What "man jobs" have you done today?

Mysterae_ said:
The horrors continue, this one I knew about. When the previous owners installed an ensuite they put an extractor fan in the ceiling, however rather than extracting the warm and very moist air to the outside they thought it would be acceptable to just vent it in to the loft insulation. As the insulation was covered by the loft boards, this caused moisture to condense and fester to create mould on the underside of the loft boards. This wasn't found during the building survey, or at least mentioned.
Click to expand...


That’s a huge fail, inspect those joists carefully as they may be rotten. I’d be hitting all that wood with some anti fungal/wood rot treatment to be sure nothing is active there.

Bin all the insulation in that area if you haven’t already, it will probably have mould spores imbedded in it.
 
CooK1E said:
Interestingly we had all of the ducting in place, but the hot air was condensing in the loft pipe. Meaning it was full of water constantly. Ended up having to insulate the pipe and installing a stronger fan to push the air outside before it condenses.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I had that problem afterwards too, the water would then leak out the fan casing.
 
That is an epic bodge. So just pure warm moist air going into loft insulation? lol wtf?

I hope my fan is OK.... it works great at lowering humidity. It is about 500mm from the vent, and then there is a 2m or so pipe to the outside...
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
That’s a huge fail, inspect those joists carefully as they may be rotten. I’d be hitting all that wood with some anti fungal/wood rot treatment to be sure nothing is active there.

Bin all the insulation in that area if you haven’t already, it will probably have mould spores imbedded in it.
Click to expand...

Wise words. Can you recommend any fungal wood treatment in particular?
 
Mysterae_ said:
The horrors continue, this one I knew about. When the previous owners installed an ensuite they put an extractor fan in the ceiling, however rather than extracting the warm and very moist air to the outside they thought it would be acceptable to just vent it in to the loft insulation.
Click to expand...
What the actual...? That's some amazingly smooth brained work there. Possibly an unscrupulous contractor? Good job you're ripping all that out or it would have probably ended up in the plasterboard of the rooms beneath.
 
dlockers said:
That is an epic bodge. So just pure warm moist air going into loft insulation? lol wtf?

I hope my fan is OK.... it works great at lowering humidity. It is about 500mm from the vent, and then there is a 2m or so pipe to the outside...
Click to expand...

Unbelievable isn't it?! Words fail on how I felt about it. As soon as I discovered it we stopped using the ensuite and I blocked up the fan vent stop warm air from the house going up there too.
 
GravyMonster said:
What the actual...? That's some amazingly smooth brained work there. Possibly an unscrupulous contractor? Good job you're ripping all that out or it would have probably ended up in the plasterboard of the rooms beneath.
Click to expand...

I've highlighted a salient point in your comment - the plasterboard is fine however it's their joints that are not. Cracks all over the ceiling which begun a few months after moving in and led me to investigate in the loft. So a combination of venting in to the insulation, flooring one third of the loft straight to the joists that compressed the insulation and caused a disparity in the expansion and contraction of the trusses in the centre.

The previous owners must have been well aware of the problem as there's tell tale signs of the ceiling plasterboard being retaped and plastered in the past, to hide it and make it look pretty for selling no doubt.
 
dlockers said:
That is an epic bodge. So just pure warm moist air going into loft insulation? lol wtf?
Click to expand...
I've seen it more than once. I've also fixed friends' fans where the flexible ducting had slipped off and their ceiling mount fan was blowing straight into the loft insulation.

dlockers said:
I hope my fan is OK.... it works great at lowering humidity. It is about 500mm from the vent, and then there is a 2m or so pipe to the outside...
Click to expand...
Better to install an inline fan closer to the exit not the source - the idea is it should be pulling the moist air, not pushing. This means any leaks in the duct will pull air in, not blow the damp air out into the loft or wall.

Not much of an issue with solid plastic pipe in straight runs, but deffo a consideration with joints or flexi pipe.
 
Last edited:
LuckyBenski said:
Better to install an inline fan closer to the exit not the source - the idea is it should be pulling the noisy air, not pushing. This means any leaks in the duct will pull air in, not blow the damp air out into the loft or wall.

Not much of an issue with solid plastic pipe in straight runs, but deffo a consideration with joints or flexi pipe.
Click to expand...
Ah, thank you - I had been thinking about this for a little while. I think I will move it closer to exit as you suggest. I've boarded that bit of the loft out now so shouldn't be too difficult.
 
dlockers said:
That is an epic bodge. So just pure warm moist air going into loft insulation? lol wtf?

I hope my fan is OK.... it works great at lowering humidity. It is about 500mm from the vent, and then there is a 2m or so pipe to the outside...
Click to expand...

I’d put insulation around the pipe to prevent condensation from forming and rolling to the lowest point. I have a long run with an axial fan so that’s at the highest point at the wall.
 
While stopping for some lunch I thought I'd share a picture of the adjacent minging mouldy board.

s!Ahf7xhLzGq1Qr1koFR3WPCNl8gCE


Bleh!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom