Hi,

My back bedroom suffers badly from condensation when people are sleeping in there, to the point at which it runs down the walls. The walls are cavity non insulated and always feel cold. I’m having double glazing put and have put a substantial amount of insulation in the roof above the bedroom. The room isnt that big so dont want to dry line, kinspan etc as i feel it would encroach into the room to much. I have seen insulating lining paper which can then be painted or lined on top. Has anyone used this product? As it is made of polystyrene, i am wondiering how ‘hard’ the wall is afterwards and whether it actually works?

http://www.gowallpaper.co.uk/product/Graphite_Insulating_Lining_Paper_Single_Insulating-Graphite

Why not get the cavity insulated? Improves the whole house without losing floor space.

Grants are available.

I’m very cautious about cavity insulation due to all the horror stories i have heard.I also dont think my walls are suitable

Insulating paper will make a trivial difference. Get the cavities filled.

The horror stories tend to be about older types of insulation. Why not ask an expert to survey and see? Far better potential answer than a wafer thin sliver of foam that won’t do much at all.

I had an old bungalow done a while back now. A lot of racket when they drill the walls ready to blow in the insulation. Make sure no valuables up on shelves etc and they may end up on the floor. Made a noticeable difference so well worth it even without the grant. As has been said the newer insulation doe not have the damp issues of the old stuff.

Insufficient ventilation can also be a contributing factor to codensation/mould growth.

I’d look at ventilation too – if the air is too humid then it will always find a cold surface to condense on. You’ll just end up with wet windows.

Dehumidifier. Can’t be without one in our victorian conversion after mid October (mostly due to single glazing rather than wet walls, but still…). That and what wwaswas says about ventilation.

I’ve used inside built in wardrobes which suffered this problem and it works very well. However on walls I think it’s very likely to look very tatty very quickly as it doesn’t take very much pressure to dent it.

I’m not a fan of insulating cavities. Many moons back I was working at a house which had just been built, insulation block inner skin, filled cavity ( fibreglass in those days ) and concrete block outer skin. The roof was on and complete, windows in and heating had just been comissioned. The outer block skin was due to be rendered the following week. We had high wind and torrential rain day I was there and withinn 3 hours of the rain starting, water which was being driven at the unrendered blockwork, was being literally “sucked” through the blocks, the insulation and began running down the unplastered inner skin.

In this case, is the room heated ? I reckon it doesn’t vent well enough.
Poor mans dehumidifier is to place a pot of salt on the window cill, say a margarine tub, half filled with salt and the lid put back on with a load of holes punched in it, you’ll need to change it often, but watch just how fast that salt absorbs the moisture.

I’m not a fan of insulating cavities.

Just about every house built in the last 20 years has a filled cavity. I’m not aware of any widespread problem with damp.

Yeah I know !
Council want to do ours for free and my missus keeps nagging me not to argue with them and get it done 🙄 😉