Help with dealing with damp in a bedroom

Am after some help trying to clear some damp in the twins’ bedroom, as there’s a patch of mould formed in a corner of the ceiling and on some of the furniture.

Ceiling[/url]

Footstool[/url]

Mould on foam[/url]

Mid-terrace house built towards the beginning of the last century. The bedroom is North facing, and the corner in question is the corner of the house. One side of it doesn’t get any sun (we’re on a hill so the roof of the adjoining house is maybe a foot lower than ours and there’s a strip that doesn’t get any sun at all). The window is double glazed but not fitted with a trickle vent. It’s an emergency escape window, so hinged at the side and bottom. We left it open, hinged at the bottom, for most of the summer despite concerns about security, but it’s shut now because of the cold.

The twins are 18 months old and are sometimes joined by their 3 year old brother who goes in and sleeps on the floor (although he’s back sleeping in his own room at the moment), and generally there’s a lot of condensation on the inside of the window of a morning. The heating in that room isn’t on, as one of the cots is quite close to the radiator and the boys generally sleep better when the room is colder.

Current thoughts are:
1. Clean the mould off using bleach
2. Open the window every morning to air the room
3. Switch the radiator on to circulate the air

My questions are:
1. Could there be another reason that this is happening? Rising damp? Leaking roof? We moved into the house almost 4 years ago. When we moved in there were some patches of damp on some of the walls & ceilings, but we put this down to the previous tenants drying clothes inside and not opening the windows, so cleaned the mould off with bleach and repainted. This is the first problem in this room so far. The loft was converted last year, which included a dormer, but I have a feeling the floor of the bedroom upstairs doesn’t extend right into the corner so there might not be insulation on top of this part of the ceiling.
2. Can trickle vents be retrofitted to existing windows?
3. If not, is there any mileage in changing the window for one with a trickle vent? Expensive, but we don’t really have space to move the boys to another room?
Cheers,

Alex

check above for insulation – it’s likely to be moisture condensing on a cold spot.

You can get dehumidifiers (non-condensing kind) that are very quiet and would solve the problem.

other option is increasing ventialtion, as you say to avoid the air getting too humid.

“check above for insulation – it’s likely to be moisture condensing on a cold spot.”

this is most likely the reason, make sure there is plenty of insulation in the loft over the damp corner as mentioned above. This helped a lot in my situation, together with filling a void in the cavity wall insulation in this area (through an external vent in the wall).

Once you have made sure there isn’t a roof leak, you can also paint the area with watered down PVA glue, then repaint. this stops the damp penetrating the wall and collecting there.

If that all fails you can get heat exchanging extractor fans which run all night at a low level, changing the air, but not losing all the heat….

You’ve likely not got any cavity in that wall, it’s probably 9″ solid brick.
We tried all sorts, in the end we battened the wall with 2x2s filled with insulation and covered with plasterboard

wwaswas – Member
check above for insulation – it’s likely to be moisture condensing on a cold spot.

You can get dehumidifiers (non-condensing kind) that are very quiet and would solve the problem.

other option is increasing ventilation, as you say to avoid the air getting too humid

Pretty much this.

Although to be honest it can be a number of different things – probably best to try each thing if nothing else to rule it out, starting with the cheapest most practical solutions obviously.

The only problem I see with opening the window every morning is that it is kind of closing the gate after the horse has bolted. It is during the night because of the respiration that the humidity will increase so in theory its then that you’d want the windows open, although I appreciate under the circumstances this isn’t really an option.

IMHO in an ideal situation, ventilation is the key – some windows can have retrofit trickle vents but can be dependant on wood/uPVC I think. I would keep the expense of buying a new window with trickle vent as a last resort.

Ultimately might need a surveyor to check it out, as you mention, it could be something like a leaking roof at the eaves/gutter overflowing etc, etc…

Conicidentally, and I am by no means endorsing this product or saying
it will work please do your own research, but we had a CPD at work with these guys yesterday.

In simple terms, it’s one unit that goes in the loft space and deals with the ventilation of the whole house.

Might be worth a look? Known in the industry as Positive Input Ventilation System.

http://www.homeventilation.co.uk/mr-venty-loft.php

EDIT: and obviously all the above that were written whilst I was writing all this shit :-)

Do you have any pictures from the outside?

In no particular order have a look at

Roof
Pointing
Wall/Plaster
Chimney?
Rain gutters
Condensation (is the wall/room cold?)

We are about to have our loft room replastered with insulated plasterboard. You could try the same or maybe just a waterproof plaster.

Young children and damp is not good, and young children and mould is a real health concern.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoCH6JJXgrc&feature=related

re: Known in the industry as Positive Input Ventilation System

The unit takes maximum advantage of the benefits of solar gain from within the loft space – the natural accumulation of heat from the sun on bright days. Temperatures in the loft space are on average 3°C higher than outside, which results in a relative saving of around 150 Watts per day in an average modern family home. This equates to approximately 10% of annual heating costs.

And in winter the attic is considerably colder!

jota80,

What did you go for in terms of insulating material?

Thanks,

Simon.

What did you go for in terms of insulating material?

this

http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/161197

Thanks! Got quote a bit of work to do on our place …. don’t you just love older houses :-)

Loft conversion in progess[/url]

Hopefully a photo of the loft conversion being carried out. It’s now complete. The window underneath the loft window is the room concerned. Somewhere I’ve got some photos of the work in progress saved so will dig them out and see if there’s any photos of that area.

Think it might be worth checking the roof to see if any rain can get in under the tiles. And seeing if there’s any one I can borrow a dehumidifier of to see if that solves it…..

Cheers for all the responses!!

Even if you have insulation you will still have a cold spot on the corner. The north corners are always the coldest parts of a house, hence damp from moisture in the air will gather there.

More ventilation is the answer. Dehumidifier is an overcomplicated response to a simple-ish problem. You should also clean the mould off, as the mould spores can lead to health problems.

My house is a similar construction and we get mould in teh north corners especially in the bathroom where a lot of moisture is generated.

Positive input ventilation is a good approach if ventiliation first doesn’t work, or you can keep the house warm enough when ventilated.