Advice on drying out house

RexBanner

Looking for some advice on drying-out the a house:

Our built spec is:
2-storey block built, front of house is south-facing with a lot of windows, concrete 1st floor
UFH running off A2W HP, with MHRV
Air-tightness target of 2 m3/(h.m2) @ 50 Pa
Insulation wise:
walls are a 200mm pumped cavity
roof is 40mm XT insulation board on underside, with 125mm XT insulation between joists
floor is 180mm XT insulation
Plaster is 3mm skim-coat on walls and roof
Ground floor is a 75mm screed, first floor is 50mm easyscreed

The problem we are having is that we're trying to be in the house for Christmas, but we are really struggling to get the ESB turned on, and therefore the heating turned on to dry out the floor. Despite paying the ESB back in Jan and chasing the engineer continuously from June, he only submitted the work-order last month and the ESB office told me that is could be another 2-3 weeks before the poles are installed and cables run. Everything is in place from our side (ducting, meter-box) and our electrician has submitted his cert.

The plastering of the walls and roof was completed back in mid-Sept, the floors were poured on the 16th Oct. The roof has dried out and I was able to give it a first coat of paint with no issues. I tried to paint the walls last Sunday but found that there are still some damp places (guessing where the plasterers covered over imperfections in the block-work). No idea what the moisture content is like in the floor, but contractor is to check this in the coming days.

What I'm wondering is do I have any other options to help me speed-up the drying time while waiting for the ESB, and then UFH, to be turned-on? Should I consider getting a dehumidifier in and running it off a generator? I'm guessing this should be ok for drying out the walls (no risk of cracking) as they've already had nearly 8 weeks for natural drying out? Would the de-humidifier help with drying out the floor? I've heard that they only take the moisture from the air, so not much good for moisture deep in the screed. Or should, I just forget about trying to be in for Christmas and focus my energy on writing nasty letters to the ESB

Any advice appreciated....

RedRag

I'd be hesitant about moving into a house that has not had time to dry out sufficiently. I worked on a house about 10 years ago where the owner was rushing to move in, the house hadn't dried sufficiently and doors were hung and timber floors were laid. A few months later floors were rising and bowed, doors couldn't be opened from swelling either. He had to get carpenters back to relay floors and plane doors. I'd prefer to wait if it was me.

hexosan

Spend you time writing letters to the ESB. Don't thing you've a hope of been in for xmas.

rampantbunny

hexosan wrote: »

Spend you time writing letters to the ESB. Don't thing you've a hope of been in for xmas.

Write your letters to Santa instead...better chance of getting a move on

hexosan

rampantbunny wrote: »

Write your letters to Santa instead...better chance of getting a move on

Brilliant