.

Ho good is your loft insulation ?

Thanks for the advice. Loft insulation is pretty good by the looks of it

diystarter7

Hi
Since removing the carpets in this house we live in, the bedrooms are cooler and very cool esepcially north facing ones.
With carpets they do not get as cold and hold moustre.
We have used top of the range underlayer for the bambo floors - we never have condenstion other than noting in north bedroom when we have guests on a very cold night and moring when people sleeping there just a bit on the windows
Trick is at least 16c if possible and lots of carpet, thich curtains, large wardrobes will hold cold back from walls, fabric sofa - but heating is the trick
We have souting facing mliving room floor to ceiling windows and same upstairs so the sun heats up as well as CH on most of the time but controlled with every room having TVR, we keep them on at about 16c on bedrooms we do not use - top landin about 25C, ground floor o hallway full blast so sends het to other rooms and lower setting upper floor and our bedroom at16 and off always at night as i dont like heat when sleeping

Do not dry washing inside if you are - we always use a drier in a utiltiy room.

We all tak daily baths.showers, extrator fans are left on for at least 15 mins ofterwards

Part of your problem may be its shaded from the sun, wood flooring and amin walls take the brunt of the wind making them cooler.

Check loft insulation, get good windows or curtains  to keep in heat we rarely close ours and waster a lot of hear but we are just like that as not overlooked but closing curtains saves on heat and condensation

Thnaks

Effician

As a quick fix try a pedestal fan running all day & aimed at the offending area, doesn't need to run flat out but just enough to blow room temp air over the walls/ window, this should dry the wall & improve it's thermal properties slightly.

You don't need the window open all the time but to vent occasionally will help,  for example , open a warm downstairs room window & at the same time open the upstairs bedroom window, this will expel a good amount of moisture laden air ( certainly better & cheaper than a dehumidifier) , 10 mins should do on cold days as much more will start to cool the fabric of the house.

Apodemus

ThisIsWeird said:

diego_94 said:

Have terrible condensation in main bedroom on the windows which I wipe off every morning, but what is concerning me more is that it is happening in the corner of the bedroom with some water running down the wall. Its started to go black, and has funnily enough got worse since we had new windows.

We are an Semi detached and the bedroom is on the outside corner, so 2 of the walls are external, these are extremely cold to touch especially in the cold weather we are having this week, and the cold weather we had before Christmas. There is no cavity wall insulation in the house, we looked to have it and were advised against it by the surveyor. As a result it is a cold house, and with the energy prices the way they are, we try to keep the heating off as much as possible. The bedroom gets down to about 12-13 degrees overnight

I open the windows every morning for 15 - 20 mins but it just gets wetter when I do this, I cant keep them on vent lock overnight as its so bloody cold and I'm not keeping the heating on all night. The windows don't have trickle vents. We do dry clothes inside, but this is in another bedroom (not no a radiator) and we keep the windows on vent when clothes are drying.

At a loss, what else can be tried? Thinking of a dehumidifier and maybe internal wall insulation? Any advice appreciated.

Far better than cavity wall insulation is Internal Wall Insulation added to these two walls. Yes, it's disruptive, especially if you have radiators or units built against the walls in question, but if you want to transform the insulation levels of that room, that's the biggie.

Yes, I know it's bludy cold during the night if you open the windows, but if you meanwhile want to transform the condensation levels in that bedroom, that's exactly what you should be doing; you can keep warm by having an overnight leccy blanket running on '1' = very few watts.

First thing in t'morn, wipe away any condensation, keep the heating off (ie on 'frost'), crack open the windows, shut the door and vent that room for the day and eve. Near bedtime, by all means you can close the windows and turn on the heating a half-to-one-hour (or whatevs) before bed so it's a pleasant greeting for you, once you are ready to dive under the duvet, heating off and windows on 'vent' - more than one window if possible. Door always closed so you don't get the warm damp air from the rest of the house.

Have the heating set to come on a half-hour or whatevs before you get up, push partner out of bed to shut the windows and make a cuppa, and get up.

Once you leave the room, heating off, windows on vent, door shut. Repeat.

This will almost certainly transform the conditions in there.

The only thing I would question on this is whether heating for half-an-hour to an hour is really worth it before bed or once you wake up.  In the houses I've lived in with uninsulated cold walls, I've always found that they take an age to appreciably warm up and in practice it makes little difference for it to be 13C rather than 11C, so why bother?!  Better to have the bed warm and nip quickly under the blankets, and the reverse in the morning, retreating to a warmer zone in the house - if such exists!

ThisIsWeird

Apodemus said:

The only thing I would question on this is whether heating for half-an-hour to an hour is really worth it before bed or once you wake up.  In the houses I've lived in with uninsulated cold walls, I've always found that they take an age to appreciably warm up and in practice it makes little difference for it to be 13C rather than 11C, so why bother?!  Better to have the bed warm and nip quickly under the blankets, and the reverse in the morning, retreating to a warmer zone in the house - if such exists!

Completely agree. It's really just to make the idea of having a cold draughty bedroom more palatable!

If a half-hour of heating (say you have Smart TRVs) just before bedtime and just before wake up makes the room acceptable - it doesn't have to be 'warm' as such - then most folk could happily live with this. It really doesn't matter if the bedroom is otherwise at 12oC...

But most folk would - quite rightly - baulk at the thought of entering a 12o chamber at nighttime, or waking up to it - it's hardly civil, is it...

Once you are under the sheets, tho', what does it matter what the temp is? In fact a warm bod with a cold nose is surely one of life's great sensations.