Hi, just got back from a week away in Longleat. It's our first trip after doing our damp repair. The first night it's lashing it down and I have a mini meltdown after finding water trickling down the back corners in the van, where the kids bunks are a little enclosed. The second night when it's dry, there is still water and I finally chill a bit an agree with my husband that it is condensation.
I know that we should have a Window or 2 on the latch, but not brave enough to put up with the sniffing and sneezing from my husband all night- he definitely feels the cold and I don't like the idea of it being draughty for my 18 month old.
Our heating is temperamental, so can't rely on that at night, so planning on taking our dehumidifier with us next time. But is there any kind of corrugated board I can put around the baby's bunk to stop the bedding and cushions getting wet. The 9 year old is on the top bunk, but that sits away from the wall.
Any sort of insulation on inside of wall will help because problem is warm breath hitting cold wall in unventilated area. If you do still have damp in structure of wall then it will be colder & condensation will be worse but cardboard will help. Really a bit of ventilation is what you need, an electric dehumidifier big enough to do the job with cause you to wake up with dry throats. If you are on ehu you could buy an oil filled radiator or fan heater(better but noisy)to keep the place warm & keeps some windows open. An open roof hatch is to be avoided because more heat will be lost upwards.
Buy your OH a better sleeping bag and tell him to get a grip. It's not just about the odd spot of wet on the baby's mattress, it's also about the mould that's going to start growing in the corners that are permanently damp due to the condensation. You NEED to ventilate to control this. During the day you need to do the same as for a tent with condensation, open the door and windows, lift the mattresses and bedding to air and give the whole van a blow through. Keep wet coats and towels in the awning and keep door and windows open when cooking to stop water vapour building up. And get the vents open at night.
In an emergency, to help absorb overnight condensation, simply head to the local supermarket and buy a couple of large bags of cheap cooking salt, and either use something like a cat litter tray, or the large plastic containers that mushrooms come in work quite well, the aim is to spead the salt in a couple of these so that you have the greatest surface area possible exposed to the circulating air of your caravan, whilst maintaining a minimum depth of around 5cm. Place one of the containers at each end of the caravan and watch it clump and become damp as it absorbs the moisture out of the air. After each use, just place it somewhere warm inside your house to dry out and 'recharge' it ready for next time its needed. This also works well to help keep caravans dry over winter, and is recomended in my new Elddis instruction manual.
The best possible marerial that l can think of for forming a barrier to protect the bedding from touching the wall without compromising safety for your toddler by using plastic shheting ect, is to use some of the shower tray matting that comes by the metre from any decent caravan shop, or can be bought from Dunhelm mill stores. Its non absorbant, but will also give a degree of insulation to your walls where the condensation is occuring, whilst its small vent holes in the material will allow your toddler some air if they were to pull it over their face.
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
That sounds good Romany. I bought some of that stuff in Dunelm for our large shower at home. Would work well.
Val - I'm a duvet girl, so no restrictive sleeping bags for us
Think hubby would sleep with hat and coat on if I let him
Think I'll need to move baby's cushions about in the morning. I tend to leave the bunks, as such a faff to remake them and also have a net curtain tucked in the keep him in the bunk.
Haven't got an awning yet - on our list for the Feb caravan show.
J&j - also like cardboard idea too. Might soak up the excess.
Come next easter when we'll be out next, baby will be nearly 2 and venting will not be as much of a worry.
It might be worth talking to Gary of Arc Systems about what's making your heating temperamental. I've got a vague memory of him saying that some uneven caravan heating situations were caused by the fabric of the 'van not being warmed enough to stop cold spot condensation - or summat like that.
I had a problem with condensation in the rear section of a van some years ago. The front of the van (seating area) didn't suffer, but the rear dinette/sleeping area did.
While the front had wall-boards fixed behind the seat cushions to aid venting, the back of the van didn't. I made up a suitable pair of boards from some thin laminated ply (which practically matched the vans interior), fitted with a few battens to allow about 6-7mm clearance and had no further problems whatsoever.
Unfortunately, good ventilation is the only proper route to go to reduce your issue. Heating will just exacerbate the issue, while dehumidifiers (inc use of salt) will suck all the moisture out of the air, which is naturally present anyway.
Thanks Al, I've spoken to Gary and the heating does need fixing - it's something electrical on the circuit, that doesn't cut off when we turn the heating off, so has to be reset when we next come to use it.
We've just done a repair and have some wallboard left, so may be able to cobble some false wallboards - thanks G7.
Thanks for the suggestion Micheal - we've got slats underneath and don't seem to suffer under the cushions - just the very corners - trickling from top to bottom. Particularly in the corner opposite to where we had the damp, because that is where the bunk is most enclosed. Think I need to defluff that vent with perhaps a pipe cleaner.
Got all the cushions turned over and away from the walls since we got back and had several hours with our dehumidifier running. All seems dry today.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: condensation in bunk area
