Breathable house/damp house?

[rebeccac]

Over the last 10 years we have spend our time removing cement and replacing cement floors with breathable floors in our very old Italian stone house. The walls are lime plastered and we have just had all the cement removed from the hall/stairway ready to lay the final bit of brick floor.

Despite the conception of italy as a hot dry climate we get very wet late winters and early springs and some pretty soaking down pours in June and July.Consequently when we arrive at the house after several months there is a lot of damp - some signs of efforesence and mould in places and a generally musty smell everywhere.

After a few days airing the smell goes- mostly.

Is this normal for a breathable house ? I'm starting to question the wisdom of our approach in an old house we can't live in full time.Will it always be damp and musty smelling? If so has anyone got a good ide to keep clothes and bedding dry and not musty smelling? HELP!!!!

 

[tobydog]

Rebecca,

Although your house is now very 'breathable', it does seem to be lacking in ventilation. Breathable walls don't actually let air in and out so when your floors and walls give up moisture as they were intended to do, there is nowhere for it to go. So it's good old fashioned gaps around windows / doors, and open chimneys, that you might be missing. Is that the case?

If your roof is particularly draughty, you could try leaving the loft hatch open when you're not there to help let moist warm air out. Just make sure you have a wire mesh over the hole otherwise your house will turn into an aviary!. Additional airbricks downstairs could help as well.

Just some thoughts.

 

[skier-hughes]

Absolutely agree, depends on your location and security, but having a window or two locked slightly ajar may also help, or letting "friends" from places like PPUK go visit to make sure it gets opened up often may be the only cure!!!!!!

 

[Keithj]

Exactly!

We have an eminently breatheable 12th century church. Despite (or maybe because of) being well repaired, it was suffering badly from damp and efflorescence. The cast iron ventilator windows have long since stopped being openable (another long story ), and there wasn't enough "through air". The architect solved the problem in one go: the outer door has a one-inch gap under it, the inner door is draughtproof. When the outer door is locked (most of the week), the inner door is left open. That's been enough to ventilate it, and it's drying out a treat.

Air bricks or a hole and a grille low down at one end, and something similar high up at the other...