With temperatures cooling and the nights drawing in, everyone looks forward to getting home from work and settling down for the evening. However, the prospect of Santa’s impending visit also brings with it the possibility of driving snow, freezing nights, and high winds.
With the passing of Awaab’s Law, as well as its recent updates, it is now more important than ever to ensure your property is ship shape ahead of the winter months, as even the most unexpected problems like burst pipes and damp outbreaks can easily be prevented long before they cause significant damage. In this blog, we’ll be covering what you can do to control condensation in your rental property and keep your tenants happy this winter.
Have Your Boiler Inspected
Comfort and warmth go hand in hand at this time of year, and there’s nothing worse for a tenant than not having access to a warm shower or the central heating when it’s chilly. You should aim to have your boiler and heating system checked ahead of the cooler months to ensure they’re in good working order ahead of peak times.
Preventive servicing might feel like a waste of money if you suspect nothing is wrong. However, a frozen or corroded pipe can easily render the heating useless if it bursts, not to mention the considerable cost of repairing both the pipe and any surfaces affected by water damage. A well-maintained heating system will reduce the number of cooler surfaces condensation can collect on, and when combined with adequate ventilation will prevent moisture from being retained within your property.
You can also perform a few heating checks yourself: testing the thermostat, checking the boiler water pressure and bleeding radiators are tasks that can be carried out quickly and have a positive impact on the efficiency of your system.
Check Your Ventilation Systems
Alongside keeping the heat in, we also want to make sure that we don’t inadvertently retain any moisture we create. It doesn’t take long for moisture to build up during simple daily activities like showering, cooking, or cleaning our clothes. These daily practices will often result in damp patches forming on windows and walls if we keep our homes completely sealed.
An effective way of controlling condensation build-up is ventilation. Ideally, any moisture-rich areas in the home, such as kitchens or bathrooms, should be equipped with manual or hydrostatic fans. These will vent any moisture outside before condensation can form. In the case of hydrostatic fans, these activate when the moisture in the room reaches a certain level, meaning your tenants don’t even have to remember to turn them on to see the benefit.
Adopting lifestyle practices such as Lüften can also impact the amount of moisture in the property. Opening a window while showering or cooking will give moist warm air a way to escape, and in the absence of mechanical ventilation can be the next best prevention method.
If you’ve tried active condensation prevention methods or you don’t have these available, passive ventilation systems should be present in most properties. Systems such as trickle vents on windows or wall vents will passively vent moist air, though to a lesser extent than the mechanical methods above. If you only have passive ventilation, make sure these are checked regularly to ensure they’re free of any debris or blockages, and make sure not to push any furniture or large items against them as this will reduce airflow within the property.
Seal Windows and Doors to Prevent Drafts
Small gaps can always present a problem, especially within the exterior walls or where you’ve got windows or doors installed. While these can provide some passive ventilation, often they just result in quicker heat loss, meaning more cooler surfaces on which moisture can condense.
Check the window and door seals for gaps. You’ll usually find the seals between the panes and the framework, but you might also find them on the inner frame – just open your window to check. If any of the seals feel loose or look degraded, you should have these replaced by a trusted specialist. If your doors have gaps in them, door sweeps or draft stoppers can prevent further heat loss.
If you’ve had any cables installed from outside the home (think Internet or Television), there can often be gaps to allow the cable to comfortably through the wall. Attaching a wall grommet to the cable and fixing it to the wall will help seal the gap and prevent any damage. If any of these cables are no longer in use, they can be removed by a trained professional, who can then seal any holes in the masonry.
Educate Your Tenants
Providing the means to prevent condensation is one thing, but ensuring success is another. Educate tenants on the benefits of ventilating their living spaces and efficiently heating the property and ask them to inform you of any problems in the first instance. A fan breaking might be a minor inconvenience in the short term, but the resulting build-up of black mould might say otherwise if left for a long period of inaction.
Keeping a positive relationship with your tenant will ensure you’re notified at the first sign of trouble. Supporting your tenants when things go wrong will encourage them to stay longer, look after the property better, and report any issues to you before they become a hazard.
Conclusion
Condensation is a problem that can plague any home, rented or owned, and you should take great care to identify and test for any potential issues before they arise. Changes in moisture-generating activities, performing regular maintenance, and adequately ventilating a property can all go a long way towards keeping your home warm and dry.
Educate your tenants on any moisture prevention systems such as fans and vents and ensure they know how and when to use them to reduce the amount of moisture remaining in the property. Maintaining a positive relationship with your tenants will encourage them to notify you of any faults and fixing these in a proactive manner will keep them happier and likely to stay in the property longer.
