Narrowboats - solving a damp environment?

Thursday, 26 January 2012 11:00

No matter what any narrowboat owner says, somewhere on a narrowboat there hides a patch of damp or condensation. A cupboard, some little corner, some hidden crevice: they are all susceptible. After all water is a narrowboat's natural environment - warmth and water produce "damp" on cold surfaces.

Lots of bedroom cupboards on our liveaboard narrowboat Epiphany

So we confess that we do have some of these out of the way places - but what to do about them?......

We have hot water and fin-rad pipes: these warm the starboard side of narrowboat Epiphany. The stern 2/3 of the port side has no source of heat save the ambient temperature and the sun beating down on the outside (I can dream can't I?). The saloon has the coal stove, of course.

It is vital to have adequate ventilation too and we have roof mushrooms and vents in doors and cupboards. I always try to keep at least one porthole open, winter and summer.  So what else could we do?

Our Pingi

We have discovered these - we have a number of "Pingi" and they are just what we needed! I affectionately call them "Pingu" and watchers of children's TV will know why if they look at the Pingi website.

The Pingi changes colour to indicate when they have absorbed as much as they can. So, every few weeks the small dehumidifiers are "revived" by a few minutes in the microwave; they have been very effective at drying out our "hidden secret"! For those of you who are energy conscious or do not have a microwave they can be dried out on a radiator or even in the sun (when it shines!).

PS you don't need the illustrated wine for this procedure, but .....