After a bit of help here.

Basically I moved into a new flat about a month ago. it’s one of 4 flats within a house. At a guess i’d say circa 1900 build period.

Basically the bedroom if on first floor level to the rear of the property, with 3 walls exposed to the outside. I have noticed that the bedroom is starting to feel quite damp, there is a patch of damp on the wall to the outside, and some mould has started growing not only on the damp, but also in other areas of the room.

The heating is on for roughly 4 hours a day.

One key point, I’m renting. I told the landlord and he is coming around to look on Monday, but i’m still keen to find out what it could be. Any help would be good thanks.

Doh – Wrong section! MODs can you move this topic please!

Could be some sort of infiltration, usually a structural problem. We’ve not had any real bad weather (snow/ice, or driving wind and rain though).

Usually it’s a ventilation issue. Is there good natural ventilation, do you open the windows? Has the property recently had any insulation fitted?

There is a window, which I open in the morning to get some air movement. No idea on insulation though. Landlord said it has never happened before and the previous tenants were in there 5 years.

2 types of damp, water gettign through the walls from the outside (blocked guttering, pourous bricks etc), or moisture not being able to get out of the flat.

If you’re drying clothes, breathing, or taking a shower in the flat then all that water ends up in the air. If it wasn’t damp a month ago but is now then either the gutterings blocked up really quickly (possible, seeing as all the leves were on the tree up untill a few weeks ago), or you’re just not opeing enough windos or turning the heating on long enough to let the warm/moist air in the flat out.

Warm air doesn’t acutlay contain much heat, I vaguely remember proveing to a housemate that it cost about 3.5p to heat an entire house of cold air so opening the windows wide open whilst having a shower or drying clothes to let the moisture out wasn’t going to affect the heating bill noticeably.

If youve got an extractor fan fitted in the kitchen or bathroom leave it running to suck the dmp air out, also have a look at the gutters when its raining to ensure they dont overflow.

The bedroom in my flat is prone to similar issues – only one exterior wall but was getting mould forming in the built in wardrobe, on the exterior wall and behind the chest of drawers. Pretty sure it’s an issue with airflow.

Things I’ve done

.- cleaned away all mouldy bits with bleach. / water mixture
– got a dehumidifier
– crack open the window when I sleep
– regularly open windows in the flat to air it out
– open bathroom windows when I shower

A small dehumidifier might help

our bedroom is the gable end of a block of 19th century flats and get really damp, we realised there was mould growing on and behind all the units against the external walls and they were all soaked with condensation. A cupboard ‘in’ the wall proved to be fur central and all the shoes in it were for the bin. Dehumuidifier works well but it is still mouldy, joys of renting hey!

Warm air doesn’t acutlay contain much heat, I vaguely remember proveing to a housemate that it cost about 3.5p to heat an entire house of cold air so opening the windows wide open whilst having a shower or drying clothes to let the moisture out wasn’t going to affect the heating bill noticeably.

My house is about 380m^3 (fairly small). That’s about 465kg of air. Air has a specific heat capacity of ~1KJ per kg per degree. So to raise a house full of air from ~10 C to 20C takes about 4.65MJ of energy, assuming its fairly dry air. To raise that temp you’d need to be burning a normal 30kw boiler constantly for 2.5 hours, assuming 100% efficiency.

3.5p? No chance. Draughts are a MAJOR source of energy loss in housing.

But all our damp issues have been resolved by dumping air and energy.

I’m going to write that down,then I’llsay it very casually.

welcome to my world

Old houses, eh? Dontcha love ’em?

Just drive or ride around any rural county like Shropshire and you’ll realise that many many people are still living in houses that are Victorian or older. What is that doing for the general health of the population?