Ridiculously impossible damp problem.

ger vallely

I'm sorry to be starting yet another damp thread but I am at my wits end. Bought this house 8 years ago. An 80's style rural bungalow. We put in double glazing, cavity bead insulation, wall vents in all rooms, attic insulation, gutters and fascia&soffit replaced. All ought to be great. Well it's not. One bedroom, North west facing is in a shocking state. The walls were painted again early this year. This (hopefully I can attach the pictures!) is after only a couple of months. We got the insulation checked to be sure it's not right up into the eaves. I can't leave the windows open when there's no-one home but otherwise I open them regularly. There's never clothes drying in the room. I just don't know what else we can do except for to win the lotto and move out! Any help or advice would be great.

BryanF

I beat there isn't insulation in some of those areas.

Is there good extractors in the bath rooms?

Is this room getting adequate heating?

Have you considered a RH triggered mech vent in the room?

Can you leave all the doors in the house open during the day and the windows A small bit open? Cross ventilation..

_Brian

That's a serious volume of condensation above that window, signs its been running down the walls !!

Many houses of this era had poor detailing, something as simple as dirty wall ties will bring across huge volumes of damp, and it seems pumped insulation would make this worse, when we pumped cavities the guy warned to ensure the builder detailed well.

Check there's no damp spots on the floor, I'd wonder about a small leak in a heating pipe adding moisture to the room which is condensing later on..

Otherwise the above advice is good, ventilate more and increase the heat if possible.

greasepalm

what is above the ceiling as that wet spot looked like the start of mine as the tiles in bathroom above bath taps were porous and fitted on paper mashey walls ?

kkelliher

Its clearly a ventilation issue. I have seen this so many times where people have showers and all thats available in the room is a small mechanical extractor or a very small window.

ger vallely

Thanks for the advice sofar. I have been closing each internal door every time I go out so I'll stop that for a start. The room in question is a bedroom so showering does not immediately affect the room. The bathroom does have an extractor and the window is open almost always when there is someone home. Going at the mould with some bleach and/or vinegar in the morning, just to make it look better for another couple of weeks. Thinking of moving rooms as this can't be healthy.

893bet

Demand control ventilation is a definate option that won't cost the world.

porsche959

If not already done, look at installing windows with vents at the top that let air in and out, a lot of apartments have them but not so much houses, a solution that again won't cost the earth.

Strolling Bones

I dont believe this is condensatiojn but rather damp penetartion arising from some defect(s) in the roof such as a torn roofing felt together with blocked gutter which is overflowing in through . It is the "fried egg" shaped stains that lead me to beleive liquid water is penetarting here from above

Strolling Bones

ger vallely wrote: »

I have been closing each internal door every time I go out so I'll stop that for a start.

Keeping every door closed is a good fire safety strategy so keep doing that.

ger vallely

Hi Strolling Bones, yeah I too have the feeling that there must be dripping water some place above in the attic. I used to have no bother getting up into the attic myself but since we got the insulation in I'd be very unsure about crawling around up there. I think my husband may venture up today. We had a guy fitting a bathroom extractor during the summer, he said everything looked in order up there. But I do get the feeling that there has to be dripping, either from some small leak or condensation build up. As for the internal doors left open or closed. I did used keep them closed as a fire prevention but I'm going to have to abandon that for the foreseeable and leave as much air circulate as possible .

MicktheMan

Strolling Bones wrote: »

I dont believe this is condensatiojn but rather damp penetartion arising from some defect(s) in the roof such as a torn roofing felt together with blocked gutter which is overflowing in through . It is the "fried egg" shaped stains that lead me to beleive liquid water is penetarting here from above

Or

where there is a vapour barrier (plastic sheet) installed in the ceiling between the plasterboard and insulation and where the insulation is missing / disturbed in the affected area leading to trapped moisture under the vb physically wetting the ceiling and creating the distinct shape. I have come across this before.
If this is the case then as well as re-doing the insulation properly, the underlying issue of high rh needs to be addressed with proper heating & ventilation (as said earlier by others).

Safehands

ger vallely wrote: »

Hi Strolling Bones, yeah I too have the feeling that there must be dripping water some place above in the attic. I used to have no bother getting up into the attic myself but since we got the insulation in I'd be very unsure about crawling around up there. I think my husband may venture up today. We had a guy fitting a bathroom extractor during the summer, he said everything looked in order up there. But I do get the feeling that there has to be dripping, either from some small leak or condensation build up. As for the internal doors left open or closed. I did used keep them closed as a fire prevention but I'm going to have to abandon that for the foreseeable and leave as much air circulate as possible .

I think you have received great advise here. You will usually know the difference between condensation and damp from an external source. The paint is not coming off, you have black spots. That is a classic condensation problem. However, that patch on the ceiling looks like it could possibly be an external leak. Do you ever have water dripping down from the ceiling?

_Brian

ger vallely wrote: »

Hi Strolling Bones, yeah I too have the feeling that there must be dripping water some place above in the attic. I used to have no bother getting up into the attic myself but since we got the insulation in I'd be very unsure about crawling around up there. I think my husband may venture up today. We had a guy fitting a bathroom extractor during the summer, he said everything looked in order up there. But I do get the feeling that there has to be dripping, either from some small leak or condensation build up. As for the internal doors left open or closed. I did used keep them closed as a fire prevention but I'm going to have to abandon that for the foreseeable and leave as much air circulate as possible .

And the extractor is definitely vented to outside??
I've seen more than one just venting into the attic space !!

qwerty1505

We have a rental property in Dublin (built in the 70s) that had a lot of heat loss, damp/mold problems. We got an architect that specializes in analyzing and root causing the cold/mold/damp issues in your house. He came out and spent about one & half hours on site and went through every problem every with us, with us taking notes. Told us in a list of ascending order, what problems needing fixing first etc.. It didn't cost the earth and was money well spent - let me know if you want me to PM you his details.