Diagnosis needed - Damp on upstairs bedroom ceiling

[gobrun]

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Hello,

We have a damp issue on our upstairs master bedroom ceiling. As per the images the damp manifests on the ceiling next to the external wall at the rear of the property. The double glazing is a couple of years old but we had the problem before the windows were fitted. The coving also gets damp and cold to the touch. It is worse in the mornings (room occupied by myself and my wife), especially in winter. Presumably our breathing puts more moisture in the atmosphere and this then condenses against the cold ceiling by the external wall.

There is a loft space above our bedroom with heavy insulation (unknown age/type but its very thick). The insulation was pushed right to the edge of the roof above where the damp appears up until spring this year. We moved the insulation away from the edge earlier this year as an experiment to see if ventilation is part of the issue. As far as I can tell its probably worse now with the insulation pulled away so I intend to move it back again.

I've also included a photo of the soffits immediately outside our bedroom window. Note there is no ventilation installed in these, but we believe it's just solid wood underneath the pvc soffits. Should these have vents installed in to the roof space?

We have tried to get a trade out to have a look, but after agreeing to come out on the telephone, they didn't show up. We should have persisted but you know how it is.

1. Has anyone seen a similar issue before?
2. Any recommendations on tackling/treating it?
3. The insulation?
4. What sort of trade is best if we do need professional help?

Any help is much appreciated.

Many thanks

[Duck_Tape]

Hi
I am no expert but damp is usually followed by black mold.
Are you seeing any mold on the painted surface or anywhere at all?


Just trying to get an understanding of the issue
DuckTape

Also do you have a bathroom fan that vents into the loft space?

[London mike 61]

If you don’t usually have a problem during the summer months ( and we have had a fair bit of rain since the hot weather) then I reckon it’s condensation.
I would highly recommend buying a dehumidifier to remove moisture from the room, you only need to run it for about 1 hour each day ( you might need to run it a bit longer for the first few days to get the majority of the moisture out ) preferably in the morning but it can be done later if you are at work.
Once dry the ceiling can be painted, I normally use a acrylic or oil based undercoat then emulsion as normal and have never had any bleed through but other folk on here may have used a zinsser product that is more efficient.

Mike

[gobrun]

Hi both,

Thanks for your replies.

Yes, mould has developed where you can see the wet patches in the photos. We try to stay on top of it with anti fungal spray and a soft cloth, but the paint doesn’t take too kindly to this.

It is definitely worse in the winter so we had more or less ruled out a leak. Having said our roof probably does need looking at as it is not in the best condition.

I should have mentioned, we do have a dehumidifier and we do try to run it most days at this time of year. It definitely helps over the course of the day, but the wet patches are back with a vengeance each morning.

As it’s an ongoing issue we’re not really able to repaint it. Perhaps if we moved in to our spare room for a couple of weeks whilst it dries out...

[wes56]

24/7 trickle ventilation and trickle heating help 6 out of 10.
maybe putting back the insulation to cover both wall skins and the cavity will help but dont go pushing the insulation down over the soffit.
does the loft feel like its got a natural ventilation?

[pug205]

Lol and we thought we were the only ones! We are in a bungalow that has shown this black mould just below the coving. It was all cleaned off and repainted just a month ago and I made sure there's plenty of ventilation from outside in through the soffit vent and up into the loft. I'm hoping someone can prescribe the solution?

[markmh]

hi

ive been having the same issue within my bungalow - significant condensation - dripping off the ceiling

see this thread ceiling-condensation-patterns-t96076.html

i spent alot of time reading about condensation. we have tried to remove the source of warm air - drying stuff on bedroom radiator, always using the extraction fan in kitchen cooking, opening bathroom window when having shower, stopping my wife having showers just before bed. we got a extraction fan being fitting in the bathroom in the next few weeks. also ive used a couple of unibond aero 360s.

having done this i then looked at the roof. the insulation was good. i had large gaps the tiles where they have a ridge, my guess was this was letting in cold air which was cooling the ceiling then when warm air was rising it was condensing, so i filled gaps with polystyrene board and thats pretty much stopped it.

final thing i did was to make sure the heating was turned on on cold nights, generally as im tight i would put a jumper on however turning the heating up along with the other measures has stopped the condensation.

hope this helps

mark