Home DIY

Nope. That grey shit is either asbestos or the state of the plasterboard after 44 years.

its definitely cold, the wall is very cold, the wardrobe metal fixings are also cold.

its far away from the radiator in the room so it gets no heat.

Can you move your radiator?
Should you?
Could you put insulating plasterboard up?

Yep im sure both of those things could be done, shame we just spent a grand decorating the room and fitting the wardrobe 😂

What's that orange juice song I want here?

(I feel your pain)

Is this a ground floor flat? If not ignore but, if so - you could have some significant damp below the floorboards on that wall which is making the atmosphere around there very humid and also keeping the temperature low. Rising damp is mostly a bit of a myth (it can happen though) but damp brickwork lower down can certainly lead to damp plaster higher up, even if it's just due to it keeping the temperature low enough to cause a dew point.

Anyway as other have said, best to keep it well ventilated - can you get vents put in at the bottom of the wardrobe for example?

Below the flat is garages which arent insulated, so i guess it might still be applicable?

the actual wardrobe has no doors on it (we took them off) so ventilation into the wardrobe isnt an issue in itself.

Thank you so much for the comprehensive reply. I see lonely evenings in the office with YouTube and AutoCAD in my future.

Alcove shelving. Planning on batons on three sides, then shelf on top and a facing strip to cover the front and the batons. I have some big 24mm beech ply sheets. Are these going to be too heavy and overkill? Should I get some thinner MDF or something?

For record deck and such on one shelf, records on another, and books and shit.

Tis a bit overkill, but if youre happy with the chunky look then go for it.

For an alcove it's normally done with 18mm mdf or ply.

@rogan - were the doors off when it got mouldy again?
if you're over garages the floor is unlikely to be that damp.
I think the problem is simply that you have a cold outer wall so it gets damp from condensation, especially if it's a bedroom (or another room you breathe in... ). It seems unusual that it would stay damp enough to mould if it's completely uncovered, but even something like a load of shoes in front could be enough to block it from being as warm as the rest of the room / drying out. It doesn't really matter that the room is cold, what matters is the difference in temp between the wall and the rest of the room (and how much humidity is in the air).

Sounds about right.

Yeah the doors have always been off, but with the bottom shelves in and shoes down there theres basically no airflow when i think about it if its stuffed with shoes.

We’ll clean it up, keep the bottom shelves off, chuck out the doors (which have been sat against the wall for months now anyway) and look into a small heater to run on a timer on that side of the room

Would the outlet from your dehumidifier work to circulate dry air around the area?

It outlets at the top so possibly not but worth a go

@rogan Can you get to that wall on the outside? Have you considered installing an air brick?

Or position it to draw air in from one side of the alcove and expel into the room. Again, it may not be workable with a top exit

The heavier the better. How wide are the alcoves?
I made shelves for my 125cm wide alcoves in a similar fashion and they really aren't strong enough for vinyl or books. I used 18mm pine with a 38 x 18mm front strip. I may remake them from scaffold board.

I don't give up on many DIY jobs, but fitting "pigs ear" handrail on a wonky wall up the stairs can fuck right off.

"pigs ear"

Will thinking of it as a proto-silk purse make it easier?

It might be easier to make supports that you can insert (and maybe even move to allow a decorative effect). 1.25m is quite a span for vinyl. Try the sagulator to see if scaffold board would improve things in theory but supports could just be added to what you have there. You might need to add one inside the cupboard though.

105cm. Is that 38mm deep at the front then? Doesn't look too chunky.

That's a handy tool. Reckons I could get 100kg on a 24mm fir ply shelf before it sags even a mm, at that span, so I think I should be safe? Especially with an edging strip.

Looks nice. I've questions!

What cupboard doors did you use, snd where is the fire surround from?

Yep. 38mm deep front.
125cm of records weigh approx 91kg. Sagulator my shelves will sag by 1.2cm.
I may add a few basic cut down broom handle supports per shelf. It will probably be better for the records if they are not leaning against each other too.

I built the base cabinets fairly strong so I didn't have to use the wobbly internal lath and plaster wall to support any weight.

There is a cladding on the back wall with some carpet underlay behind to help with sound proofing.

Heres the before:

Anyone have reccos for nice looking (or just good)battery smoke alarms - the shitty ones we have batteries died and I got them for the price of batteries so want to upgrade.