Would underfloor heating prevent damp?

[peeveddoesntcoverit]

I understand I'd probably need someone professional to answer this question, but wondering if anyone has knowledge of whether underfloor heating might prevent damp/mustiness?

Basically, our kitchen is an L-shape, north facing, and there's a radiator on one of the sections of the 'L'. However, the other section has no heating and I've recently noticed a musty smell and little spots of mould/damp in the cupboards at that end of the room. It probably doesn't help that the washing machine is at that end as well, and is probably causing condensation.

There's no way of heating that section of the room with a radiator, so I'm wondering if underfloor heating might help to at least keep it dry?

damp is caused by water, heating does not remove water, it just makes it warmer. Keeping the fabric of the house warm will slightly reduce condensation on the walls, instead it will occur on the windows. The (large amount of) money you could spend on underfloor heating would be more effective if you spent it on reducing the amount of water vapour in the room.

you can remove the water vapour by ventilation, or you can add less.

how is this room ventilated?

A modern washing machine does not steam, like an old twintub with the lid off. But have you got any major sources of water, like a leaking pipe? Or, worse, does anyone drape wet washing around?

Thank you!
We've got an extractor fan, that's on all the time, and we open the back door to get a flow of air through when we can. Definitely no leaking pipes, and no drying laundry in that room either.

Maybe invest in a dehumidifier for that part of the room?

is it an old house with solid 9" walls?

what's the floor made of?

it is possible to insulate the walls, usually internally, but if the outside has some sort of cladding to conceal it, can be outside.

Extractor fans actually work better with doors and windows shut, so they can create suction. Sometimes, depending on position, they can suck the fresh air from the window and blow it straight out, short-circuiting the air in the room. This is more often a problem in bathrooms.

if the condensation is inside or behind wall cabinets, this is very common because the cabinet will prevent the wall getting any heat from the room, but it is not air-tight, so damp room air can get in. This is very common with built-in wardrobes.

A reasonably economical approach would be to take the cabinets off, and put rigid insulation slabs on the wall, such as celotex. If the cabinets have a fixed back to conceal it, you would not need the plasterboard faced version, but it should be foil-backed. It is better than the cheap polystyrene board s you may see (which are also flammable).

A better approach would be to take the plaster off the whole wall, and either dryline with battens, mineral wool and plasterboard, or fix the plasterboard/foam insulation slabs direct to the brick and plaster over. 25mm is the minimum but 50mm would be better. Rigid slabs have better insulation than mineral wool so can be thinner, so my preferre3d option. An experienced and well-recommended local plasterer should be familiar with either method. He might not want the effort and dust of stripping off the old plaster, but it will add to the thickness of the wall and might harbour damp, so I would prefer it off. You could do it as part of a comprehensive redec of the room.

Insulating only part of the wall gives a risk that air might get behind the cladding and condense on the wall behind, which is very undesirable.

You can apply insulation to the outside of the wall, but this needs rendering or cladding so is rather expensive.

p.s.

I'm not keen on heating walls, and electricity is more expensive than gas, but you could possibly try a tubular heater which is very low powered. The longer ones are more powerful. I use one in my garage to protect the incoming water pipes from risk of frost. AFAIK they never have integral thermostats or timers, but you could get a plug-in one if you think its helpful.

The 60W one shown above would run for 16 hours on 1kWh of electricity costing about 12p

You're all fantastic, thank you so much! I'll probably get someone in spring to look at getting the panels put on the walls. In the meantime, I'll maybe just try opening the cupboard doors more. TBH, we don't use those cupboards that often so I'll try to ventilate them more naturally and see if that solves the problem. The house was built in 1906, so it is quite old.
Thanks again.

you could take the doors off their hinges, might look neater.

A 1906 house almost certainly has 9" solid walls, unless it is a back addition with 4" walls. Both will be very cold.