Last year we had a lot of condensation on the east side bedroom. Literally water dripping down the wall. It’s got a layer of drywall on top of concrete. I had bought humidity traps/gels for the window as well as on the floor and behind the furniture. I replace them regularly. It’s not helping. I wrapped up last year by running fans in the room when I’m not in there and the walls still turned black. I bought a deep peneration spray for mold control and the smell was awful for a week, and the mold came back.
We’re in an older building on a high floor. Naturally, I called a contractor and I could not believe what he told me: “Because this is block, we can’t do much. Most people remove the wallpaper, add a layer of wood, and rewallpaper”. This seems like an exercise in denial and potentially a bigger problem – The water would obviously still keep coming in and then I’d have a time bomb of very rotten wood on top of not solving the problem. There has to be a better way, right? Anyone dealt with this? Or does the particle board just drink it up and it’s all good?
To make matters worse, I have one of those plasmacluster things in the room and the light turns red from time to time even when nothing is happening and the window is closed or open. I swapped the unit with a different and also tested for gas leaks, nothing. It’s like a phantom air quality problem in just that room. That can’t be good for my health, and I’m skeptical of the contractor’s wood plan to help with that as well.
Is the best solution here to just sandwich the problem away, no problem?
7 comments
Get a high-capacity dehumidifier for the room.
We had a similar problem in our old apartment. Running the extraction fans in the shower / bath / toilet all day every day helped keep it at bay. Have you tried that?
If you rent, you should consider moving. If you have to stay then yes 1 or more dehumidifiers should be in place all the time.
Are you running room vented oil or gas heaters? Water is one of the byproducts so it increases room humidity. To fix the wall you need a layer of insulation next to the concrete like styrofoam panels.
embrace Japanese construction techniques and keep your windows open with a gas furnace blazing
check and see if there is concrete sealer you can use on the inside layer of concrete if it is allowed. Concrete is very porous and is never really dry. If you don’t seal the inside, you get this problem. Though you are a renter so not sure if you are even allowed to do this.
We live in a brand new rented apartment and had the same issue in winter so it’s not necessarily because of the age of the building.
We have double-glazed windows but they have aluminum frames, which of course conduct heat like crazy and end up causing condensation on both the frame and the window panes.
I think the only thing you can do is to keep wiping the moisture and/or get a dehumidifier. There must be a way around it in terms of construction techniques but I suppose with rented apartments the owners just want to build something as cheap as possible that’s presentable in order to maximize their return.