What can I do? Everything in my home going mouldy

[AngeloMysterioso]

I live in a 2 bed flat on the ground floor of an Edwardian house. We’ve had problems with condensation for a while- we only have single glazed windows (double glazing going in this week after a 6 month wait) and we don’t have a tumble drier so until now, unless the weather has been nice enough to hang laundry outside we’ve had to dry it indoors.

We first noticed a problem when I realised that some of my shoes and boots which are kept on shoe shelves in the bottom of my wardrobe were going mouldy. Then it was the clothes which I keep in the drawers under my bed. I’m 6 months pregnant and DH and I have just checked the pram bassinet which was in its travel case under the changing table in DS’s room- mouldy. A cooler bag in the cupboard under the stairs- mouldy. Clothes of mine in a drawer in another wardrobe- mouldy. Stuff I’ve already washed once when it got mouldy has gone mouldy again.

I’m at my wits end. My shoes all stink because I’ve had to spray them with white vinegar. There’s piles of shoes and clean laundry everywhere because I’ve got the mould out of them but I’m too scared to put them away in case they go mouldy again (which they will, it’s already happened once). We’ve bought a bunch of those little disposable dehumidifiers that you put in drawers and on shelves which appear to have made no difference at all. I’ve bought a heated airer with a cover and plan to use that to dry clothes (with a small electric dehumidifier turned on underneath) but with things like the bassinet, I can’t put that in the washing machine so will have to find some other way of cleaning it.

What else can I do? We hoped that the new windows would help solve the problem but we spoke to our neighbour in the other downstairs flat the other day and it’s a big problem for her too, and she already has double glazing. I’m terrified that when I get out our next 2 me cot from under DS’s cir or the old baby clothes from his wardrobe that they’ll all be mouldy as well. Clothes can be washed, but how do I deal with the things that can’t? We can’t afford to replace everything.

Help!!

I had this once OP. You need a tumble dryer - hanging wet laundry up will be exacerbating the problem. Or can you go to a laundrette?
You can buy a dehumidifier off Amazon which should also help.
Make sure you close the windows when it’s raining but open them on dry days.
Make sure the extractor fan in the bathroom isn’t blocked and is switched on every time you shower/bath.

Buy a couple of decent dehumidifiers.
Keep your windows open as much as possible to ventilate, particularly after a shower.
Try not to dry clothes Indoors or buy an condenser dryer.

We had this and the only thing that’s solved it was fitting air bricks into the roof and ventilation- literally having windows open ALL the time. Every single day, all day. Move everything you can away from the walls. 2-4 ins away. Get rid of as much clutter as you can - we had to get rid of bookcases and anything that went up / along the walls. The air bricks / vents in the roof were what made the biggest difference though- cost us about £500 for about 3/4 of them.

Do you have windows open in the house? I do not have a tumble dryer and dry everything inside, we have windows open a little in every room. They are rarely shut and we never have any problems. They are only shut if it is minus temp outside and even then they are opened in daylight hours for a while.

We do go to a launderette if we can’t hang things outside, but it’s £1 for 10 minutes drying time so it’s costing us a fortune, even with drying 2 or 3 loads at once. We don’t have space for a tumble drier and from experience I’ve found most washer-driers to be ineffective at both and prone to breaking down. Hence buying the heated airer.

We’ve got a little electric dehumidifier which had a lot of use over the winter but stuff has continued to go mouldy even over the summer when we’ve been mostly drying laundry outside.

We currently don’t have an extractor in the bathroom- a previous owner had installed it through the same wiring as the electric shower and it was a huge safety risk so we had it disconnected- but we open the bathroom window every time we have a shower.

My old house was terrible for this - we bought loads of dehumidifiers, electric one and loads of the little plastic ones, bought a condensor tumble drier and opened the windows every day. Pretty much solved the problem.

Also don't overfill cupboards etc you need to let air circulate.

We have a washer drier and whilst not as good as a tumble drier it’s way better than nothing. It’s a hot point one (not the sort that got recalled for catching fire though!)

There are some air bricks dotted around the walls outside but they’re presenting a different problem- we also have slugs in my bedroom and the sitting room. Putting some in the roof probably wouldn’t help us much as we’re on the ground floor- upstairs neighbours have said they don’t have a mould problem.

ventilation is key......I live in an old house..keeping my windows either open or locked open makes an enormous difference

Get bigger dehumidifiers!!! You need to bust out the big guns. Keep one downstairs and one upstairs. Sounds obvious but windows closed when you run it otherwise you are drying out the whole world. Bathroom window cracked open all the time, not just for showers.

Airbricks are great. Perhaps vacuum packed things wont get mouldy?

We've had this too and some rooms are still affected.
We took out wardrobes and put rails/shelves up instead so the air could flow.

We never dry clothes inside. If you can't fit a tumble dryer in the kitchen, is there another room or garage?

You need an extractor in the bathroom.

Cavity wall insulation.

Heating on for more of the year than we'd choose to use.

Are all your radiators on inside or outside walls? That makes a difference too.

Dehumidifiers make a huge difference.

HG mould spray is good for removing mould that is already there.

If you get mould in the summer it might warrant having someone come to assess your property and walls, as presumably you would have thw windows and doors open for air anyway, so how much more ventilated can it get?

Do you rent or own?

You need a proper big dehumidifier that you have on every day, all the time. Not just one you put on in winter when you have washing inside- if you have damp in the flat then you need to deal with that separately to the washing.

You need a proper extractor fan in the bathroom.
You need a good extractor fan in the kitchen. You need to use lids on pans when you cook, and you need to open the windows every single day, even when it’s freezing! But a Karcher window vac.

Basically the proper dehumidifier on most of the time is the main thing. You can’t rely on tiny sachet stuff - you need the big guns.

You definitely need an extractor fan in the bathroom. Opening a window isn’t enough.

A proper dehumidifier made a big difference for us, we had it on all the time. I think it was an earlier version of this one www.meaco.com/products/meacodry-dehumidifier-abc-range-20l

You need to keep the doors and windows open as much as possible. Especially the bathroom window. It pretty much needs to be open all the time not just when you have a shower if you have disconnected the extractor fan.

The vast majority of the time the problem is too cold, too moist and not enough air.

What heating do you have?

We can’t do anything upstairs because we don’t live there. We just have a 2 bed flat on half the ground floor. No garage, just 2 bedrooms, sitting room, tiny bathroom, tiny kitchen.

It’s clothes and soft furnishings that are going mouldy, so something like HG mould would completely ruin them. I wash them with a cupful of white vinegar and some zoflora but I don’t know if that’s going the magic… and things like the pram bassinet and my suede ankle boots can’t go in the washing machine.

Air the house - open all the windows for 5 minutes at a time twice a day - whatever the weather.

It really works and is a stipulation of most rental contracts in Germany. As it's a short period, you don't lose too much heat.

Hate to say it but the double glazing will not fix the problem - you won't have condensation running down your windows in winter any longer and trickle vents will help a bit with ventilation but you probably need to have your ventilation assessed and improved. We live in a 1930s property of single skin brick construction and have terrible issues with condensation - mould behind furniture and in my wardrobe, water literally running down the wall of one room where it's the coldest point. We have a condensing tumble dryer (though try to dry outdoors as much as possible) and have the windows open every day and used a dehumidifier daily but it wasn't cutting it. Have just had new extractors fitted in bathrooms with sensors and boost functions on both of them. Also have had a PIV (positive input ventilation) system fitted in the loft (you get versions that fit on the external wall of flats). Too early to say for certain that we've cracked the problem as well have to see how it goes in the winter, but after being away for a few days recently, the house certainly smelt less musty when we got back. We used a company called Envirovent who were excellent - free survey and no hard sell - but there are lots of companies that specialise in improving ventilation.

You need a proper decent sized dehumidifier, or as pp have said, two.

I lived in a rental basement like this. Was pregnant there and had my baby there. Piles of stuff went mouldy, old possessions, photos etc, it was awful.
As I'm sure you're aware it's also not great for your health or that of children.
I'd try and go full guns with the best dehumidifier you can get. I wouldn't be having this on at the same time as windows though - defeats the point, surely?
Perhaps open windows fully for 30 mins each morning, throughout the year, then dehumidifier on the rest of the time. Any visible mould on walls etc needs to be cleaned off ASAP.

We had this in an old cottage, we bought a really decent dehumidifier, cost about £250 but it was a godsend. Kept it running all the time and no more mould.

Double glazing really won't help. You need proper dehumidifiers- electric ones. And you will have to make space for a tumble, even if it's in your living room. You can't be drying laundry in a flat that is already damp and bringing a baby into it.

Do you own or rent? If you rent I would opt to move to be honest...