Condensation in first floor bedroom

[Phil2415]

Hi,

This is my first post so hi everyone!

Our master bedroom has suffered from damp since we moved in. The house is brick, built in 1910. The windows in this bedroom are fairly new double glazed units and it's a curved bay. The damp is on the wall of the bay under the window. As far as I can tell it's condensation - in the summer we leave the windows open and it's not nearly so bad. We now have to keep a dehumidifier running 24/7 in the winter. If we don't droplets of water form on the wall below the window. Before we had the dehumidifier the wallpaper got damp, went mouldy and peeled off. The new paper is dryer but is still peeling, maybe because of shrinkage with the dehumidifer running.

Anyway, does this sound like condensation to everyone? I don't know where else the moisture could be coming from. And if so, how do I fix it? Do you put airbricks in first floor rooms? Would this fix the problem? And could I, as a DIY novice, fit one myself?

Hope someone can help. Thank you!

 

[Dawsy]

Hi, I'm also new... So not sure if my advice is sound...
However, I also live in a house made about 1900's
I have had many issues and the building was in a poor state of repair.
I found my best option was to remove the plaster down to the brick and then put new "dot and dab" boards on.
I treated the walls with salt suppressant and some form of clear water barrier paint.
This did not cure the odd damp patch on my new walls...

I have been told to put a air brick in, which I guess as long as you are ok with knocking a few bricks out neatly and mixing the cement should not be a problem.

The new method we have adopted is to tank the internal walls with an SBR/PVA mix,
I'd already done the upstairs so I have not tried it upstairs, however I did my cellar this way which in theory should be much damper than any bedroom and it has fixed the problem.

Hope that may be of some help...

 

[adamjoiner]

do you have a fan which runs with or without the light switch? sometimes an extraction fan can be ran whenever the light is turned on, this can sometimes create black mouldy patches as it absorbs alot of heat from the bathroom, had this problem and since switching it off it has subsided. i would say sometimes allowing air to flow from outside into the bathroom can cause just as many problems like this, especially during winter.

 

[petely]

Hi,

This is my first post so hi everyone!

Our master bedroom has suffered from damp since we moved in. The house is brick, built in 1910. The windows in this bedroom are fairly new double glazed units and it's a curved bay. The damp is on the wall of the bay under the window. As far as I can tell it's condensation - in the summer we leave the windows open and it's not nearly so bad. We now have to keep a dehumidifier running 24/7 in the winter. If we don't droplets of water form on the wall below the window. Before we had the dehumidifier the wallpaper got damp, went mouldy and peeled off. The new paper is dryer but is still peeling, maybe because of shrinkage with the dehumidifer running.

Anyway, does this sound like condensation to everyone? I don't know where else the moisture could be coming from. And if so, how do I fix it? Do you put airbricks in first floor rooms? Would this fix the problem? And could I, as a DIY novice, fit one myself?

Hope someone can help. Thank you!

The easiest thing to do is to leave a window open at night and allow the room to ventilate. Human beings are very wet soggy things and constantly shedding moisture. It sounds to me that you have a natural condenser under the window, the water of which could perhaps be collected an piped out through the wall (window closed!!).