Help me with my cold damp house!

[Decafflatteplease]

I think I'm doing everything I can but if anyone has any more ideas that would be great!
The joys of a period house!

Large beautiful but draughty 1800s house, cold and damp but lovely and cool in the summer 😂

We have patches of black mould appearing so I keep wiping them but when I lifted the wallpaper it's actually in the walls.

At the moment we have the heating on for approx 1 hour in the morning and 2 hours in the evening. We have 2 dehumidifiers one upstairs one downstairs and these run for around 8 hours a day. One bedroom radiator doesn't work so we are using a fan heater in there. We did try an oil radiator but it wasn't effective in a large room.

The temperature usually hovers anywhere between 13 with no heating and 16 with heating on. Tn moisture is usually around 80, we can sometimes get it down to around 65.

The windows are covered in condensation each morning, I'm sat here and I literally can't see out of them. Will get the window vac on them in a bit

We do all the usual things like opening the windows in the morning. In fact one window doesn't close properly but can afford to get it replaced. Keep lids on pans, open bathroom window after a shower etc.

Is there anything obvious I'm missing or is this just life in a old house?

We own it if that's makes a difference so it's all our responsibility.

Maybe I need the heating on more but it's 💰💰💰.

Yeah I think sadly you may be right but it's so expensive 😞 I'm also at home on by own all day when DC at school and dh at work so feels a waste heating the whole house for little me!

Double glazing period homes can be counterproductive as they were designed to breathe and hermetically sealing them can cause damp problems.

In our old Georgian home we had single glazing and no problems at all. Whereas our neighbours with double glazed windows had terrible damp.

You're not heating the house for you, you are heating it to look after the house.

Do you have fires? I’ve heard that older houses are designed to be dried out by the heat of an open fire. It might be worth trying?

Otherwise, I think you will need to run the heating / dehumidifiers more and maybe check whether you need a more powerful dehumidifier - some are only designed for very small rooms.

I know you say you have dehumidifiers already, but a pp has a point. Some dehumidifiers depend on it being above a certain temp- below that they don't work efficiently or at all.
The best is a desiccant one. I have the eco air one. They are more expensive to run, but work down to 5degrees and have the benefit of pumping out warm air.

Is it in part due to lack of ventilation?

Our 1860 house is terraced so has the benefit of neighbours but it’s quite draughty and we don’t have issues with condensation. We haven’t had our heating on yet but do use a log burner.

Just re read and seen it is draughty, sorry.

@BananaHamster Can you buy a gutter hedgehog? It's like a giant bottle brush. You clean the gutters then put this in. It stops the accumulation of leaves & debris but still allows water to drain away.
This one is from Costco.

Do you have blackout curtains? They may help keep in the heat when the heating is on.
Also consider running the dehumidifiers 24/7 (except when the windows are open) and moving them from room to room. You should be aiming for 50-60% humidity. Humidity and temperature monitors can help you see where the issues are.

I feel your pain. Our house is 1800s on the outside but modern inside including a double height/open plan bit. It gets very cold and damp. My DH and I are locked in a bit of a battle about heating but I think that, plus dehumidifiers in the worst rooms, is really the only solution without doing serious remedial work inside.

I lived in an old house and it was damp if the temperature dropped below 17. I would keep the heating on all the time with the radiators on low. Every evening once the sun went down I would close all the curtains to keep the heat in, every morning wipe off condensation. They say that closing the curtains in the evening is as good as having double glazing.

I read that to refresh the air inside a house you should open the windows wide for 10 minutes a day any longer will just make it cold and damp.

@otherwayup its a 50/50 mix. I buy large bottles of white vinegar from amazon

“A builder friend said the damp is seeping through the window ledges they are sandstone and we are on the coats so wind and rain comes in right off the sea.”

We’re in a similar property and location OP. And we had to fix a crack in a window ledge to fix a localised damp problem. I also add the insulating film to our (single glazed) windows at this time of year - like a PP mentioned. I was surprised at what a difference this made to the whole house. No more icy wind straight off the sea whipping through the glass!

We’re over 3 floors but I have the hall radiator on all day 6am-10pm in the winter and we haven’t had any more damp issues in the last couple of years.

How long have you lived there?

We moved into an old, old house that had been empty for many years. But it was pretty small.

We moved our furniture in and the next day by bottom felt damp from sitting on the settee. Our ‘dry’ soft furnishings has absorbed all the damp in the air.

A friend who was a Conversation Architect advised gentle heating and constant ventilation. Luckily for us it was summer.

I remember going to scrape some peeling plaint off a wall and the plaster just dropped off back to bare brick. We ended tanking that room (it’s like a sticky black paste you paint on to keep the damp out)

Honestly - it needs heat. Do you have fireplaces?

Fellow owner of an 1860s detached with high ceilings. We have two fireplaces in both front rooms and it's the best way to heat in without bankruptcy. We have woodburners and they are very effective.

These houses were designed to have fires as heating.

I live in an old victorian terrace that gets damp if we let it, built around 1850. The damp wet summer followed by a really humid warm September didnt help! After about 7 years here, I have worked out what works for us.

Heating on- even in the summer, if the internal temperature drops below 18, we will get damp. Summer months (heatwave excepted!) We have the heating on for 1 hour in the morning and 1 in the evening.

During the winter, the heating is easily on at least 9 hours a day, sometimes more. About 3 hours at 7am, 3 hours around 2pm, and then 3 hours at 8pm again. We keep the internal temperature around 21-22 in the hottest room, the coldest room is then around 18 degrees.

Windows open for a couple of hours when the heating is off, every day, except the coldest winter days.

We run the dehumidifier overnight in the most damp room Of the house- we have one, that I will carry from room to room as needed.

I never dry clothes on radiators- theyre all tumble dried, aside from delicates which are draped on an airer in the bathroom while the dehumidifier runs in there.

Whenever anyone has a shower, we dehumidify immediately after with the machine.

I set my dehumidifier to 45 or 50, any higher and the moisture in the air condenses on the walls.

Ideally, we would strip the walls and go back to lime plaster and breathable materials which would fix a lot of the problems but our house is not worth that much effort or expense! We live in a cheap part of the UK where victorian terraces are 10 a penny.

Tl:dr- heating on a LOT, keep the whole house warm, no clothes on radiators, and dehumidifier on for 12 hours a day, most days of the year, and open the windows for a couple of hours a day.

vacuum the water from the windows every morning, if not it only disappears as it enters the room.
Openign the windows in all rooms and blasting it for 10mins every morning is really good as it helps remove moisture even if damp outside.
Then heating on is your friend. And run the dehumidifiers for longer. If a room is a problem stick them both in there and really go for it for a couple of days to try and tackle the mould. But you might need some advice about the walls and window frames. Or there are smoke bombs for mould/get it treated before it makes you ill. In the US they would think what we live with in the U.K. is criminal. Any mould there and you move out and treat and tent your house as they know how it can make you sick. Properly sick.

@DinosaurOfFire’s advice about the amount you need the heating on is good.
Heating is expensive, but it’s not as high as it was and if it’s the choice between a takeaway or more heat you’re going to have to choose heat if you can.

The heating is also more expensive for the first hour or 2 but once it has been trundling along not so much.

It's why a quick wash uses more energy than a long one. I'd leave the heating on.

We still have some damp but installing central heating makes it feel warmer and less damp. Maybe you could just turn a radiator on and off at various times in different rooms?

@Thatwouldbeme we're just about to fit one. My only concern is that the vent that sits in the ceiling looks quite large. Where did you put yours?
And has it made your house colder?

Bowls or rock salt and/or bicarbonate of soda put on window sills or near damp walls are said to absorb the moisture. I have bought scented perforated plastic boxes of something like this in UAE from Carrefour Supermarket - they lasted about 6 weeks after that time the box was full of water.

Have a log burner installed.

You can have secondary glazing over the stained glass windows. Which will help.

Speak to your neighbours - they may have solutions.

@summerlovingvibes I live in a bungalow with a large square hallway, the vent is in the ceiling there. You don't notice it to be honest. Husbands say you put it in the most centeral location of the house. We only need ours on low and can't feel any change in temperature, we now don't have any condensation on the windows which used to be terrible and the bathroom dries out much quicker. Ours is one that blows warm air but have never used that function.

Start to light a fire in the rooms downstairs. It won’t sort out the damp but it will make the house more comfortable during the day. Use slack to keep the fire lit but not burning?

We've had a damp specialist around this week for all the reasons you're saying. We're doing most things right. He said having plants is areas help, also having the bathroom window closed when showering with the ceiling fan on but opening as soon as you get out rather than being on while showering and the same in the kitchen when cooking. He suggested having the heating on for a short period during the day as this helps the temperature drop for long periods which can add to damp issues.