MOULD MOULD MOULD

[sanxo]

I have recently noticed that I am getting increasingly more mould on the wall in my house and on the windows. My wife recently gave birth to our first child and subsequently we are not heating the house as much as we used to, can this be contributing. Also I have notice much more condensation that usual on the window which are double glazed, but are quite old. Do you think these need replacing?

Any further suggestions please, has anyone had a similar issue?

Thanks in adavance for your suggestions :)[/quote]

[welsh brickie]

use neat bleach to remove all the mould as this will become very harmfull over long exposure.
Fit trickle vents to the windows,very simple to fit but if your unsure ask a joiner.
Get an industrial dehumidifyer to dry out the room,dont buy the domestic cheap ones they are crap.

[DrWho]

[quote="welsh brickie"]use neat bleach to remove all the mould as this will become very harmfull over long exposure.
Fit trickle vents to the windows,very simple to fit but if your unsure ask a joiner.
Get an industrial dehumidifyer to dry out the room,dont buy the domestic cheap ones they are no good.[/quote]

Thanks for the useful info. We've also got damp on our walls, it's quite worrying as I've heard the only real way of getting rid of it permanently is to redo all the walls! Is this true?

[welsh brickie]

no you dont need to redo the walls.
If the house is flooded by rising water,then yes but not by condensation
I would get cavity wall insulation done as this will stop a lot of damp.
Ask the local council for a grant to insulate your walls most councils have these available.

[Barney]

Reducing the amount of heating will certainly be contributing to the problem
Also the arrival of the baby will be adding to the amount of water vapour produced just from having an extra body in the house plus the extra washing/drying of clothes.

Controlling condensation is a balance of controlling the source of the moisture, heating, ventilation and insulation.

When cooking try keeping lids on pans, use extraction fans if fitted and keep the kitchen door closed. Try to avoid drying clothes indoors as well - not easy I know with the volume of dirty clothes produced by a baby!

As mentioned above installing cavity wall insulation will help by raising the temperature of the internal surfaces of the walls and reduce condensation.

Ventilation is very important. Trickle vents if fitted should be kept open to aid air flow.
You could also try opening the windows in the room for at least an hour a day. Even on damp winter days the water vapour pressure inside the house will probably be greater than outside so opening the window will allow moisture to escape.

[TheDoctor5]

If you type the key words of your question into our search box to the left of the site you may find the answer is already posted or is in the DIY projects section of the website. Every post goes through a monitoring process and using the search box may speed up your answer.