We have a very small area of wall, low down in a corner, which suffers
from condensation. Apart from moving the air around with a fan, is
there any sort of wall treatment which will prevent condensation
staining? I have heard of a special wall paper which does this, and
then you paint onto it if you want.

Do such products exist and if so where can they be bought?

TIA John.

John Edgar wrote:

We have a very small area of wall, low down in a corner, which suffers
from condensation. Apart from moving the air around with a fan, is
there any sort of wall treatment which will prevent condensation
staining? I have heard of a special wall paper which does this, and
then you paint onto it if you want.

Do such products exist and if so where can they be bought?

TIA John.

Yes. Cork tiles or thin insulation is all you need if it IS condensation.

You are merely looking to raise the surface temperature above dew point.

However 'low down on a corner' might be some other problem. Make
intelligent guesses first, because slapping insulation over e,g. damp
penetration or rising damp will lead to it getting even wetter behind
the insulation.

John Edgar wrote:
We have a very small area of wall, low down in a corner, which suffers
from condensation. Apart from moving the air around with a fan, is
there any sort of wall treatment which will prevent condensation
staining? I have heard of a special wall paper which does this, and
then you paint onto it if you want.

Do such products exist and if so where can they be bought?

You can get expanded polystyrene rolls which you can paper or paint -
they indent badly, though. You can also get anti-condensation paint.

In article .com,
"John Edgar" says...
We have a very small area of wall, low down in a corner, which suffers
from condensation.

If it's low on the wall I'd look for a cause other than condensation
- bridging of the cavity would be high on the list of suspects.

We had it thoroughly investigated: i.e. we punched a hole through to
see what was what and there is absolutely no other problem - no rising
or penetrating damp of any kind. Everything was quite dry so, it can
only be condensation in a cool corner, when the CH is on fully.

See my reply above. No damp, no bridging, nothing.

Chris Bacon wrote:
John Edgar wrote:
We have a very small area of wall, low down in a corner, which
suffers
from condensation. Apart from moving the air around with a fan, is
there any sort of wall treatment which will prevent condensation
staining? I have heard of a special wall paper which does this, and
then you paint onto it if you want.

Do such products exist and if so where can they be bought?

You can get expanded polystyrene rolls which you can paper or paint -

they indent badly, though. You can also get anti-condensation paint.

I'm trying anti-condensation paint at the moment, although our
condensation is causing localised slight mould growth rather than the
condensation being visible itself. The paint does seem to stop our
problem, but I'm not sure if it's more due to fungicides in the paint
rather than the insulation aspects. I'm also looking at more
substantial insulation for some closets built into outside walls that
get very cold and cause the same problem, but I'm not sure what way to
go here. The polystyrene rolls look too fragile, so I might go for cork
tiles or thin celotex.

Has anyone tried using and painting celotex boards on the visible side
of walls?

wrote in message
ups.com...

Chris Bacon wrote:
John Edgar wrote:
We have a very small area of wall, low down in a corner, which
suffers
from condensation. Apart from moving the air around with a fan, is
there any sort of wall treatment which will prevent condensation
staining?

Is this an outside wall ? Or an unused chimney ?


I'm also looking at more
substantial insulation for some closets built into outside walls that
get very cold and cause the same problem, but I'm not sure what way to
go here. The polystyrene rolls look too fragile, so I might go for cork
tiles or thin celotex.

20mm of Celotex pushed in tightly is fine for this. Use an anti-fungacide
on the covered wall.


Has anyone tried using and painting celotex boards on the visible side
of walls?

I've used them directly on a loft ceiling where I covered them with a thin
coat of Easy-Fill then painted. Works well and much softer when you bang
your head on the low ceiling as well.

wrote:

Chris Bacon wrote:

John Edgar wrote:

We have a very small area of wall, low down in a corner, which

suffers

from condensation. Apart from moving the air around with a fan, is
there any sort of wall treatment which will prevent condensation
staining? I have heard of a special wall paper which does this, and
then you paint onto it if you want.

Do such products exist and if so where can they be bought?

You can get expanded polystyrene rolls which you can paper or paint -


they indent badly, though. You can also get anti-condensation paint.


I'm trying anti-condensation paint at the moment, although our
condensation is causing localised slight mould growth rather than the
condensation being visible itself. The paint does seem to stop our
problem, but I'm not sure if it's more due to fungicides in the paint
rather than the insulation aspects. I'm also looking at more
substantial insulation for some closets built into outside walls that
get very cold and cause the same problem, but I'm not sure what way to
go here. The polystyrene rolls look too fragile, so I might go for cork
tiles or thin celotex.

Has anyone tried using and painting celotex boards on the visible side
of walls?

Really, just use almost anything. Cork tiles with lining paper? thin
celotex if you must, but paper it over.

All you want is about 3mm of something fairly much less conductive than
solid brick. Tounge and grove panelling? Bary Bucknall Hardboard?
Rendering with expanding foam? Dry lining with plasterboard?

It's an outside corner wall, one side of which is north facing so gets
no solar gain whatsoever.

I think I am going to try the paint as we do not want any measure too
visible.

John Edgar wrote:

I think I am going to try the paint as we do not want any measure too
visible.

It won't work, though it may reduce the mould.

On 19 Mar 2005 02:01:09 -0800, "John Edgar"
wrote:

I think I am going to try the paint as we do not want any measure too
visible.

Hi,

If you want to know for sure, get a temperature/humidity meter and an
IR thermometer. Measure the temperature and humidity of that corner of
the room, then calculate the dewpoint using an online caculator eg

http://boguewx.navy.mil/wxcalc/moisture1.htm

Then measure the wall temperature with the IR thermometer to see if
it's below the dewpoint. If it's still getting damp and the wall is
always above dewpoint then there must be penetrating or possibly
rising damp or hygroscopic salts in the wall.

If the wall is below dewpoint at times, try the paint by all means but
if it doesn't work, try drying the corner out with heat and then
lining it with thin Celotex and using some furniture to hide the
Celotex.

cheers,
Pete.

On Sat, 19 Mar 2005 20:48:05 +0000, Pete C
wrote:

Hi,

If you want to know for sure, get a temperature/humidity meter and an
IR thermometer. Measure the temperature and humidity of that corner of
the room, then calculate the dewpoint using an online caculator eg

http://boguewx.navy.mil/wxcalc/moisture1.htm

Then measure the wall temperature with the IR thermometer to see if
it's below the dewpoint. If it's still getting damp and the wall is
always above dewpoint then there must be penetrating or possibly
rising damp or hygroscopic salts in the wall.

Oops a simpler and cheaper way would be to tape a thin sheet of glass
or foil to the wall and checking for condensation on that.

cheers,
Pete.

In article . com,
"John Edgar" writes:
It's an outside corner wall, one side of which is north facing so gets
no solar gain whatsoever.

When I was installing central heating, I chose this location
for one of the radiators for exactly this reason. If you wre
considering moving or adding further radiators to this room,
you might like to consider providing some heating in this
corner.

--
Andrew Gabriel