Damp issues driving me mad!

raemie10

I am living in a house (flat roof bungalow) since Christmas 2016.
It was built in 1979 and seems to be very well built.
Windows were replaced some years ago with the bog standard white PVC double glazed windows.

We have a Stanley range oil burner that heats the rads (mostly the low rads that are nearly the length of the wall but don't have great heat output).

There is a newish (I think around 10 years old) solid fuel burner in one small living room (open plan beside a kitchen) that puts out amazing heat (was nearly too hot during winter to sit in the room when it was going full wack!

There is an open fire in another living room which is open plan with a dining room and is beyond useless so we only really lit it for aesthetics a few times over the Xmas hols! The living area has a high roof which doesn't half attic on top if it.
The dining part does have attic on top and we got the whole attic it insulated with rock wool when we moved in. It is near impossible to heat these two rooms..

We found out when we were converting a room to a garage and knocking down a wall that it was insulated with the little white styrofoam balls (we were shocked, as the house was so cold and doesn't retain heat that well at all)

Anyhow, I did notice immediately after moving in that all the bedrooms (which are one side of the house and north facing so gets little sun during the day) suffer from woeful condensation in the mornings, even in bedrooms where no one is sleeping. I bought a karcher window cleaner to suck up all the water as there would be so much every winter morning. The bedrooms are very hard to heat, we would have to have heat on full for a few hours to notice a huge difference and as soon as the rads are off.. very very little heat is maintained.

Of the windows that have wooden sills, there are old black mold marks, luckily in the bathroom that we use, the sill is made from tiles, so no mold there. There is black mold on pretty much ever window on the black seals around the window and I could clean it for an hour with bleach/vinegar/specialist mold remover and the mold still seems to come off with a cloth! There doesn't seem to be any signs of rising damp anywhere in the house, no mold in corners etc.
There is some black mold (which started to appear last month) on the ceiling above the shower which has wallpaper on it! We haven't got around to getting the ceiling changed.. so I imagine wet wallpaper is every young mold spore's dream!

As the mold isn't hugely obvious on the windows, being black on black..my other half and I turned a bit o a blind eye to the issue for a few months.

I bought some damp traps and they would fill up over time.
I also invested in a decent dehumidifier which if left on all day can extract around 8 litres from the hall way in the house.
I was thinking, that trickle vents might be a good idea for the windows (something like these - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bulk-Hardware-BH03173-Windows-Adjustable/dp/B00QC5GCI6/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1499788582&sr=1-1&keywords=window+trickle )

So, I imagine, if you've read this far, you're wondeing about ventilation and what we have?!

Bedrooms - two bedrooms have old wall vents that are probably blocked up with the old insulation. The bathroom has a decent fan extractor (I did the €20 test today and it sucked it up and held it no problem. After a shower in the winter though, and with the door closed, it could take a half hour for the steam to dissipate from the window!

The kitchen has an extractor fan which I use religiously when cooking.(open plan) bizarrely has no ventilation, so in winter when the fire would be on, we would leave the kitchen door open to try and get some heat down the hall.

The large open plan dining and living room has no ventilation but the open fire isn't sealed up so I guess it might be ventilated well enough?!

Our master bedroom has a shower (which isn't in use...doesn't look like it was ever used since it was installed!) and a sink which is used sometimes (just cold water)

My other half thought I was exaggerating about the musty smell and the black mold on the PVC seals, until last week, when he went to get a shirt out of the wardrobe for work and found mold on it!! The clothes that are in the wardrobe have a horrible musty smell, so I don't use them now.
I've called a few companies and builders recently to try and see if someone can come for a consultation but thanks to my location, no one has been willing to pop out.
The house is quite an unusual shape which is hard to explain and with the flat roof, it's the type of house, that would really need an expert eye cast over it.

My other half thinks that if we put vents in every room and possibly on each gable wall, it will solve all our problems but I'm not so sure!

I'd like to do something before Winter 2017 rears its head.
Don't exactly have a huge budget, but if necessary will do what needs doing!
Also, my other half does not want something drilled through the roof as he's worried it will inevitably lead to a leak down the line.

Oh and with the attic ventilation, I did say to the guy doing it, that I was worried about further condensation issues and he said he would put in some vents.. We're not so sure he did.. When we had a few days of over 21 degrees in Galway last month, I did note water coming from the roof (on the side where the bedrooms are... would that be from a vent?!

With the dehumidifier (this one - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HO962RA/ref=dp_cerb_1) it will generally show each bedroom, before I run it, at around 70% humidity.. that's now.. in the middle of 'summer'!
I open windows every day.. right now, I have every single window open, with the front and back door open too.. it still says that it's 62% humidty in the kitchen.

There seems to be a wealth of knowledgeable people on this forum, so if someone has had this issue before or has done work on a similar house, I would love to hear. Thanks a mill

Calahonda52

:DThanks for the short post:D There are lads on here with 60,000 posts and they have written less in total

Okay, is tough to figure out the structural shape as you say its a flat roofed bungalow, and then we get all the other stuff about attics and high ups and the like so could you make clarify exactly what shape we are dealing with here.
Second up, what construction are the walls and floor?

Could you sketch a few lines of the plan and elevation and stick up a photo of them, the house would be better but you may not want to, understood 100%

My initials suggestions are to look at external wall insulation and MHVR

https://www.nsai.ie/S-R-54-2014-Code-of-Practice.aspx

might help

_Brian

First thing is ventilation, checkmif existing vents are open or blocked by insulation penny previous occupants.

Heating, perhaps the system needs a power flush and maybe check out the circulation pump to ensure it's moving enough water through the system.

Rooms with ventilation and heat can withstand allot of other issues.

After these hour down to the construction and insulation of the walls.

raemie10

Calahonda52 wrote: »

:DThanks for the short post:D There are lads on here with 60,000 posts and they have written less in total

Okay, is tough to figure out the structural shape as you say its a flat roofed bungalow, and then we get all the other stuff about attics and high ups and the like so could you make clarify exactly what shape we are dealing with here.
Second up, what construction are the walls and floor?

Could you sketch a few lines of the plan and elevation and stick up a photo of them, the house would be better but you may not want to, understood 100%

My initials suggestions are to look at external wall insulation and MHVR

https://www.nsai.ie/S-R-54-2014-Code-of-Practice.aspx

might help

Sorry, I got carried away trying to describe everything (or at least I thought I was describing everything!)

The floors are concrete and walls cavity.
We pulled up the carpet in one bedroom to replace with wooden floor and I noticed there were two hairline ish cracks in the concrete. There was never any damp on the floor or walls (just the condensation on the window as per all the other bedrooms)

The plan attached is the only one I have and isn't very legible sorry!
If you can read it, the 'playroom' is now converted into a garage but we've had no issues with mold in that room, there's probably enough ventilation with the roller door.

Also, it's not v clear, but the bedroom (master) that's somehow adjacent to the kitchen has a little bit of hall outside the door and then there is another door to the hallway between the bedrooms.

Thanks

MicktheMan

raemie10 wrote: »

With the dehumidifier (this one - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HO962RA/ref=dp_cerb_1) it will generally show each bedroom, before I run it, at around 70% humidity.. that's now.. in the middle of 'summer'!
I open windows every day.. right now, I have every single window open, with the front and back door open too.. it still says that it's 62% humidty in the kitchen.

High internal relative humidity in the summer is normal.

Right2Write

raemie10 wrote: »

I am living in a house (flat roof bungalow) since Christmas 2016.
It was built in 1979 and seems to be very well built.

From your description - I wouldn't be so sure!! Posting a few photos would probably help. A flat roofed bungalow sounds unusual - there was a craze for these as holiday type homes in Achill in the 1960s/70s. Flat roofs are not traditional in Ireland for very good reasons.

Stoner

Ventaxia house ventilation system , easy install in a bungalow. The heat exchange is very good too

Laci

We had a similar issue in our cottage too. Got all rooms ventilation core-drilled. Also both gable walls. It improved a lot, but I can still relate to your issue with clothes going damp in the wardrobe. I have some rising damp issue through a wall in the middle of the house, where the wardrobe sits.