Wonder if anyone can help me with this. I've a little 1 bed bungalow with double glazing throughout, usual white plastic windows. Thing is its abosolutelss p1ss wet through, I can't stop the condensation on the windows. I'm not a cold person so I don't generally have the heating on a lot I just tend to flash it on for about 15 - 30 minutes at a time but the warm air seems to make the windows worse. Every morning I'm having to squeegee them off, its seems to be on the frames as well and the front door handle and lock are slowly seizing. I thought maybe its because there's not much air moving so I've tried leaving the b edroom and bathroom windows ajar but its no help. I'm getting a dehumidifier for christmas but just wondered if anyone else had/has this. Its my first house and its so bad that stuffs getting mouldy and rotting away.

Ventilation is usually the first thing to get right - you have to maintain a certain amount of fresh air to keep the humidity down. It's the humans breathing out that cause most of it!

Modern building regs require all double-glazing units to have a little vent somewhere.

David

Is the double glazing sealed ok ? In between the glass that is ?

Ventilation is the key oh and living in Lancashire wont help ?

Got the same probs on a bungalow that's well heated. We get condensation and mildew in the corners of rooms.

Half effective fix was to run 22mm pipes from the rads under the windows, to the corner and around, then back to the rads.

This seemd to warm the corners enough to keep some ventilation and air movement going to keep things at bay.

Merry Christmas,
Cheers,
Syd.

[Edited on 24/12/06 by Syd Bridge]

The actual glass cavity is fine and hasn't failed. The thing about vents in the windows only applies to regs. in Scotland I believe. Have fit a few windows in the past and lived in Scotland for 6 years. You're right about the Lancs. thing. All the houses are the same around here and no one has vents anywhere. Might have to knock some in. In the walls or in the ceiling and into the attic? Any tips?

Agree with the above - ventilation and heat is the answer.

Does your bathroom have an extractor? steam from showers etc has to be expelled too.

A human breathes out about 1 litre of water during the night whilst asleep I've been told - it has to go somewhere.

Cheers

Mark

do you have trickle vents at the top of the windows?

windows do need trickle vents

http://www.partf.co.uk/faq/faq2.htm

even though this says 2006 still applied for last couple of years..

http://www.partf.co.uk/pdf/keyfacts_manu.pdf

[Edited on 24/12/06 by Aboardman]

No vents on the windows anywhere. House was built about 1984 though. Bathroom does have an extractor which I uprated but is no match really. I have the door and window open too while I'm in the shower (have to be careful as all the street can see my arse!) but the ceiling is full of mould and the artex is steaming itself off. Which ain't a bad thing as it'll be coming off as soon as I get around to it. I'm loath to leave the heating on as like I say it seems to do worse and I ain't that cold.

Trying to reduce the humidity at source will also help - drying clothes indoors over radiators is one of the biggest culprits. In the winter I dry washing in a heated drying cupboard fitted with an extractor to get round this problem. Also if you have any cold water storage tanks in the living area (ie. in airing cupboard) make sure it's fitted with a cover to reduce the evaporation.

Does sound like you need to keep it a bit warmer though...

what heating do you use? Central heating via radiators shouldnt produce any moisture in the house - the exhaust all goes out the flue. The rads would help to keep the moisture airborne. Obviously if you principle source of heat is the gas hob, things will get a triffle wet! Do you have an extractor in the kitchen? Might help.

The key is to minimise the moisture in the air, and to avoid it settling. Is your loft insulated? Keeping the house insulated will make it easier to leave the windows open, ie not noticably cold!

As said, clothes on radiators are a bad start, a tumble drier properly ducked outside would be a good start if you dont have one.

[Edited on 24/12/06 by JoelP]

I had a similar problem partially because I live in a basement flat....

Trickle vents as previously mentioned are pretty important.

If the flat has been uninhabited for a while it could just be cold and damp and requires a good blast with CH perhaps combined with temporary use of a dehumidifier...

If you're still getting loads of condensation I'd worry about damp-proofing... but that should have shown up on a survey...

Hope you get it sorted- I know from personal experience how miserable damp condensed windows are- in my case cos the tanking is shot!!!

you say you dont normally have the heating on just flash it for 15-20 min utes, this may be a large contributor to the problem, you would be better off having the heating on all day at a much lower setting, this would allow the whole house to warm up, buy just using the heating every so often you only heat the air in the house not the fabric of it.
Mac

Thats my internet just back working since my last post, 4 1/4 hours! Yeah I have a combi boiler, don't generally dry my clothes on the rads as it nicks all the heat from them but I do dry them indoors, only on a Sunday though. Upgraded loft insulation in September, massive now. I think you're maybe right about the background heat as oppose to 'spikes', Zilspeed and I should be getting a dehumidifier tomorrow. I don't have the heating on at night though, I like it cold in the bedroom and I have the window wide open, but thats when I seem to get most of the moisture, overnight. Even the bedroom window thats been open! I think I'll give the background heat thing a try, it'll cost a fortune this, but cheaper than repairing everything I suppose. Ta all.

Thats a fortune to me! For gas it was only £3 a month over Summer, £10 October, £40 November(?) and £25 December. Leccy's quite cheap, about tenner a month, if that, over Winter. S'only a small house and only me in it.

I had the same problem with condensation, usually in corners of front and back rooms (old victoriam house 9" solid walls) i put a vent in the front and back of the house and cured it.

Deffinatly an air flow problem

Is the boiler flue clear and working properly ? Condensation could be water from combustion ---

I tend to agree wit the main points above:

1 Increase airflow through the house. Trickle vents are a help but may not be sufficient. Make sure that any air bricks to the under floor area are clear, if there aren't any put some in! If you have a fully carpeted house put some vents in directly below radiators to the underfloor area, this will allow some air into the house under the radiators so the air will be heated as it comes into the room.

Getting air out again is best done at high level unless you have any chimneys that you can un block to allow natural chimney effect. Otherwise you can put some grills in the ceiling to the loft space and grills in the eaves , that keeps the air flow in the loft space again a good idea to discourage dampness and rot in the roof.

A high tech solution is to buy a heat exchanger ventilation unit that goes in the roof space not cheap but uses outgoing air to heat incoming air. It would be possible to build your own locost style with some computer fans and some tube!

2 Heating! central heating should run as near constantly as possible. The aim should be to get the building to a steady temperature and keep the air warm and at a steady humidity.

Heating and cooling the air causes the air to pick up humidity and deposit it on any convenient cold surface. This is a serious problem and the main cause of condensation. Trying to dry the building out without resolving the core problems of maintaining a steady temperature and humidity will be a very short term.
In terms of energy costs the best thing is to set your heating to a very low level during the day and night and bring it up to a comfortable temperature morning and evening. Keep this as low as reasonable 19°C is usually OK, less if you can persuade everyone to wear another layer around the house. You should find that costs do not get too high, switching your system on and off like you do now is the most waste full and inefficient way to run it! You are also stressing the system and are likely to have problems with boiler corrosion, pump and valve problems etc.

You may want to look at your timer and get one with multiple settings and just let it do all the work!

Hope this helps

Caber

Ventilation is the key though I suspect the very fabric of the building is too cold as well. In the caravan we used to keep a few saucers of salt lying to soak up any moisture, it's worth a try. I'd go the dehumidifier route if your not willing to up the heating bill.

No air bricks, no trickle vents either. Thanks for all the feedback though, didn't realise keep starting th'heating up and switchig off was making it worse and costing more! All very much appreciated, like I say its me first house and I'm not used to having to run one. Thanks all and have a good day, I'm off to get my angle grinder out now, that'll annoy the neighbours

Got the heating running in the background and the new dehumidifier. Working an absolute treat. Cheers everyone for the tips.