Not sure what to do next.House is well aired ,good insulation and seems mould free.We opened up a suspect wall { different wall but same room} to find old fireplace that had just been boarded over,still had ashes in it! Cleaned it all out put in lots of insulation,re jibbed etc,painted.Then thought it might be related to roof so had guttering all cleaned out.Put new insulation in roof. Installed new heat pump.Re set the ventilation system.Just been told by tenant that the wall is still wet in the mornings. Any help appreciated.
johotech,
Aug 5, 4:59pm
If the wall is cold, and they aren't using any heating, it will get condensation on it from their breathing overnight. Just because you put a heatpump in, doesn't mean that they use it.
Ask the tenant straight up - do they use any heating at night? For some reason, tenants think a house magically stays warm by itself, without them spending a cent on heating :(
Ask in the Real Estate message board if you want answers from more landlords.
tweake,
Aug 5, 5:33pm
where abouts is the house? is the heat pump above the fireplace by any chance? your not going to get a wet wall from condensation in warkworth. odds are there is a leak somewhere or the gib is directly exposed to the outside.
where is the ventilation inlet? if you have an in ceiling intake, one thing you have to watch is that there is no connection from the ceiling down to the crawl space. otherwise it can suck air up from the crawlspace which is very wet. if that air is going up one wall it could make it wet and also make the whole house wet.
i looked at a house to buy north of warkworth. really rough reno done on it. didn't buy it, but someone did and did it up. saw it later and it looked like they had put gib straight over the fireplace.
zak410,
Aug 5, 5:53pm
The old chimney is not leaking ?
genpat,
Aug 6, 12:34am
Its fairly central Auckland.No I dont think it can be the fireplace because its on the opposite wall and we have given it a really good sort out with good insulation.I am going to get the ventilation system looked out and the filters cleaned.The rest of the house feels dry and there is no damp smell anywhere.I feel like I might just step back a bit say they should get a de humidifier.The heat pump is in the lounge,this wall is in the main bedroom.Thank you.
pleco,
Aug 6, 5:35am
Check the flashing around the old chimney on the roof.
golfaholic2,
Aug 6, 7:56am
They 'found' a fireplace inside the wall , a chimney sticking thru the roof would have been a good give away ?
genpat,
Aug 6, 8:17am
Thanks Pieco,I had a man look at the roof last week when the gutters were cleaned,he did not mention the flashings but sounds reasonable and worth a check. Makes sense because there is a second old fireplace .Thanks golfaholic I meant by "found" that we could see where the other fireplace had been but only "found" that it had been just left like a gaping cold hole when we opened up the wall. My clumsy description. All good.Will just do my best.Thanks again
genpat,
Aug 6, 11:30am
By the way there are no chimneys,new roof on just a couple of years ago.
zak410,
Oct 11, 7:59am
Thermal imaging maybe useful if you decide to investigate, for example :
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