Hi folks
Please bear with me and my post, I really need help in getting to the bottom of this. Either with your own advice or who I can call to give me the advice.
As some of you may have read a while back, I was (still am to some degree) having condensation issues in our master bedroom. We have 'kind of' rectified the worst of it (which was on the ceiling) by trying to open windows more often.
We have recently discovered that the insulation in the ceiling does not go all the way to the edges so that might have helped contribute to condensation forming on the edges of the ceiling - as well as the fact that the ducted heating in our bedroom does not seem to work as efficiently so it is the coldest room in the house (and south facing) but hopefully by next winter, both the heating and insulation will be rectified.
We have a weatherboard house.
We also have stormwater drain issues and last year with all the heavy rain we had in Vic, under the house was often quite flooded. We have only very recently taken off the boards around the bottom of the house to try and get some airflow under the house and dry out under there (there was a type of fungus growing on the top of the soil - but when I rang someone about it he brushed it off as 'common and not a problem'). Anyway, we thought it best to try and get some air under there.
Anyway.... our problem is, that behind our bed, and behind our chest of drawers, when we recently pulled them away from the walls, there was massive build up of mould (yuk!). Even with windows open (not that we have had them open heaps because it is the middle of winter we can't get ventilation and air flow behind the bed or behind the drawers. We cleaned it all up, and we now have our drawers away from the wall permanently, and we often pull the bed away from the wall after we get up (to allow air to get behind it). But of course we do not want this to have to put up with doing that every day - and if we don't do it in a while - the mould comes back - as it has done now. These two walls are opposite each other (ie, not the same wall). They are both external walls.
Our WIR also gets a musty smell and we have recently purchased a few of those 'damp rid' containers and put them around our room and in our WIR and they fill up with moisture quite fast. So in general it is a damp room and I don't like the thought of that.
I am just trying to figure out what would be causing this and how we can rectify it once and for all. Apart from the health hazards (the main concern), I was also hoping to wallpaper our bedroom but wouldn't dare touch it until we have sorted out this issue. I don't like the idea of having my head not far from damp and mould at night - and especially not on a permanent basis. Surely there is a way to rectify it permanently (of course, once the cause is established).
Could it purely be caused by internal condensation? (These mouldy areas do have visible condensation or moisture when you first pull the furniture away from the walls). Or do you think we may have some sort of actual serious 'damp' issue?? From what I can gather weatherboard houses don't have 'rising damp'. Would ensuring there is proper insulation the external walls help (ie, remove the boards and put it in). Is it feasible that under the house is still just damp from last summer and spring's heavy rain and that it might take a while longer to really dry out under the house but once it does that should fix it?? Or is there some kind of 'damp course' that maybe has broken down or isn't present?????
This is not an issue relating to the owner builder or the extensions/renovations (and all the other issues we are taking up with him) as this was an existing room and a problem we have unfortunately inherited. But we'd really like to get rid of it.
Thanks for any help or advice or things we could try. Or even just reassuring us that it might just be the damp soil from last summer????