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Condensation problem - French door in bedroom

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  • 04-01-2009 5:43pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,230 ✭✭✭


    I'm having some serious condensation issues in a bedroom in a rented ground floor apartment. There is a French Door leading from the bedroom to a garden area. While it sounds like a nice feature, it is causing no end of problems.

    No matter what I do the windows are becoming wet and black mould and some kind of 'furry' mould are growing on the frames. It's also doing pretty serious damage to the wood.

    We wipe them regularly and clean them down with anti-bacterial cleaner to try and keep the mould at bay, but it's not helping. It's also starting to damage the carpet under the window as the water's running down onto the floor. The area under the door feels cold and damp.

    The door is a wooden structure with 8 double glazed panels making up the glass section. However, there appears to be no channels for catching condensate and it just runs down the door.

    I've asked the property management company to do something about it and all they're prepared to do is paint the wood.

    I'm actually getting concerned that this mould may be the reason why I am having some on-going respiratory problems too. My other half and I both had a really nasty chest infection and I am having constant sinusitis type problems. I realise that black mould can produce some of these problems.

    Any help would be appreciated, otherwise, we might just have to breech the lease and move. It's pretty intolerable.

    Does anyone have any tips for controlling this ?

    The room's well heated and it has a ventilator in the wall which is definitely not blocked. Being a ground floor apartment, we don't fancy the idea of leaving the window open at night, even though it's in a gated community in a fairly quiet & safe part of Cork City.

    Would a dehumidifier be worth looking at?


Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,167 ✭✭✭gsxr1


    the only thing you can do is to ventilate more or buy the ddehumidifier .

    Don't dry cloths in the room and if you have an Ensuite with a shower, make sure the fan stays on longer.

    Carpets and timber floors often get damaged near the doors due to water gathering at the weather bar.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,292 ✭✭✭RKQ


    Have to agree fully with gsxr1.


  • Registered Users Posts: 179 ✭✭dunie001


    There are two possible causes for this...

    1. The seal on the double glazed windows is knackered and therefore the inside of the glass is condensing.

    2. The walls directly beside and touching the window frame is suffering from damp (should be black/dark blue stain on wall) which could be causing water to touch the timber window causing the mould.

    3. The apartment was built by a cowboy builder who didn't bother putting in any DPC which is now what is causing all the problems...


    Unfortunately there are only four solutions to the problem:

    1. move out of the flat, making damn sure that the lease agreement is made nul and void because of the mould and condensation problem.

    2. Get the property managment company to get a competent builder to replace the french door and fix whatever it is that's caused the problems.

    3. Try option two while whinging about the recession and how hard it would be to get new tenants 'cause everyone's skint and how no-one would rent out such a disgusting inhabitable hole of a spot until the problem is fixed!!

    4. Try option two again holding a letter from your solicitor saying that you'll sue for health problems if they don't fix that damn door!


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,840 ✭✭✭MicktheMan


    At a distance, this looks like an internally generated issue. The air in the bedroom is moist and warm and when this air comes in contact with the much colder glass surface it condenses. It is not uncommon in apartments. Remember that all moisture generated in the apartment (from washing, cooking, drying, breathing) has to go somewhere and a lot of times it makes its way to the (less heated) bedroom and condenses on the glass. Then at night when it is the coldest outside it shows up the worst.
    Yes a dehumidifier will help but these sre noisey especially at night when you try to sleep. I would advise using a dehumidifier when the apartment is unoccupied and then leave the bedroom door open to allow cross ventilation (assuming that there are other wall vents in the living room or some other room). I doubt very much that there is a problem with the installation of the door. But then again from a distance ...


  • Registered Users Posts: 179 ✭✭dunie001


    Good man Mick! I agree completely with you on the dehumidifier. It would be purely a temporary solution as it is obviously not viable to have a dehumidifier on constantly.

    A brain wave hit me when I read the first post again. We actually have a similar problem in our house at home with small frames of single glazed windows. The problem with us seems to be that the seal between the glass and the timber has given up allowing rain and water/condensation to travel from outside to inside creating a big puddle of water on the window sill and window frame. Fortunately though we've no problems with mould!

    The problem for you could be that once the water travels under the glass and into the timber, the combination of high humidity in the apartment and lack of ventilation could be an ideal growing conditions for the mould...

    I stayed in student flats in Galway for years and we had to leave the french doors (pvc) open all the time whenever we were cooking or cleaning or having showers etc. to allow all the water vapour to escape simply because the ventilation in wall and extract fans couldn't cope with all the moisture. We also had to have heating on a lot to try to dry the place out a bit...


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,840 ✭✭✭MicktheMan


    dunie001 wrote: »
    We actually have a similar problem in our house at home with small frames of single glazed windows. The problem with us seems to be that the seal between the glass and the timber has given up allowing rain and water/condensation to travel from outside to inside creating a big puddle of water on the window sill and window frame.
    What you have there is a "passive dehumidifier" where the vapour is condensing on the colder single panes of glass rather than on the slightly warmer dg units. I doubt very much if you have any water penetration from the outside. Test it out by temporarly sealing the window on the outside (tape and plastic) and see if you still get water forming on the inside. Let us know what you find.


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