Insulating apartment wall on inside

How Strange

We've got an apartment and we've had ongoing problems with dampness and mould on the rear wall where the bedrooms are located. It's east facing so only gets sunlight for a short amount of time each day. We've had the builders in about once a year doing this and that to the outside of the wall but sooner or later the dampness and mould returns.

It really seems to be a problem with condensation as there's a lot of water on the windows in the morning. We open the windows when we're there to sir the place but we've started using our dehumidifier again to take some of the moisture out of the room.

I'm really at the end of my patience with the whole thing and while the builder has always come back and tried to resolve the issue we're still at square 1 7 years later.
This problem isn't unique to our property as lots of units have similar issues. Ours mightn't look so bad because we've contacted the builder every year to do something about it.

Would it be worth our time insulating the walls internally? I see sei give grants so we'd consider it if it would help. All opinions and advice welcome.

How Strange

Anyone ???

oppenheimer1

How old is the apartment?

maddragon

You probably have inadequate ventilation. Is there a vent on the walk getting the mould? Are their vent either on the walks or permavents built into the windows. Insulating won't help if you have poor ventilation.

How Strange

Thanks! We now have vents in the walls but they were only fitted earlier this year. The vents have helped in one room but not really in the other where we have the mould on the ceiling and part of the walls. They're circular vents going straight from inside out.

How Strange

I'd say the apartment is 9 years old. We bought it 2nd hand 8 years ago.

paddyjoe18

Have you got a dehumidifier in the room? If not it might be worth giving it a go.

ted1

Get an extractor fan fitted. A dehumidifier costs a fortune to run.

dathi

looks like you have a ventilation problem you could try this system it a positive input ventilation system http://www.nuaire.co.uk/Product/Residential_Products/Positive_Input_Ventilation/Flatmaster_2000

murphaph

Mould on the ceiling would indicate that there's ventilation issues at play all right, not just that the wall is cold. We had one exterior wall getting mouldy, but it stopped at the ceiling and adjacent walls.

Once that wall was properly insulated (we used aerated concrete blocks/tiles to sort it) our mould went away, but we never had it on the ceiling etc.

How Strange

Thanks everyone. You've given us lots to think about.

Johny 8

How Strange wrote: »

Thanks everyone. You've given us lots to think about.

Is the exterior wall brick or render????

How Strange

I'm not really sure. I'd say render. The construction was prefabricated so the external walls probably came in long sheets. It's solid concrete though as its almost impossible to get a mail through one.

chris445

Had this problem with condensation myself. Is the wall really cold to the touch all the time. To fix the problem I used the 28mm warmboard slabs. The inulstion is adequate for a house and it stops the warm air from hitting the cold wall and causing condensation which leads to damp. The damp on the ceiling suggests the ventilation may not be adequate at the minute for ther amount of moisture in the room but once you remove the condensation from the equation it could be fine. I would suggest drylining the walls with warmboard and plastering. If there is no ventilation in the room what so ever then it would be a good idea to install one at this stage.