Hi
Just trying to find out what others do when leaving there property empty for several weeks at a time, do you leave windows open, use a dehumidifier, install air bricks into each room, other suggestions?
Thanks in advance

Never had an issue. Just thoroughly air property on my return.

Before moving here permanently we only came over twice a year so the house was totally closed up for months at a time and we never had a problem.

Rosemary

I think it must depend very much on the individual property - like other posters we never had a problem when we used our house only for holidays, but I know of plenty of other people who do. One couple just up the street installed a dehumidifier which does seem to solve the problem, but they have to pay someone to come in at least once a week and empty the water away.

Leaving windows open might help, but depending on the type of property could also be a security issue - and might lead to problems in getting an insurance company to pay out in the event of a break-in if there wasn't evidence of forced entry.

We have a dehumidifier, but dont use it when away as its electricity costs and I dont like leaving stuff on when away (and someone has to empty it, though you can put it on a table and run a pipe into the bath) My Friend told me to get some crystals from Amazon and they work great for him. He calculated +/1 a pound a month is the cost ..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...ls%2Caps%2C239

Good luck

Jon

The crystals do absorb moisture but if they prove adequate then frankly there wasn't a real problem in the first place!

If you have ever used a proper dehumidifier and seen the amount of water it creates then you would see why crystals are only an answer in very small spaces.

Spain is pretty low humidity generally so it tends not to be a problem.

One thing we did have to do in order to get our gas contract was to have a ventilation grille put into the front door (it couldn't go in the wall as the ground level outside was above the floor level inside and for gas, the ventilation outlet has to be quite low). Maybe that might help the OP a little, probably easier than putting airbricks in. I know I was none too pleased as I'd just spent literally weeks stripping, sanding and refinishing our double wooden front doors only to be told we had to cut a hole in one for the grille to go in.

I would also recommend leaving all the internal doors open and also drawers, cupboard and wardrobe doors (less chance of getting mildew on things if you do have a damp problem).

Thanks Fred. I haven't bought anything yet but my friend with the same place as ours recommends them as they work for him .... we also have humidity problems as well, (which is why we bought the humidifier) nothing horrible, but enough to look for a solution when away for reasonable periods of time.

Maybe we have more humidity as we are next to a river and close to the ocean....

Worth a try though for the OP as it non electricity and non invasive..... and s/he can see if it works or not. (If it can be carried to Spain, now that Amazon dont deliver there free - or if there isn't an equivalent there)

Jon

Don't agree that humidity in Spain is low. Sometimes it is very uncomfortable due to high humidity.
Can't believe the original poster even suggested leaving windows open-you might have a dry house, but little else when you come back!

Don't forget that most houses have rejas (at least around here they do).

We leave a window open for the cat to get in and out while we are away. The only problem was that another cat took up residence once. We found it - the ugliest looking mog you've ever seen - sitting on the settee looking at us like... WTF are you lot doing here?

The dogs went bonkers but it still wouldn't go. We had to go out and come back when it had gone in its own good time.

We only have rejas on our downstairs windows - upstairs just have a railing about half the window height around the sill. The insurance policy just states that all windows below a certain height off the ground (I think it's 3 metres) must have rejas.

One house further up my street which has a small balcony from one upstairs window, with a sliding door to access it, was broken into. We were acting as keyholders at the time, and I had to deal with the police when they came to check it out. Their scene of crime technician looked at the front of the house and said "muy facil" when I said I couldn't understand how thieves had got up to the balcony and managed to get the window open. He reckoned they just shinned up the reja on the window below and hauled themselves up over the balcony.

Another guy we know came over on holiday to find his house had been burgled - the reja on a ground floor window had been cut through and then replaced with black tape wrapped around the cuts, so at first glance you couldn't tell that anything had happened. We know it's quite easy to do with the right tools, as my OH once had to do it for a friend who had locked himself out and didn't want to pay for an expensive call-out for a locksmith. I really wouldn't want to make it any easier for thieves by leaving a window open.

Ditto, and we leave all the internal doors open. We are all electric but that shouldn't make a difference when the home is not occupied.

Seek and ye shall find!

http://www.amazon.es/151-Deshumidifi...s=dehumidifier

It's all relative, it is relatively low in Spain which is why damp from it is not usually a problem.

In Singapore it is 95% all the time.

A couple of weeks ago it was 17% here. It's 32º at the moment and only 40%.

Convinced I'd seen lots of posts here on damp, I searched "damp" in these forums and about 230 posts turned up. Now some will not be directly connected to it, but the majority must be complaining about damp. We have certainly stayed in many that have damp, smell of damp, or have just had a fresh coat of paint/emulsion to cover it. I think a combination of no insulation or damp courses in many houses plus gas heaters is a recipe for damp.