MDF vs Wood Cladding

[helenw]

I want to clad the stair-well of my cellar. The cellar has not been tanked & therefore the walls are somewhat damp (not too bad!). Will water resistant MDF t&g panels cope with these damp conditions.

 

[big-all]

heeelllooowww helen w and welcome

the trouble is the dampness will get trapped as your blocking off the air flow

things will look great for a while then your magnolia will start to develop a dalmation effect as mold and mildew work there magic

 

[petewood]

I don't think the mdf itself would be too badly affected, I have had standard mdf shelving in my cellar (which can get a bit damp sometimes) for years and they still look the same. Maybe you should batten the walls to create a gap, and leave a small gap above the floor and below the ceiling to allow ventilation behind the cladding. Isn't there a paint for bathrooms that is more reststant to humidity that you could use. It may be worth painting a sample piece and leaving it down there for a while to see what happens to it.

 

[SD Carps]

Do you have any ventilation in the cellar,if not it might be a good idea to try to sort some kind of cross-ventilation in there to give it some fresh air instead of the old stale cool air all the time,this will probably help out some of the damp problem too.

SD Carps