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Condensation causing mould... About to redecorate... How do we prevent?

8 replies

iloveholidays · 01/08/2012 21:23

We're about to redecorate our box room for DC3 due in November.

We decorated it 5 years ago and needs re-doing. We've pulled the furniture away from the walls and there is mould on the outside wall, not horrendous but enough to want to prevent it again.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to prevent it happening again? Obviously we need to wash down, but is it worth buying anything in particular to do this and is there any stain type stuff we can put up before painting to seal it?

Thanks

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thisisyesterday · 01/08/2012 22:01

good ventilation is key. don't let it get really cold in there, and make sure it gets aired.

you can also get stuff you can paint the walls with after you've cleaned the mould off. then you can paint over that with whatever your chosen colour is

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IMcHunt · 01/08/2012 22:08

I had this really badly in my bathroom.
Firstly, is the room papered? Cos that'll harbour mould, even though the adhesive's antifungal. It's better to just have painted walls.
This is what I did in my bathroom, a year ago, and the mould hasn't come back at all (and basically the plaster was black with it originally. First, I scraped off (with a mask on) as much of the paint as I could. Then, I liberally covered it in HG Mould and Mildew remover spray (it's pretty strong, bleachy stuff, so you really need to ventilate when using it). Once that was done, I rinsed the wall, dried it, and painted it with antifungal wash. Then, I got paint with an antifungal additive in it (you can get the additive from specialist companies online - it's not expensive either) to paint the walls. Bingo. No mould whatsoever.

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mrswee · 02/08/2012 07:06

That's all great advise you have had there. Just to add. We had a bad mould problem behind our sofa, it is an outside wall and the mould was caused by condensation.
We took the paper off, washed it down with mould spray. repapered but only because the rest of the room is papered.

It's been fine since but we bought a dehumidifier and use it every time we hang washing inside or are boiling pots of water in the kitchen. It's made such a difference and you should see how much water we pour out of the thing every time we use it!

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StuckInTheFensAwayFromHome · 02/08/2012 07:21

Good advice I was given was to deal with the source of moisture first. So if it's condensation then what can you do to stop that - keep the room warmer, air it regularly, use a dehumidifier etc. don't be in a rush to redecorate... Clean up the mould, target the moisture and then give it a few months to check you have stopped the source of moisture, otherwise you are wasting your time redecorating.
(I learnt the hard way, thought I'd fixed a leak and redecorated only to find there was a second leak and had to redo it all again)

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noisytoys · 02/08/2012 08:44

We had mould non stop for years. The only way we found to stop it was to replace the whole roof and re insulate the loft with super thick insulation. Cost £7k in total Sad

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Engelsemama · 02/08/2012 08:48

Had this in a flat I used to rent. The flat had been built without any "vent bricks" apparently. The landlords redecorated and added vents into the windows (they also put chains on the windows to encourage us to keep the windows open all day in the ground floor flat when we were at work Hmm Needless to say we didn't.)

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PigletJohn · 02/08/2012 16:32

The usual cause of condensation, damp and mould in UK houses is people draping wet washing around the house or over radiators.

In or near a bathroom it is lack of an effective extractor.

opening windows is a free way of improving ventilation, but people will grumble about losing heat.

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iloveholidays · 02/08/2012 22:00

Thanks everyone.

Really useful stuff there... Think we need to air the room more :) don't get it in other rooms.

Thanks again

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