Hi all,

I’m after some advice and guidance on my condensation nightmare as I’m starting to worry it might make my kids ill. We live in a 3 bedroom house, 2 kids in one room and two adults in another with the spare free. Every morning we wake up to condensation on all the windows, including the spare room. This condensation totally covers the entire window and leaks onto the windowsill. I have done a bit of reading and tried the following:

Leaving the heating on a constant temperature all night
Leaving the heating off
Putting the radiators on a low/medium/high setting
Leaving the smaller windows ajar all night
Buying a dehumidifier and using it before we go to bed
Leaving the bathroom door closed when having baths/showers. We then leave the window open to clear the bathroom
Leaving all doors open on bedrooms to better ventilation

I have also tried pretty much every possible combination of the above with no results.

I’ve been at this for 3 years now and I’m a beaten man. I walk up and down my street as all the houses and windows are similar and we are the only ones with the issue.

Has anyone got a idea for a new direction on this task?

I appreciate your help

Thanks

do you dry clothes on the radiator?

whats it like in the loft? is there any ventilation in the loft? just a thought

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

I should have mentioend in the post that I have double glazing throughout... if that helps?

no I dont dry clothes on the radiator

The loft is cold at the mo, as for ventilation... not sure. Do you mean a ventilation appliance.. like a fan?

Ta

do you have vents in the soffits and are all of the airbricks free from blockages?

_________________
- Dave
http://www.pamperhouse.net
http://www.invertedcircle.co.uk

if you have for example insulation layed thick and blocking off ventilation for the eaves it could cause this problem id think.

and as above air bricks aswell.

may well be that you find say the insulation soaking wet aswell

This is great stuff.. thanks.

So to check this I guess I need to rip up the flooring in the loft and check if its wet...

Stupid questions coming up... How will I check if its blocking ventilation in the eaves? And how will I know if its too thick?

Not sure about vents in the soffits. Would this be visible from the outside fo the house? Also to check the airbrick blockages... do I just check from the outside of the house?

Cheers

yup should be visible from the outside

_________________
- Dave
http://www.pamperhouse.net
http://www.invertedcircle.co.uk

Cheers... ill check ASAP.

Its raining at the mo... your not going to send me out now are you? ha!

well I'm not going!!

_________________
- Dave
http://www.pamperhouse.net
http://www.invertedcircle.co.uk

Have you just tried leaving it on all the time? Obviously at night people are breathing so there is going to be lots of water expelled there.

My brother got one recently for the same problem - it's on 24/7. First week it was taking 9 litres a day - now it's that every week. They live in a new build (3 years old), trickle vents in windows, dry clothes in a condensor dryer, extractor fans in kitchens/bathrooms.

They also said it feels much warmer too, as the moisture has gone from the rooms.

BG

You have to go back to basics to find the cause of moisture in the air. Condensation is moisture from the air condensing on the coldest surface in a room, in this case your windows. You really need to find the source of the moisture in the air. Just breathing will emit moisture into the air so it is a god idea to leave the bedroom doors ajar to allow air to circulate.

If you cook by gas this will also add moisture to the air as well as any steaming pans etc. Bathroom steam from baths and showers needs to vented outside and the door closed. Remember the drying towels will give off moisture too. Home laundry is also another source of moisture with non vented washer dryers
or tumble dryers kicking out loads of condensation. I think leaving heating on a low setting helps to keep an ambient temperature over the house to prevent sudden temperature changes and the internal walls heat up steadily which helps with this too.

So, you need to eliminate all sources of moisture first but you will not probably get rid of the window condensation entirely if the air gap in the double glazed window panel is not wide enough to keep the inner pane warm. Use a squeegee to wipe the windows down each morning and use a sponge and a pot to mop it up and pour it away.

DWD

We get it because of all of the above, bathroom with poor ventilation, towels drying, cooking, breathing etc etc. But as dewaltdisney said, we found that leaving the heating on a low setting helped us, closing bathroom door/keeping window open fully during showers and after, leaving windows/bedroom doors open etc. It has not gone completely but it is better.

_________________
Nick

If UHM's helped then please check out UHM's Nominated charity - http://www.donnasdreamhouse.co.uk/

Soffits... no vents that I can see
airbricks... opps I could have answered this without going outside and im guessing this could be a problem. My house is covered in render... I think that is what is it called??

Just an outside chance but was the property flooded (or almost flooded) in the storms of 2007? Might you be suffering the effects of unknown secondary flooding?

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