We have a book shop (though in truth it's more of a storage space) which is in an old converted barn. </p> Problem is, it get's really cold in here and so the books seem to be getting damp/slightly damaged. It seems too big a space (and heat would escape through the roof) to simply use central heating (although there is no heating installed anyway).</p> Anyone have any cost-effective measures to try and help this problem? I Imagine besides full insulation/heating there perhaps isn't much we can do, but thought I'd ask</p>
good ventilation can solve damp problems. get a good draft blowing through. keep your books away from the walls & off the floors. central heating causes more damp problems as warm air hits cold walls & condensation forms. are the walls lined at all or are they bare stonework/brickwork? maybe lining the walls with timber studs & moisture resistant plasterboard would help too but i guess it all depends on how much moisture is in the walls.
Not an expert but... Had a similar problem with a cellar over here (Germany). Google "humidistat" and hunt around a bit. You can set a humidistat to turn fans on and off, sometimes in both directions, so you can suck dry air in and blow moist air out, all automatically.
Well we have bookshelves running all around the walls, but due to space restraints we don't have much choice.</p> The walls are bare</p> Cheers for the reply mate</p>
no worries. if it's too tight to line the walls try the dehumidifer as stahlrost suggested but keep in mind the ventilation, if the damp isn't too bad a slightly open window (if you have one in the room) may do the trick (providing rain doesn't get on the books, obviously). another thing to look at is the pointing on the outside of the wall. if it's a solid stone wall as many barns are & the pointing is knackered moisture may be getting into the stone that way.
