Drying out a wall

[Jamesnel]

Hi!
To my horror I have dicscovered that one of the walls in my spare bedroom is completely damp, and mould has started appearing behind the wardrobe. We have only recently bought the house, and having looked into it, it appears that the dampness was caused by a lengthy period of leaking from my neighbours overflow.
So, in theory the cause of the damp has been rectified, so now I need to dry the wall out. We have only just had the exterior walls rendered, so I am not too keen on having to pull it all off again, however, as the wall paper in the spare room is now ruined I have no problem in hacking off the interior plaster and drying it from inside the house. Is this an acceptable way of drying out the wall? Or should it be done from the outside? Also, what am I best of doing to dry the wall out..... should I hire one of these infra-red heaters and combine it with a dehumidifier? Or will a dehumidifier alone suffice?
Any help would be welcomed!

 

[JohnD]

just ventilate the room well.

keep furniture and wardrobes away from the damp patch. The wardrobe blocks air movement

It will takes months to dry thoroughly. taking the plaster off would only make about 10% difference in drying time, so don't bother.

remove any wallpaper.

if you need to use the room, put a dehumidifier in it for a week. in this case keep the door and window shut while the dehum is running, or it will be trying to dehumidify the whole world, not just the one room.

 

[Jamesnel]

Hi John, thanks for your speedy and informative reply. I'll do as you say, and seal-up the room and dehumidify the room for a week or so.
Once I eventually dry the wall out, is it advisable to put a vent in the wall behind the wardrobes before I put them back in? There is definately a lack of air-flow in the room... the problem is we have brand new double glazed sash windows, so they don't have a 'part open' setting, they're either open and climb-throughable, or locked!

 

[JohnD]

brand-new windows with no trickle vent

surely not

perhaps you could slot them

if they are wooden you can fit a dual-screw at each side; this is a sort of lock/bolt that you can fit to give a ventilation gap

if not, you can hire a core-drill and put a 110mm hole through the wall (same size as used for extractor fans, tumble-driers etc.

you can line it with plastic pipe, put a cowl on the outside and a grille or hit-and-miss on the inside.

 

[Jamesnel]

Thanks again John. By chance, I bought a core drill bit only a few months ago to install my bathroom fan, so I'm glad to have need to use it again!! I assume that I should put the vent just above the skirting board?

Thanks again for your help, your advice on not chopping out the plaster alone has saved me a few hundred pounds!

James

 

[JohnD]

I'd have put it not far below the ceiling (water vapour rises, more than hot air) where it will be unobtrusive