Condensation issues

Louise151201

This is a story and a half so buckle up! We bought a house in December 2023 and after a week of moving in we noticed the house had condensation issues with puddles forming underneath the upstairs windows and also one of the bedrooms downstairs the wall was soaking wet. We initially thought a pipe had burst it was that wet although we had a plumber in who created a hatch in the floor and showed us everything was not only completely dry but there was no pipes at all running near the wall. As we live in a terraced house we spoke to the next door neighbour to ask them to investigate if possibly a pipe had burst on their side. Since next door is a housing association house they emailed us a full report to indicate that everything was fine on their end. So, next step was a roofer to see if there may be a problem with the roof/loft. We found that the previous owner had insulated the loft an obscene amount, it was like a sauna up there and no doubt contributed massively to the humidity. However, after getting that removed and drying the loft out we are still having the same issue. We noticed the heating in this room wasn’t the best so replaced the heaters throughout the whole house and sorted the pressure with the boiler ( it was initially very low but is fine now), now the heating in the cold room is perfectly fine. As well as throughout the rest of the house. We then contacted a condensation and damp specialist in our area and payed for a full report with recommendations. They found that the room with the soaking wet wall was significantly colder ( it is freezing cold to the touch at all times) around 6•c I have inserted photos below. We also realised the vent directly next to the wall had been filled with expanding foam so removed that also to allow ventilation. He advised us to paint the wall with a thermal paint that would raise the temperature of the walls to stop condensation forming. He also recommended a PIV unit and better bathroom extractor fan. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, we got the PIV and bathroom extractor fitted and although the condensation has became a lot less upstairs, with some days there are still some on the windows but no longer puddles on the windowsill, the cold wall in the downstairs bedroom is still soaking wet. The only thing that dries it is a dehumidifier which we have been using in that room all day, every day since we moved in December. We don’t put it on at night as the room is occupied and have found that you wake up feeling so dehydrated and groggy with it running all night. So, I’m really just reaching out for advice here. We cannot seem to figure out what is going on to make this wall so wet, you touch it and there’s just drips falling down your hand. We’ve had all sorts of tradesmen here and even the damp and condensation specialist who are scratching their heads at what could be causing this. We have tried everything advised to us so far which has proven costly yet the house is still so humid. Before fitting the PIV if we didn’t have 3 dehumidifiers running the humidity would be around 80-85% sometimes …we have the PIV running at the highest setting it possibly can, it is located in the hallway directly above the stairs, you will see by the floor plan where the stairs are in comparison to the room so it should be helping it. But honestly haven’t seen much a difference in that room. If anyone has any suggestions or any questions please post! We had just bought this house in December to escape our mouldy rental house which made us all so sick and now with the condensation and room being wet the risk of mould again is super high and we are just lost with what else to do. The main focus that we are looking for suggestion wise is this wet wall in the downstairs bedroom as I’m sure with the PIV running it will help shift condensation upstairs as it’s no where near as bad as downstairs. It would be nice to not have to run the dehumidifier in that room constantly as it shouldn’t need it. It’s not a massive room either. I know with condensation that dehumidifiers only prevent it, but I think in order to really get to the bottom of the issue is to figure out what is actually causing it. Thanks for reading my long winded story on why buying a house with condensation sucks! We are just so worried that we get sick from this or mold grows, having lived in a mouldy house for over 10 years we were so relieved to get out of that situation! 

Doozergirl

What's happening on the other sides of that cold corner in the thermal image?  Photos please.  

As well as the obvious thermal bridge, the wallpaper is wet and the screws to the socket are rusting.  I'm finding it hard to believe that is just condensation and not water ingress. 

How much did your damp specialist report cost you? 

Louise151201

Hi Doozergirl, sorry I don’t know how to directly reply to you I just made an account purely for this post. So this thermal image only shows the corner however all along the base of the wall is wet not just the corner ( I don’t know why he didn’t thermal imagine other parts of the wall). I will attach a photo of outside to show where the corner is. We are only thinking it is condensation as the damp specialist we used said it isn’t rising damp or water damage. I’m purely just going off what he said but I’m more than open to exploring other causes for this issue. Yes the screws are very rusted and initially the socket was a point of worry for me given that it is clearly getting wet, however ( sorry to mention him again lol) the damp specialist used some sort of tool to show that the damp wasn’t penetrating the wall it was only surface therefor he said it wouldn’t be dangerous given  that water isn’t getting to the wiring etc. Hope this all makes sense…happy to answer any more questions asthe damp wall is not the outside window wall but the one running away from the drain pipe if that makes sense ( we have also checked that for any leaks but doesn’t seem to be any)

Louise151201

Also the report cost £200

stuart45

How old is the property?

Louise151201

Was built 32 years ago 

subjecttocontract

Have you checked if the guttering or downpipe are leaking ?

HampshireH

Maybe my eyes but the bottom of the pebble dash /render stuff looks darker that that above it definitely no cracks/ingress points?

So the wall with the socket on is an internal wall adjoined to next door?


Have you had the skirting off on that corner and wall under the socket to see how wet it is behind at ground level?

Edit: is next door mirrored or the same as yours so their kitchen adjoins your bedroom or does their bedroom adjoin yours

Louise151201

subjecttocontract said:

Have you checked if the guttering or downpipe are leaking ?

We haven’t got anyone out to check but for the downpipe it seems to be ok, there’s no obvious signs of water leaking from it and even so would that be enough to soak the whole base of the internal wall? the wall circled here is the affected wall that is damp all along the base to about 0.5m high and the outside window wall dry is dry no signs of damp or anything. Maybe that is something we should look into. We haven’t checked the guttering either. The wall doesn’t seem to get worse with weather or anything, there’s been super dry sunny days where it’s been soaking and super rainy windy days and it’s still the same not worse. 

Louise151201

HampshireH said:

Maybe my eyes but the bottom of the pebble dash /render stuff looks darker that that above it definitely no cracks/ingress points?

So the wall with the socket on is an internal wall adjoined to next door?

Have you had the skirting off on that corner and wall under the socket to see how wet it is behind at ground level?

Sorry for the bad photo quality I took it just now as it’s getting a bit dark. Will try get one in daylight. But that’s a good point will check in the morning and see if maybe that’s just a shadow or not. 

I’m doing such a bad job explaining where this wall is. So the wall with the window is the outside wall that you can see in the photo with the pebbledash. The damp wall is the internal wall that is joined onto our next door neighbours house ( I hope this makes more sense). So not the window wall. We haven’t actually taken the skirting off or socket but we did have a plumber go underneath the floor and the brick was all dry. It may be worth actually looking behind the skirting and socket possibly

Louise151201

HampshireH said:

Maybe my eyes but the bottom of the pebble dash /render stuff looks darker that that above it definitely no cracks/ingress points?

So the wall with the socket on is an internal wall adjoined to next door?


Have you had the skirting off on that corner and wall under the socket to see how wet it is behind at ground level?

Edit: is next door mirrored or the same as yours so their kitchen adjoins your bedroom or does their bedroom adjoin yours

It’s their kitchen that adjoins the bedroom. But they are adamant that they’ve checked and there’s no issues on their side. Next door isn’t occupied at the moment but it’s a housing association house so they informed us that when we moved in December that they actually had the water off. The issue hasn’t worsened or gotten better since just remained the same (they turned the water back on in January as they began doing some work in there). I’m just assuming if it were to be a leak of some sort from their end that it would be getting worse as time has dragged on? I may be wrong though