those radiators are from the 1960's or earlier
and are very ineffectiveRoof insulation advice
Okay so as a short term solution prior to changing rads etc. Would insualtion the roof space, underfloor and basment pipes with this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ASTRO-WHITE-Foil- ... dZViewItem
Make a significant diff ?
Make a significant diff ?
W213 All Terrain
What a resource the SE crowd is! 
I have a serious dampness porblem in the dundee ground floor flat i rent out to a really pleasant (and prized) Polish tenant and his girlfriend.
The problem is serious cause i bugger off next week til end Dec and he goes to poland soon too. We both want a solution this weekend.
The dampness is mild to moderate in nature and affects one exterior wall of the building. Its worst at the base of the wall and extends a mere 6inches upwards in most places. In the kitchen howver, it extend about a metre up, and is visible in the cupboard that has a wood panel against the outside wall being affected.
He says he has the windows open often and the heating on.
The walls are not sodden but are cold to just damp enough to feel it. There is mould growing howver and it is unsightly and he claims it smells after a day at work and the heating has been off. Its white meter btw.
Had a guy look at it and says the plaster needs stripped off the brick at the affected areas and the brick need sealed and treated with an antifungal (Canesten??
). He doesnt reckon it is coming down from the flat above. He reckons a couple of dehumidifiers would help to some extent.
I also heard that sealing the roughcast from the outside with some kind of clear paint would help - a summer job though.
My initial thoughts are to clean it up, spray some anti fungal stuff on the affected ares, and get the dehumidifiers going, and give him some cash as a gesture towards the electricity he'll use.
Any thoughts peeps? Cheers in advance!!!
I have a serious dampness porblem in the dundee ground floor flat i rent out to a really pleasant (and prized) Polish tenant and his girlfriend.
The problem is serious cause i bugger off next week til end Dec and he goes to poland soon too. We both want a solution this weekend.
The dampness is mild to moderate in nature and affects one exterior wall of the building. Its worst at the base of the wall and extends a mere 6inches upwards in most places. In the kitchen howver, it extend about a metre up, and is visible in the cupboard that has a wood panel against the outside wall being affected.
He says he has the windows open often and the heating on.
The walls are not sodden but are cold to just damp enough to feel it. There is mould growing howver and it is unsightly and he claims it smells after a day at work and the heating has been off. Its white meter btw.
Had a guy look at it and says the plaster needs stripped off the brick at the affected areas and the brick need sealed and treated with an antifungal (Canesten??
). He doesnt reckon it is coming down from the flat above. He reckons a couple of dehumidifiers would help to some extent.I also heard that sealing the roughcast from the outside with some kind of clear paint would help - a summer job though.
My initial thoughts are to clean it up, spray some anti fungal stuff on the affected ares, and get the dehumidifiers going, and give him some cash as a gesture towards the electricity he'll use.
Any thoughts peeps? Cheers in advance!!!
S2 Exige - sold
Boggo 911 (997)
1998 VW Passata 1.9TDI - Vroooom...
Boggo 911 (997)
1998 VW Passata 1.9TDI - Vroooom...
-
Lawrence
- Jedi Master
- Posts: 1017
- Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2005 2:30 pm
- Location: remembering Dijon
- Contact:
This material would seem to be as good as 200mm of glass wool for u value but I suspect not as good at stopping air movement.Sanjoy wrote:Okay so as a short term solution prior to changing rads etc. Would insualtion the roof space, underfloor and basment pipes with this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ASTRO-WHITE-Foil- ... dZViewItem
Make a significant diff ?
I'll try some too if it helps with the delivery cost
The "astro white stuff" he sells quotes three u values - do you know why?Lawrence wrote:This material would seem to be as good as 200mm of glass wool for u value but I suspect not as good at stopping air movement.Sanjoy wrote:Okay so as a short term solution prior to changing rads etc. Would insualtion the roof space, underfloor and basment pipes with this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ASTRO-WHITE-Foil- ... dZViewItem
Make a significant diff ?
I'll try some too if it helps with the delivery cost
The link stuff quotes a value of 0.109 - that is really good - 200mm of glassfibre is 0.16 (less = better) and this stuff wouldbe easier to lay and more flexible (ie you could board over it without worrying about building platforms and suchlike to maintain the depth of insulation).
But it is an ebay seller so he could just be making it all up! My gut instinct tells me a thickness of insulation, be it glass, cellulose or whatever will be better (although that is clearly me following my gut instead of the science).
As my heating bills were in the 250 UKP region (per month) last winter insulation is a subject i feel I should kow more about, I'd be really interested to learn where you went with this and if you got any to try. My loft insulation project has currently stalled (long and excrutiatingly dull story) but this sounds like a viable option.
Pete
'99 - '03 Titanium S1 111S.
'03 - '10 Starlight Black S2 111S
'11 - '17 S2 135R
'17 - '19 S2 Exige S+
'23 - ?? Evora
'03 - '10 Starlight Black S2 111S
'11 - '17 S2 135R
'17 - '19 S2 Exige S+
'23 - ?? Evora
CLICK ME
I may have answered my own question. This seems to be a test of the Astro E stuff he is selling. On Page 3 I think it gives a u value (if u means air to air conductance) of 0.15 which is less than he quotes but still very good.
If all this is right, then I would be interested in keeping postage down too!
Pete
I may have answered my own question. This seems to be a test of the Astro E stuff he is selling. On Page 3 I think it gives a u value (if u means air to air conductance) of 0.15 which is less than he quotes but still very good.
If all this is right, then I would be interested in keeping postage down too!
Pete
'99 - '03 Titanium S1 111S.
'03 - '10 Starlight Black S2 111S
'11 - '17 S2 135R
'17 - '19 S2 Exige S+
'23 - ?? Evora
'03 - '10 Starlight Black S2 111S
'11 - '17 S2 135R
'17 - '19 S2 Exige S+
'23 - ?? Evora
Will do.
This might help your Mum, http://www.heatproject.co.uk/ unfortunately I've started insulating mine, under-calculated how much I needed and ran out of time. I'm still going to call them though and see if they can help with the cost.
Pete
This might help your Mum, http://www.heatproject.co.uk/ unfortunately I've started insulating mine, under-calculated how much I needed and ran out of time. I'm still going to call them though and see if they can help with the cost.
Pete
'99 - '03 Titanium S1 111S.
'03 - '10 Starlight Black S2 111S
'11 - '17 S2 135R
'17 - '19 S2 Exige S+
'23 - ?? Evora
'03 - '10 Starlight Black S2 111S
'11 - '17 S2 135R
'17 - '19 S2 Exige S+
'23 - ?? Evora
-
bertieduff
- Posts: 2253
- Joined: Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:19 am
- Location: Purple Side of the Moon
Michael,
First thing to figure is where the problem comes from. You have four options:
1). A leak in pipework (obvious,but always worth starting with)- probably not your problem tho,
2). Airborne humidity - from cooking, respiration, washing- hot moist air hits cold surface (tenement wall) and condenses. Minerals in plaster + water=food for mould bacteria. Bathrooms and kitchens are a no-brainer here. Does the kitchen have an extract fan? Could be worth fitting. Does the problem affect other rooms on this wall? A give-away sign- do the windows steam up? Double glazed units are normally pretty well sealed, but if they steam up, being the coldest surface in the room, generally, you have a condensation problem to deal with. This is sometimes less obvious with the old sash-and-case single glazing, for although they are colder still, they can be draughty enough to prevent condensation forming. Often condensation problems on walls affect areas higher up than you suggest, and in corners.
3). Rain Penetration from outside- how thick are the walls? Assuming it's a tenement, they are mostly rather badly built, and they depend on the wall thickness to avoid moisture penetration. Behind the thin veneer of dressed external stone the wall mostly is a random rubble that you can crumble by hand often
. The actual crapness of this, it being full of voids, helps to prevent water getting through. Built- in cupboards, where the wall is thinner, are cuplrits though. Worth checking if there are any features outside around the affected area such as stone projections-string courses, cornices etc that could be gathering water on the top-side and channeling it through the joints. If the building is rendered this helps, and yeah, some of the exterior sealants are now pretty reasonable, but have a limited life-span.
4). From the ground. The likely suspect in a ground floor flat. How old is the property? Does it have decent, unbridged damp-proof courses? How far off of the ground is the internal floor? Is there a void below floor?
Need to know more to answer, but don't start stripping walls until you know what needs done...if the guy is just guessing you will have repeat problem soon enough.
Temporary solution is to treat the wall surface as you suggest, but few treatments kill all the bacteria, or penetrate far enough into the substrate, and are obviously not addressing the cause. Do a google to get an idea of the best washes- some are useless.
If you are gonna hang onto the place for more than a couple of years it is worth fixing- mostly the bits you can see are the tip of the iceberg, and usually cost more the longer they're ignored IMHO.
Oh, the other possibility is that your tennant relieves himself on the walls
Actually came across this once!
Any strange customs in Poland?
HTH
First thing to figure is where the problem comes from. You have four options:
1). A leak in pipework (obvious,but always worth starting with)- probably not your problem tho,
2). Airborne humidity - from cooking, respiration, washing- hot moist air hits cold surface (tenement wall) and condenses. Minerals in plaster + water=food for mould bacteria. Bathrooms and kitchens are a no-brainer here. Does the kitchen have an extract fan? Could be worth fitting. Does the problem affect other rooms on this wall? A give-away sign- do the windows steam up? Double glazed units are normally pretty well sealed, but if they steam up, being the coldest surface in the room, generally, you have a condensation problem to deal with. This is sometimes less obvious with the old sash-and-case single glazing, for although they are colder still, they can be draughty enough to prevent condensation forming. Often condensation problems on walls affect areas higher up than you suggest, and in corners.
3). Rain Penetration from outside- how thick are the walls? Assuming it's a tenement, they are mostly rather badly built, and they depend on the wall thickness to avoid moisture penetration. Behind the thin veneer of dressed external stone the wall mostly is a random rubble that you can crumble by hand often
. The actual crapness of this, it being full of voids, helps to prevent water getting through. Built- in cupboards, where the wall is thinner, are cuplrits though. Worth checking if there are any features outside around the affected area such as stone projections-string courses, cornices etc that could be gathering water on the top-side and channeling it through the joints. If the building is rendered this helps, and yeah, some of the exterior sealants are now pretty reasonable, but have a limited life-span.4). From the ground. The likely suspect in a ground floor flat. How old is the property? Does it have decent, unbridged damp-proof courses? How far off of the ground is the internal floor? Is there a void below floor?
Need to know more to answer, but don't start stripping walls until you know what needs done...if the guy is just guessing you will have repeat problem soon enough.
Temporary solution is to treat the wall surface as you suggest, but few treatments kill all the bacteria, or penetrate far enough into the substrate, and are obviously not addressing the cause. Do a google to get an idea of the best washes- some are useless.
If you are gonna hang onto the place for more than a couple of years it is worth fixing- mostly the bits you can see are the tip of the iceberg, and usually cost more the longer they're ignored IMHO.
Oh, the other possibility is that your tennant relieves himself on the walls
Actually came across this once!Any strange customs in Poland?
HTH
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Thanks a lot, bud. Thats a tonne of useful info. I got the tenant a couple of dehumdifiers and some cash for electricity for the moment. Ill see how that goes. Im abroad at the mo and so is he.
Thankfully, no evidence of strange customs....however he does have a good digital camera on a tripod in the bedroom though!!!
Thats fairly normal though
Cheers, Michael.
Thankfully, no evidence of strange customs....however he does have a good digital camera on a tripod in the bedroom though!!!
Thats fairly normal though
Cheers, Michael.
S2 Exige - sold
Boggo 911 (997)
1998 VW Passata 1.9TDI - Vroooom...
Boggo 911 (997)
1998 VW Passata 1.9TDI - Vroooom...