Adam McCoy
Mandy PhillipsA bathroom without proper ventilation ruins any bathroom experience.
Windowless bathrooms are even worse: you can’t even open a window. As a result, the ever-damp air always gets on your nerves. The constant moisture breeds insects and mold alike. And sometimes the smell is so bad that you’re embarrassed to invite guests over.
Follow this advice on properly venting a windowless bathroom and finally enjoy your bathroom as much as you deserve.
A 3-Step Plan to Ventilate a Bathroom Without a Window
To ventilate your bathroom without a window, you need to have a three-step action plan:
Step 1. Limit Moisture in the Bathroom
Be sure to limit the amount of moisture and dampness that can build up in the bathroom. The less of it you have, the less extreme your actions will need to be to curb humidity and dampness. This means you need to:
- Keep Things Dry
Wipe down surfaces after a steamy bath or shower, remove wet towels and dry them in the dryer, and rotate bathroom rugs to encourage dryness from the floor up. Keeping your soiled clothing in the laundry will also help you not have to deal with unexpected dampness and lingering body odor in the bathroom.
A stacked laundry basket will quickly become a source of damp and act as a sponge to mop up moisture from the air. If the basket is in your bathroom, you will not be improving the bathroom climate at all.
- Police Your Shower
Showers are a major source of damp and water spillage, so be sure your shower door closes tightly, or if you use the dreaded shower curtain, you may want to ensure it drips down quickly and inside the shower, not on your floor.
Something as simple as wiping your shower door after use will greatly help reduce dampness and improve ventilation in your bathroom since the extra moisture can’t evaporate into the air. Fix leaking or dripping taps too.
Step 2. Lower Humidity in Your Windowless Bathroom
While you can try and keep things dry in your bathroom, you can’t ensure a completely humidity-free space, so you need some help. There is a range of appliances, moisture-absorbent chemicals, and nifty gadgets on the market to help the desperate owner of a windowless bathroom improve ventilation.
- Invest in Appliances
Bathrooms can be dried up effectively by installing an exhaust fan, which circulates outside air in and draws damp inside air out. This is a great way to reduce bathroom humidity in a bathroom without a window. However, note your HVAC system may be placed under additional strain in having to climate control the colder outside air.
You can alternatively invest in a portable dehumidifier, which will use the process of condensation to remove damp from your bathroom, turning it into water you can simply pour down the drain.
- Improve Absorption
If the additional electricity cost of exhaust fans and dehumidifiers isn’t hitting your note, then you can always work on other ways to absorb the excess moisture and humidity. One good way to do so is to buy a moisture-absorbing product like calcium chloride crystals, which help absorb moisture and humidity from the air.
Alternatively, you can use the normal absorption power of fabrics to help dry out the space. Hanging plush towels and laying down fresh bathroom rugs daily will not only help with removing the damp of used bathroom towels and rugs, but these will absorb moisture from the air before it can condensate on your surfaces, where the moisture can cause mold.
Step 3. Bring Air Into Your Bathroom Without Adding a Window
A surefire way to stop moisture and condensation in your windowless bathroom is to introduce airflow. Consider these steps to do just that:
- Install a Fan
While you may not consider a fan to be a great idea in a bathroom, having a ceiling fan or a portable fan can help you circulate the humid bathroom air out into the rest of your home, thereby reducing the resulting condensation. In addition to this, you can open the bathroom door when you aren’t using it as this will further improve air circulation.
- Add an Air Vent
Rebuilding your windowless bathroom to include a window isn’t always financially viable, but you can easily add an air vent to the bathroom door. This will allow air to circulate from the bathroom to the rest of the house, even when the bathroom door is closed.
If you have access to electricity near your bathroom door, you could opt for a door fan, which is built into your bathroom door, helping you actively circulate air into the bathroom without needing to open the bathroom door.
Why Ventilate a Windowless Bathroom?
A bathroom with no air circulation will suffer damp, moldy, and poor air quality.
This is not only bad for your health but also makes the bathroom a dingy and smelly place that nobody wants to visit.
Ventilating your bathroom reduces humidity, and it helps improve your bathroom’s hygiene, smell, and appearance.
Each time you shower or use the hot water, you create humidity, which can add up until your walls are weeping with condensation.
This is an ideal environment for nasties, like bacteria and mold, to grow, and if you don’t deal with it quickly, you could end up with a cockroach infestation too!
Your Secret Weapon to Improve Bathroom Ventilation—Add a Plant
It may not seem like the best idea since plants are technically filled with water in their cells, but adding a plant to your windowless bathroom is a great way to improve ventilation.
Plants naturally absorb moisture and humidity. Adding a small fern, a peace lily, or a spider plant can greatly help you reduce moisture and humidity, while these plants require low light only.
Plants often have charcoal-based potting materials, which also helps purify and improve air quality, helping you vent your bathroom without a window.
The Final Draft
When you are facing a damp and smelly bathroom because there is no window to help you ventilate the space, you need to be proactive and manage the space carefully.
You can beat dampness and humidity by removing excess moisture, keeping things dry, and bringing air in.
Try the three-step approach by limiting moisture, removing humidity from the air before it can condensate, and bringing air in with a fan or vent.
Bathroom ventilation is about better air quality, and bringing a bit of greenery into the space can help you improve air circulation and remove the toxins that damp and humidity can create.
