Solutions to damp

[sweetheart]

I do know that putting the heating on solves the problem - or at least it did when I was able to put the heating on before OH got a bee in his bonnet about it.

[Andy Burns]

You have previously mentioned sums of inherited money, can't you come to an arrangement with OH that you'll put the heating on as and when you see fit, and that you'll pay for it ...

[ARWadsworth]

I have a solution.

[Phil L]

That's easily solved, just tell him that if he likes it cold he can live in the back yard, you need the heat on because it's affecting your health and if he doesn't like it, he's perfectly entitled to lump it. Put the heat on whenever you like, if he turns it off, turn it back on again, and keep doing his until he gets used to it, and if he's still being stubborn, give him a platefull of raw bacon, unpeeled poatoes and frozen peas and tell him you're not cooking it because it costs too much.

[ARWadsworth]

h) Don't live in a house under the bridge.....

They are noted for damp. It's the river that causes it.

[Steve Firth]

Made me spill me tea there Adam.

[sweetheart]

I have tried that but he is a difficult man to argue with - unless you want to hear about it for the next forty years daily.

[fred]

You've heard it all.

IME damp air migrates to the north side of the house. This is where you need to permit ventilation, though curing the problem at source (i.e.) Kitchen, bathroom, with effective extraction is the best place to start. Those weedy over hob extractor hoods are next to useless, especially when combined with a long length of flexible pipe. Get a decent extractor fan

The dehumidifier is also an excellent solution and actually provides heat to the room in which it is running. We keep one running constantly during daylight hours in a boat during the winter months and it has proved perfect at keeping damp and mould at bay. Much better, and considerably cheaper, than the heater we used to leave turned on.

Its going to cost money to solve your problem, or a divorce.

Paul Mc Cann

[sweetheart]

Since I am in study most often and OH isnt, he disputes the need to heat it and so it gets badly damp.

The bedroom ( main one that is) has less of a problem but it still gets some mustiness , so must be damp somewhere.although I cant find it. I spend a lot of time cleaning that room and airing it.

The dining room and sitting room ( west and South facing) are almost without any damp/condensation issues . Since I had a new bathroom I seem to have "cured" the problems there. Or they cured themselves. I took out a shower screen ( full width of bath and put in a shower curtain and now the steam and such doesnt hang . )

How much do you reckon that costs? OH may be giving false figures.

Paul Mc Cann

[Terry Fields]

Just a thought: have you considered jetting off to Spain for the winter so that you can recover? it could save your OH a fortune in not heating the place, the cost of your food, etc, and he can botch away to his hearts content while you sip a nice glass of wine and sit in the warm sun.

[tony sayer]

In article , Terry Fields scribeth thus

Yeabut Terry what about the depression that sets in when U come back?. My French born missus had a couple of weeks in the sarff of France and has been in a right strop about the poxy "English weather" ever since;(...

[stuart noble]

Or warm air migrates to cold areas, which is normally the north aspect.

If the OP wants to experience damp, try Whitby in North Yorks, where there's no such thing as warm air, and fire doors in the hotels prevent ventilation. A far cry from her neck of the woods where things have a chance to dry out now and again.

[Terry Fields]

Eau dear...

I'm afraid that with 'sweetheart' there is no perfect solution. The current unhappy state of affairs is doing her in. Although marriage can be a powerful institution for good, this one appears to be working against both her best interests and that of the marriage. The current situation isn't doing anything to solve her problems. IMHO there can only be a radical outcome here, and it's going to be very upsetting.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Run off with a double glazing/insulation salesman?

[Andy Champ]

Then offset the cost against the saving in prescription charges?

Andy

[ARWadsworth]

I am choking more at the suggestion of a dehumidifier.

Remove the cause and do not try to hide the symptom.

[Steve Firth]

Indeed. We had a similar problem with two rooms in Italy. The solutions was to cover the outside wall with Delta membrane and lay a French drain. Cost about £1000. It turned two useless rooms into dry, comfortable living rooms.

[RobertL]

(d) is the best answer in my view. In slightly older well-insulated houses there is often very little air circulation of air to the outside. Building regs now require 5000 sqmm of fixed (non- closable) ventilation in each habitable room in order to combat condensation.

Robert

[RobertL]

careful: IIRC those things measure the "relative humidity" - the % of saturation (and saturation density depends on temperature). You need to know the interior and exterior water density if you want to decide whether to swap outside air for inside air. Almost always the outside density is lower so it walys helps to open the windows,

Robert

[Terry Fields]

Roughly, saturated air (100 percent RH) holds x grams per cu m at x deg C. At 20 degC saturated air will hold 20 g/cu m.

Say it's 15 deg/50 percent outside and 20 deg/60 percent inside, opening the window lets fresh air in holding 7.5 g/cu m, and lets out air holding 12 g/cu m, a loss of 4.5g/cu m of air exchanged.

In sweetheart's case the furnishings both soft and hard and the building fabric (walls and floors) have equilibrated at whatever humidity level her house currently is at. Shifting this is going to take forever. She needs to heat the house to get the absorbed water into the air, then open the windows to let it out, and keep repeating this until the house's equilibrium value is down to normal.

I did this in an empty production bay in a wooden building, probably

200 - 300 cu m with a solid wooden roof and floor and wooden furniture. I used trays of silica gel, putting the overnight (pink) stuff into the ovens in the mornings, and putting yesterdays now blue lot out for the day. It took a year to get the RH down to normal levels, and I estimated at the time I shifted a ton of water out of the building fabric.

Sweetheart's problem will be similar but of smaller scale - it will take a long time and cost money for heating. The real issue will be getting the house warm, then letting the heat out by opening the windows. If her OH's approach is as she says, this is going to be difficult.

She might try a desiccant type dehumidifier (apparently, almost silent) in the main bedroom, and at least get that room dried out as she spends a large part of the 24 hours there, then move on to the other rooms.

Of course, the other arm of the attack is addressing the source of the damp...but this is where we came in...