Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Aren’t Dehumidifiers Brilliant !

I've had a De'Longhi in my garage for as long as I've had the Morgan, which I've just realised is over ten years. I empty it nightly into the birdbath, it extracts about 5 litres a day.

~iw

All this is very interesting. I live in an old stone cottage, circa1701, and have a problem with mould in the end livjng room. I will have to buy one.

Check the outside ground/soil level isn't above inside floor level. Stone cottages like to have a lower ground level around them. Ideally you should have a trench around 12" deeper than floor level filled with stone chippings / coarse gravel.

I’ve had a dehumidifier working in the garage/workshop for years and would never be without one as all metalwork especially tools remain rust free.They also give a comfortable atmosphere to work in with the added bonus of pure water produced.👍

When I bought the cottage 40yrs ago I had the walls injected with a damproof course but they would not do the fireplace. I think this is where the damp is. Foundationa are very shallow so I dont go digging too deep, except may be near the extension.

If it's a Cotswold stone cottage built before the 19th Century you'll be lucky if you have any proper foundations at all, especially around the fireplace. All they used was whatever rubble they had lying around, compacted into a widish bed a foot or so deep. They started with two big slabs of stone either side of the hearth, usually about 6 feet apart and set into the ground by a foot or so, put a tree-trunk across the top to make a lintel, and went from there. I can see why the damp guys didn't want to do the fireplace if that's the arrangement you have.

The thing with these cottages is that the builders did know how to keep the damp out, but it relies on your outside walls being able to get plenty of air to them and the outside ground level being lower than the floor - especially if, like our place, you don't have suspended floors and the flagstones/quarry tiles are just sat straight on the ground.

You're lucky that your place is relatively young, ours is a good century or two older and is just sat on a bit of a layer of Oolite that juts out where the valley bends. Over the last 400 years or so things have moved a bit, so it's not very straight any more, but still very warm and dry. The only places we get damp are where someone has built something that touches the outside wall, but the central heating keeps it at bay.

Yes we have a lovely beam across the fire place as you describe. I think that the damp proof installers would not do the fireplace because of the guarantee.I applied for an Iimprovement grant (don't know if these are still available;) and the survayor said that main walls were very good but he said that the council insisted on a damp course being installed.