Damp & mould in bedroom

onekeano

Registered User
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I want to treat a problem with damp in a bedroom. I was going to take off the wallpaper and the try to get some kind of sealant of some sort to prevent recurrence of this problem and would appreiciate any suggestions?

Roy
 
If the problem DOES not originate from outside, open the windows every day. Houses are now too well insulated and the follow on from that is mould especially in bedrooms and bathrooms.
 
Mould causes:
Rising damp: not in the upper floors. Has to be fixed with new DPC.
Water penetration, unusual in a new house, check gutters etc.
Condensation, often where the wall meets the ceiling on outside walls. This is usually the problem.
Solution, don't raise the humidity in your house, don't dry clothes on the rads, open window after shower etc.
 
There is a lot of helpful info in this link..

I just had a quick read through it..get it sorted as soon as you can
It can be harmfull to your health as well as your home.
Good luck with it.
 
If the problem DOES not originate from outside, open the windows every day. Houses are now too well insulated and the follow on from that is mould especially in bedrooms and bathrooms.

As NHG says the problem is our houses are too airtight we need to open doors and windows.
 
don't dry clothes on the rads, open window after shower etc.

These are classics. Common sense usually informs many people to open windows but most of us are guilty of the clothes on rads, especially wet towels.
 
mould forms with hot moist air contacting with cold walls,this is usually an outer wall.you need to reduce the hot damp air ie from showers and get an air flow,extraction fans air vents,open windows,fit a draft excluder on the bathroom door,keep the bathroom door shut and leave the fan running till all the steam is sucked out.worked for me.
 
you've stated the bare problem but given no context, details or background.

Here are some queries you need to consider if you wish to get relevant advice.


  1. How old is the house - year of completion?
  2. Are there any cracks on the external walls or render?
  3. Is the sealing around the opes complete, with no cracked sills, etc?
  4. Is there evidence of gutter or parapet blockage or pipe leakage internally?
  5. What kind of construction is used - cavity or solid wall, hollow block rendered or timber frame with outer leaf?
  6. How is the room used - highly used [how many occupants] with the windows never open, kept closed and unheated all the time with no window open to air the room?
  7. Is there an en-suite directly off the room?
  8. Where is the bathroom in relation to it and how frequently is this used - once or many times a day.
  9. Is the house is less new, is it vented mechanically with 5min overrun, 15min overrun, or more rapidly vented using a window?
  10. If the house is new and its sealed, is it mechanically vented using an MHVR system - if so when were the filters last changed?
  11. If there is an MHVR system who commissioned it and were they competent to do so including balancing flue lengths and sizes?
In general, where damp occurs on the inside face of the wall, its coming from inside as condensation or outside as water ingress. Usually condensation occurs on a surface that is colder than the rest of the house, or in an area of high relative humidity, so unventilated stairs landings or bathrooms are the likely areas even in poorly ventilated older properties.
Where damp occurs in bedrooms, one or all of the following factors may arise; -

  • poor ventilation for the use [permavents sealed, rooms never aired properly]
  • high incidence of water vapour in the air [this can arise from overcrowding, paticularly of adults]
  • poor bathroom regime [poor venting including leaving door open to allow moist air to circulate to relatively colder areas]
  • local missing insulation where walls are studded out
  • local water ingress from gutter blockage/breakage or parapet detail failure.
In extreme cases opening up may be needed to trace the cause, which can occassionally be caused by a hairline crack in a render at high level on an exposed surface allowing water to get behind it and down, where the easiest way out if into the room, as opposed to through the waterproof render.
Similarly you can sometimes get a weep from a heating pipe near the joint which allows moisture to build up locally in even well insulated houses, reducing the effectiveness of the insulation, and causing a cold bridge and attracting air-borner moisture.

This isn't an exhaustive review of the causes, but you get the gist: it can be a locla porblem easily identified, or a problem of use where an overview of living patterns and ventilation routes is required.
Don't simply assume that re-rendering outside and adding a layer of dry lining insude will deal with the problem. This can create a space in which even more moisture will gather over time, called interstitional moisture, and this can be even harder to deal with if it migrates to another location in the house.

Seek professional advice.

ONQ.

[broken link removed]
 
WOW - thank you all very much indeed for the help, I have plenty to be going on with here and hopefully 1 or more of the suggestions with help me to solve this problem.

Many thanks
Roy
 
Just as a matter of interest I see to recall years ago that you could get rolls of some material (think it might have beeen styrofoam or polystyrene... or something like that) that you could put on the wall before putting wallpaper on.

Would anybody remember what this was called or whether it's still possible to get it?

Roy
 
Would anybody remember what this was called or whether it's still possible to get it?

Roy

Tried it many moons ago. No use whatsoever. It makes redecorating a lot harder also as its a pain to remove. Had the box room dry lined and it sorted the problem. Many of our neighbours had the same problem/solution.
 
All dry lining tends to do is move the visible problem behind the dry lining.
You end up with a concealed source of damp and fungal spores in a confined area within the building which its impossible to monitor or clean.
Its worse still if you use insulated dry lining, because you're making the affected surface even colder, but for some people its "out of sight, out of mind".

FWIW

ONQ.
 
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