House damp, insulate or damp proof?

Dehumidifiers are great so solve a short-term problem such as drying out a house that has been flooded. However, running them full time is crazy. Regardless of efficiency, you're using (costly) energy to remove the symptom of a problem, a prime cause of which is inadequate insulation, which itself will lead to unnecessarily high heating bills. You’re basically paying cash to heat up the air surrounding your house and more cash to remove moisture from inside it. Better by far to keep the heat in (insulation) and have an adequate movement of air (ventilation) to avoid excessive build-up of moisture. You do not need huge holes in the wall with gales blowing through them: for example, we’ve vents built into the frames of large patio doors in our kitchen as the only ventilation for a large room and they’re more than adequate. I’d recommend you talk to an insulation and ventilation expert and go from there.
 

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Noproblem, I missed your reply earlier somehow. I had a search for ventillation experts online in the Galway area but they all seem to be suppliers of MRV systems and the insulation guys seem to cover the insulation.
As I understand now, it seems I need ventillation and insulation to overcome my condensation problem. Do you think I will require a MRV system?
If so do you have any recommendations for brand or supplier?
I had a look at Aereco demand controlled system and thought they seemed a good option.
Thanks for all your input everyone, very much appreciated.
 
Western Insulation seems to offer ventillation and insulation, has anyone any feedback on them please?
 

I suggest you try Sustainable Energy Ireland for direction on this. Most of those supplying product are selling you a product and not really surveying your property for the work that's really needed.
 
No joy with SEAI I'm afraid, they could only advise to have a look on their website for list of approved registered professionals in the area. Unfortunately, this list is divided into BER assessors and better home energy contractors which are the guys that insulate etc. Nothing about independant ventillation surveys at all really.
 
A MRV will make the best long term improvement to your home and they also extremely cheap to run. They can be hard install in a old house and an expert might instead suggest DCV. There are several companies that supply and install them.
 
Thanks everyone, might have a chat with Western Insulation tomorrow, they supply aereco dcv in Galway.
 
Any gas appliances not vented to the outaide generates moisture, such as gas cooker, superser heaters etc, do you have an extractor fan above your hob to take steam away when cooking?
 
OP be careful about getting walls pumped etc. If they are cavity blocks certainly do not do it as pumping cavity blocks is a recipe for disaster. Get pro advice on this as you can totally mess up your house (really badly) and make the problem worse if you try to fix things without sound knowledge. Other posters are correct that it could be ventilation related - kitchen ventilation, shower ventilation etc.
 
With damp, ventilation and heating solve most problems, if it's caused by people drying clothes inside, then provide a tumble drier, it may be cheaper than dealing with the damp.
 
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