Mould

[Kev1985]

Hi everyone,

Bought a house recently and my wife and I have had a constant headache since moving. Our stuff is very cold and we have had the heating on most of the summer.

There is a musky smell in a few rooms. The living room bay window has a musty smell at one side, bedroom 2 smells very bad with mould and damp.

The bedroom we are currently in has what looks like mould on the walls, looking for some advice on where we go with this, photos attached.

The survey did not pick up and there were no smells present when we viewed, is removing mould a big task, how do we go about this?

Structure is timber framed I’m now panicking that the timber may be affected due to the place smelling bad.

 

[JohnD]

how often do you open the windows?

Do you dry washing indoors?

Is there a water meter?

 

[^woody^]

The survey did not pick up and there were no smells present when we viewed

In which case it's most likely your use of the property that is causing the condensation which is causing the mould - the previous occupiers used it differently so did not have the issue.

Without more details of the property and how you use it, it's hard to comment. Read up on the many condensation/ mould threads.

There is no way a property should be cold and require heating in the summer, so is that your personal perception? Have you recorded internal temperatures?

Are there extract fans, trickle vents, do you open windows, occupancy and heating patterns, pets, fish tanks, washing drying etc?

 

[Kev1985]

As soon as we got the keys and opened the door the smells hit us, this is not an issue we have created as it was evident from day 1 of getting the keys.

House is cold in the summer, this is the view of my self, wife and many family members who have came to visit

 

[IT Minion]

Get a cheap thermometer and moisture meter to see what the temperature and humidity really are. Why guess when you can have real numbers?

For example we have this one: Lanhiem Indoor Digital Thermometer Hygrometer, Accurate Room Temperature Gauge Humidity Monitor with Alarm Clock - Easy to Read, Max/Min Records, LCD Display for Home Office (White) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BMQ1PD3/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_5UbBDb3MKJ0HK

If you've found a way for a house to be cool in 30 degree plus heat you've discovered magic (or air con). But it could be a house that has a high thermal mass which means it takes a long time to get warm, then takes a long time to get cool. That's a good thing in general.

Most damp is because you aren't ventilating properly, but there are other causes like leaky gutters,o rooves or pipes. Apparently you can get rising damp but it's much rarer than people seem to think. It should be addressed and is generally fixable, but you have to work out what is causing it before you can get anywhere.

 

[JohnD]

@Kev1985

Are you willing to answer any of the questions?

 

[Kev1985]

We ventilate the property every day by opening windows, front and back door. This has been letting heat in for us.

There is a smell coming from one side of the bay window I recon this is the source of mould or bad smell in the living room, it’s just the one side and it’s the inside window sill, the wall, carpet and floor board is dry and when it rained a few weeks ago we could smell a musky smell.

The bedroom as mould on the bottom walls, these are plasterboard wall and it’s where they join, I think the previous owners had stored things there.

Mould in the bathroom this is old as we have not used the bathroom instead we are using the newer shower room, there is no radiator in there so it does get very cold when showering and the window is opened.

We have turned the heating on, it’s been very cold. It’s a very large bungalow that we are in, we have noticed by opening the windows during the day the heat is getting into the property.

Insulation wise there is patches in the loft where it is 100mm and other part there are none due to old electrics. It’s timber framed with insulation between plasterboard and timer frame. Sub floor has no insulation, I had a look down the hatch but could not smell any dampness.

We used a vented tumble dryer for clothes, there is no mould in the kitchen. No water meter for the property.

 

[IT Minion]

No loft insulation and probably rockwool at most in the walls (a guess) means it'll lose heat nearly instantly. That means that it'll warm up during the day but be outside temperature at night really quickly.

Sounds like condensation. If you've got the windows and doors shut at night when the heat disappears then any excess moisture in the air (air can hold more water when it's got than when it's cold) will condense on the colder surfaces and lead to mould. Bottom corners are perfect for that.

Get a moisture meter.

Then get loft insulation. If the electrics are too old to have insulation (how does that work!?) Then get that fixed too. Keeping a constant temperature helps prevent condensation.

 

[^woody^]

Its summer, and there should be no condensation forming because the temperature and humidity levels are not low/ high enough. This is especially so in a lightweight timber frame house.

So the introduction of humidity must be coming from the occupancy and usage.

 

[IT Minion]

If I'm getting the sums right then 25 degree 50% humidity air, cooled to 14 degrees hits the dew point. As would 24 degree air at 60% going down to 15. It doesn't have to happen every night to get mould, just enough nights.

But I could be wrong. I still say get a humidity meter, prove me wrong.

 

[JohnD]

Damp is water. It is coming from somewhere. It has not rained much recently. It could well be a plumbing leak. Have you got concrete floors? Lift the floor covering and see if they are damp.

If the vendors turned off the main stopcock before you bought it, it might have had time to dry out.

It could also relate to the bathroom or shower room, especially if pipes or drains have been hidden in the walls.

Do you have an outdoor stopcock? If you get a young person with sharp ears to stand in the kitchen late at night when it is quiet, and you turn the stopcock on and off, they may notice a change in sound.

 

[^woody^]

If I'm getting the sums right then 25 degree 50% humidity air, cooled to 14 degrees hits the dew point

Is that from a text book?

Materials affect the condensing, and there needs to be a continuous time period of high humidity, the right temperature and no air moment too.

And when has it been 14° internal for the past few months anyway?

 

[WimWam]

Did you sort it out?

I somehow stumbled onto your album page thinking it was a forum post without any replies, so I wrote this list of questions before realising I was in the wrong place... some already mentioned/answered here. But here it is anyway.


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I'll just fire some question your way...

1. Was the property newly painted when you bought it ? Could that have been to cover something up, or the new paint may be part of the problem, especially it is a non-breathable paint.
   
   
2. Are you drying clothes inside the house or any other obvious sources of moisture, like prolonged cooking without lids, showers with bathroom door open and/or no functioning extractor fan ?
   
   
3. What kind of property is it, how old? Solid or cavity walls? (on the outside do you see just the long side of the bricks everywhere, or do you see a long-short-long-short brick pattern?)
   
   
4. Are the external walls rendered or painted. New render? New or old, what kind of render - cement or lime? What kind of paint, photos?
   
   
5. Where is the house are the affected rooms, only upstairs? only downstairs? only one side?
   
   
6. Do you have airing bricks, and what state are they in. Are they painted over, blocked or otherwise obstructed. Photos?
   
   
7. Is there any material, like sand or earth bank up on the external walls, or even under the floor. (I my self have found a damp problem in floorboards where someone had swept spare sand under the floor, which banked up just enough against a pillar to juuuuuust breach the slate DPC and send moisture up into the floorboards, rusting the nails in about a 1-2ft radius)
   
   
8. Has there been any insulation work done? anything in the survey report?
   
   
9. Was there any obviously new work done to the property before moving in?
   
   
10. Do you have any access under the floor, something you can stick a camera or phone down to look around with.
    
    
11. Where does your main water come into the house, any sign of leakage ?
    
    
12. Is there a leaky external tap or gutter that is slowly saturating a wall? Any green areas on the outside wall ?
    
    
13. Are the gutters present, clear and working? A fault can end up saturating a wall.
    
    
14. Do you have a damp meter? They are relatively cheap, and you may quickly figure out if the wall is truly damp, vs an internal condensation and ventilation issue.
    
    
15. I've used sprays from 'condensation products' before, which seemed to work, but obviously you need to resolve the cause not just the symptom. Personally I'd avoid off the shelf 'mould sprays' that are just re-badged bleach or thereabouts.

So many questions....