How to Stop Damp Mould & Condensation - a COMPLETE Guide

Comments · 2K

• BO

  @bobbobson4069 · 2 years ago

  This is by far the most comprehensive "documentary" on the phenomenon of damp/mould and how to reduce it. I really appreciate the astonishing amount of work that has clearly gone into the making of it. The science and home experiments are fascinating. I can honestly say that I really understand the whole phenomenon much better now. Well done! I have of course liked and subscribed as a result! (Marius Gudonis, originally from northwest London, but now working in Warsaw)

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• SL

  @SloopyDog · 3 years ago

  I was born in 1947 we lived in a council house with a coal fire.  We never had any damp or mould problems.  We had an oven in the kitchen linked to the coal fire.  My mother often dried clothes on a clothes horse put in front of the oven, and still no damp problems.  We didn't have radiators all we had was a back boiler behind the fire to heat the water.  Coal fires allowed the house to breathe.  Later on, the council fitted a gas boiler and radiators.  That's when the problems started, we started getting damp problems, the windows were always damp on the inside.   Many years later I had a Housing Association bungalow, due to my health problems.    The Housing Association in their great wisdom decided to insulate the loft to the current standard.  A damp-proofing firm filled the cavity walls with insulation( pumped in).  That was when the bungalow started getting damp problems.  Mould started to appear on every wall.  It became a constant battle to keep the walls mould-free.  The windows were always streaming with water.  My wife and I are in our late seventies and in very poor health, I try to keep windows open as much as possible, all the time in summer.  We are causing more problems by having our homes over-insulated.  The house needs to breathe.  Cavity walls were designed to do just that.  There is no great mystery as to why people have damp problems.  Many people can not afford to heat their homes as due to an incompetent government fuel prices have gone through the roof.  People on minimum wages and pensioners on a single basic pension, like myself are struggling to live.  In this country, the rich get rich and the poor are forgotten about.  The basic pension starts at £130, you don't get far on that.  I would like to see if the Prime Minister or our overpaid MPs could survive on what I have to live on.  THERE IS NO WAY THEY COULD.

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• MA

  @markbriggs729 · 6 years ago

  Another +1 for PIV. I Moved into an early 1900&apos;s bungalow in Essex a few years ago and humidity levels were getting up into the 80&apos;s through the first winter. At one point water was streaming from the single glazed windows, down onto the windowsill and puddling on the floor. You could sense it in the air as well, everything would feel damp and there was a constant musk. <br>I installed an extractor in both the kitchen and bathroom and changed all the single glazed windows to double and although this did help with the build up on the windows it didn&apos;t have much effect on the levels. <br><br>I then tried running a dehumidifier and although this was somewhat successful it was only whilst it was running. As soon as it stopped the levels rose again. <br><br>Last year i went with a loft fitted PIV with no heat and almost instantly the levels dropped down into the 40&apos;s. Even through the worst of winter it only crept up to 60% a few times. I have it fitted in the hallway and you can notice the temp if you stand right under it but it&apos;s a small price to pay for having no condensation or mould in the house. It even seems to force the air into all of the rooms quite well under door gaps etc. <br><br>I now have that running all year round, use extractors in the kitchen and bathroom and put the dehumidifier on next to the clothes horse when drying clothes inside in the winter with amazing results.<br>Quite possibly the best purchase i have ever made. If anyone reading has similar issues in a similar property i can&apos;t recommend them enough.

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• MA

  @matthewharding89 · 6 years ago

  We have a 170 year old terrace cottage. Modern render, windows and plaster. We tried everything. Even without changing our habits with the shower, cooking, boiling the kettle and drying clothes, we installed a PIV unit and the results have been dramatic. We&apos;ve gone from up to 80%RH to &lt;50%RH, that was overnight. We bought a Nuaire Drimaster. It&apos;s been fantastic.

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• WI

  @WilliamCurry-UK · 8 months ago

  6 years on and your content is still relevant - Thank you

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• YE

  @YellowPinkie · 6 years ago

  As a building services engineer, I can state that is the simplest and easiest to understand explanation of RH. &nbsp;Good work Charlie!

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• MA

  @mayhemuk88 · 3 years ago

  Removing the wife n kids helped alot especially when they have a bath/shower, ooh too cold to open the window, great video and well explained

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• SU

  @surreyarborist · 6 years ago

  This bloke is talking a lot of sense here now subscribed

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• CE

  @cedrics7374 · 1 month ago

  This feels like good oldschool youtube, I love it because that’s what made this platform so great to begin with

• H9

  @h9rae · 6 years ago

  I suffered from damp and condensation in one room downstairs ,this i found out was due to no fresh air getting into the room/ fitted 2 vents at floor level direct to the outside and one at the top, problem solved no damp no condensation , the trouble is people seal up everything to stop draught &nbsp;a big mistake /good video very informative

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• DA

  @davidiand7 · 5 years ago (edited)

  Excellent video Charlie well done! I’m a Brit living in Sweden, all houses here built in the last 50 years or more have some form of ventilation system, be it natural draught ventilation pipes from kitchens and bathrooms, fans in the roof drawing air out of the house 24/7 (my current house has this, it works well, some windows still have the original paint and the house was built in 77). I have lived in a house with a heat exchanger, this would be my system of choice, I have known it to be down to -15 outside in the house +22 and the radiator was hardly on, you could hold your hand on it without it burning. (Heat systems are a little different here but that’s another subject). <br>People do not use heavy curtains here, they are normally not drawn, they are light weight net curtains and for decoration purposes. Usually Venetian blinds are installed between the glass pains in the case of triple glazing older style, or you can have triple glazed window with an envelope with a vacuum and an envelope with argon gas which are great, sometimes they have condensation on the outside and when it really snows, it can lay against the glass for days without melting, I currently have both types installed all windows have ventilators built into the frame which you can control, I never have condensation. Having said this in this part of Sweden the RH is lower than the U.K. which is surrounded by seas. When it is a minus temperature outside the RH can drop dramatically I have seen the RH as low as 20% which is not so comfortable, at the moment I have 45% and it’s -3c outside. I have an alarm system which has smoke detectors with temperature and humidity sensors, even when I am not home I can see the humidity and temperatures in the house on my phone. As you say condensation can destroy your home but more importantly your health! &nbsp;Incidentally the main heating system I have is a warm air pump, they are a like an air on unit but push out warm air, it circulates the air round the house and can be used in the summer for cooling but it’s expensive to do that, I do have it on when it is hot sometimes. &nbsp;Sorry this sitt is in Swedish but you can translate using Google &nbsp; https://www.bast-i-test.se/tester_pa_basta/luftvarmepumpar.html

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• VI

  @vitalmakhdum · 5 years ago

  this guy&apos;s channel is bloody brilliant

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