Condensation and soaking wall

[Alison556]

Need some advice please.

My mum is in a council house, which has old timber framed double glazing. The windows are streaming with condensation - I maintain the seal between the frame and the window needs replacing - it's just like a foam and since it's never been replaced since the windows were installed in about 1977, it must be needing replaced by now.

Also, it's a bay window and there's a huge big vent outside on the centre window and every time it rains, the wall is absolutely soaking - I'm trying to decorate but can't do that bit of wall cos it's soaking.

She phoned the council and the housing inspector came up, felt the wall and said it was "a bit damp", used a damp meter and said that there was no damp there - it was condensation from the windows - but it's wet at the bottom of the wall - no sign of it running off the windows.

Then she said that the condensation is because mother doesn't have the windows open - she should keep them open all the time - kind of defeats the purpose of having the heating on.

It just doesn't sound right to me but wanted some professional advice before we go kicking off at the council.

 

[JohnD]

Does she drape wet washing inside the home?

Post some photos, inside and out, including the gutter above.

 

[Alison556]

No, no wet washing in the house. Will get some pics tomorrow. I'm convinced that the water is getting in the vent - every time it rains, the inside wall is soaking. It doesn't explain the condensation though. Most people in the area have the same windows but nobody else has condensation on them.

 

[scruffybiker]

Hi. My bay window wall suffers from the same (wall gets soaked overnight when cold). Its because there usually single skin blockwork in period properties and suffer from condensation. Only real fix is to insulate the wall with insulating plaster board on battens. I still need to do this haha

 

[Alison556]

I never did get the pics - we had a downpour of rain and the wall was soaking, so in desperation, I had a vent cover (one of these internal ones that you can slide open or closed) and siliconed that over the out side vent to see if that's where the water was getting in. Not sure if the wall is just cold now or damp, but your hand certainly isn't wet when you touch it (which it was before).

The whole house is single skin brick - built probably in about 1920.

I don't know if it's the cause, but the council renovated the houses a few years ago (and I use that in the loosest possible sense of the word). There had previously been asbestos pipe lagging under the floors (there used to be a central boiler house that supplied heat to the whole area), so part of the renovation was removal of the asbestos and they poured concrete under the floor - to almost joist height in my mum's house - and since then, she's had a nightmare keeping the house warm and she's had the condensation problems.

The timber framed double glazing was apparently installed in about 1979 (according to one of the old biddies that's lived here forever) and to my knowledge, there has been no maintenance carried out - the guys who were insulating her bedroom walls said that the foam seal stuff between the frame and the window was knackered and needing replaced - there are howling draughts coming in the windows.

 

[Alison556]

As I said, didn't get the pics, but courtesy of google maps - not sure if this is any good