My window

[Jawloms]

Hi all,

 

I'm after some suggestions as to what to do about my window. As you can see, it sticks out. During the winter it suffers massively with condensation. Leaving the curtains open (you can see where they are on the outside photo) helps a bit, but due to all the dampness it goes mouldy quite quickly - it's wood that all that water is sitting on!

 

Has anyone got any thoughts as to how I can reduce the amount of moisture build up in there please? I tried one of those plastic boxes which is supposed to gather moisture from the air, and it stayed absolutely bone dry on the inside whilst it stood in a puddle!

 

Thank you

 

Stuart

[FN-GM]

Not the cheapest option but i would get rid of it and have a normal window.

[fairm010]

Do you dry clothes in that room? I did in my old place and faced the same issue. I bought one of these from Argos for £50 and ran it for an hour or two and it worked a treat!

 

Buy Mini Dehumidifier at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for Dehumidifiers.

 

Collected a litre of water in one 9 hour work day!

 

Matt

[SYNACK]

Not the cheapest option but i would get rid of it and have a normal window.

 

Umm, this ^, TBH is may be the cheapest.

 

That box looks poorly insulated, especially the base hence the condensation and moisture leaching. You may need to insulate it and add a second layer of wood. Add some ventilation and perhaps double glaze it. A standard window may be cheaper.

[laserblazer]

There are loads of videos on youtube. I picked this one at random.

 

[LosOjos]

A cheap as chips option you could try for the time being is a little pack of de-humidifying crystals - they sell them in Poundland. Can't guarantee it'll solve the problem but it might help, worth a quid just to try it.

[laserblazer]

Secondary double glazing should provide insulation as well.

[Domino]

err, why is that like that? I'm so confused...

[Ric_]

WTF? Get rid of the crazy-ass window. It looks like a total after-thought and it wouldn't surprise me if it is structurally un-sound.

 

Also... love that black cable run underneath it... someone had lots of fun there!

[Jawloms]

@FN-GM - I rent so unfortunately not an option. I'm sure really the landlord should do something about it, but she doesn't like spending money (I had to get quite grumpy with her once as the boiler failed on a weekend and she wanted to wait until the Monday before an engineer came out as that would be cheaper. Nevermind it was February, snowing and I have kids!!) and if I kick up a fuss she'll probably just give us our notice and get someone else in. I've moved enough in the last few years and don't want to again....

@fairm010 - Nope, we don't dry any clothes in there, or even the adjoining rooms. Might borrow a dehumidifier from someone and give it a go for a bit.

@SYNACK and @laserblazer - It is double-glazed already. Do you reckon trying the film anyway might make any difference?

@LosOjos - That's what was in the plastic box I mentioned that I tried.

@Domino and @Ric_ - God knows! I thought the same! The black cable doesn't even go anywhere now. I'm removing it soon.

 

Someone suggested to me getting some thick polystyrene and attaching it to the underneath of it, someone else suggested growing a thick bush under it too.

 

Thank you all for your suggestions so far, they are all appreciated as usual when you lot help!

Edited December 10, 2012 by Jawloms

[LosOjos]

I rent so unfortunately not an option. I'm sure really the landlord should do something about it, but she doesn't like spending money (I had to get quite grumpy with her once as the boiler failed on a weekend and she wanted to wait until the Monday before an engineer came out as that would be cheaper. Nevermind it was February, snowing and I have kids!!) and if I kick up a fuss she'll probably just give us our notice and get someone else in. I've moved enough in the last few years and don't want to again....

 

You have a right as a private tenant for the property to be in a good state of repair - water p'ing in through the windows is not good! You're also protected from unfair eviction.

 

https://www.gov.uk/private-renting/your-rights-and-responsibilities

[Andrew_C]

Quick experiment with a slab of polystyrene would be my first step. Lots of 80/90s houses around here had that sort of window. Thinking is that it LOOKS like the room is lighter.

[unixman_again]

Like you I rent, and I have half-bay windows, which are similar. I've found a tube heater keeps the condensation off the window. In the high street, one of the old shops has small fans blowing onto the window 24/7. There is no condensation on the windows and these are far cheaper to run than a tube heater.

[Ric_]

I have kids!!

 

I think this is pretty key too... if your kids sat on that windowsill, it appears to be a single piece of wood. Piece of wood breaks, the tiny bits of PVC holding the wall up (unless there is an RSJ above the window - which looks unlikely) will break and the whole wall could crumble down.

 

Your landlord should sort this... at the very least it will improve the house's efficiency rating making it a better prospect for future letting (and it looks fugly too).

[Domino]

...or turn it into a water feature

[Andrew_C]

if your kids sat on that windowsill, it appears to be a single piece of wood. Piece of wood breaks, the tiny bits of PVC holding the wall up (unless there is an RSJ above the window - which looks unlikely)

Nah, there's a brick buttress under it. Unless a real cowboy added it as a DIY job, and it doesn't look like it, it will have a lintel above.

[Ric_]

Nah, there's a brick buttress under it. Unless a real cowboy added it as a DIY job, and it doesn't look like it, it will have a lintel above.

 

We are talking about the same window that appears to have a base made of a single plank of wood?

[soveryapt]

One not so attractive idea (unless you get something that looks nice) would be to put a towel or something on the bottom. This would collect the water, get a couple and just cycle through them. It would stop the water pooling, and if you put some plastic down beneath it wouldn't even touch the wood.

 

My guess as to the problem is just the fact there is a box of glass on the outside of your house, so any moisture in there will immediately condense when it's cold enough on the outside, so any amount of insulation under the box / over the box ain't gonna help that matter. The clear plastic idea would stop the water condensing on the glass so much, but you'd have to make sure you got a decent seal around it, else it will just start to condense within the plastic (like when double glazing glass "blows").

 

Best solutions are to run a dehumidifier in that room, but then you're not really meant to run them when people are in the room too, especially with children. They are certain circumstances when you might need to, but they are generally designed for that purpose etc. Too dry an air isn't good when breathing it a lot.

 

The reason it will be better when your curtains are open is that it lets the heat through as well as the moisture so the glass warms slightly, thus not condensing as much of the moisture from the air.

 

Personally, without spending loads of ££, I would go with my first suggestion, get a couple of hand towels (or whatever size you need to catch the condensed water), and lay then on some plastic and rotate them through (can you tell I live in an old farm house with water features? lol)

[Andrew_C]

We are talking about the same window

Dunno, I'm talking about the one with the brick buttress...

 

[Garacesh]

One not so attractive idea (unless you get something that looks nice) would be to put a towel or something on the bottom. This would collect the water, get a couple and just cycle through them. It would stop the water pooling, and if you put some plastic down beneath it wouldn't even touch the wood.

+1 - I do this in my bathroom as I get exactly the same problem (plus water from the shower sprays over to the window every once-in-a-while)

It doesn't look amazing - but it doesn't look ugly either, although granted, a towel in a bathroom doesn't look out of place, any other room, it might. But it's effective nonetheless.

 

If it's causing any damp, you should be able to get onto your landlord to fix it, considering damp/mold (or is it mould? I never know..) is a health risk

[laserblazer]

Replace it with linux.

[soveryapt]

Replace it with linux.

 

I think you missed something from your post ... Surely it should look more like this ...

 

Replace it with linux.

 

[laserblazer]

Doesn't the indicate that the post has been made in jest?

 

 

 

[CAM]

TBH the buttress makes it look more like a bodge job.

[dhicks]

Replace it with linux.

 

Good idea - use a Raspberry Pi with a couple of sensors attached for light and moisture, and a couple of relays to power a motorised curtain rail and the dehumidifier. If you get a certain level of atmospheric moisture in the window area, and it's night-time, the Raspberry Pi triggers the curtain and turns on the dehumidifier. In the morning it turns off the dehumidifier and draws the curtain again. The only drawback I can think of is that you don't really have much control over when the curtain opens, so you might want to always get in the habbit of being fully clothed when you walk past that window.