Is mould in the winter just a thing?

[MikeyFuckinWay]

I live in rented accommodation with a great land lady.
This is our second winter here. The bedroom walls have mould on them which I wipe off every couple of weeks. I have a dehumidifier on during the day and we leave the window cracked open at night but we still have soaking wet windows in the morning and mould which comes back after a couple of weeks.
Is this what happens in winter to most people with the damper weather?
I have noticed a couple of cracks in the plaster near the windows so I guess this is where the damps coming through but I don’t want to bother my land lady for a non-issue.
thanks in advance

Absolutely not! This is very much an issue, don't feel bad at all about bothering your landlady.

This is not a non issue. Your landlady will want to know. Most houses do not have this problem.

Mould can certainly be due to lifestyle and condensation. When you shower or dry washing inside it creates damp air, if you don’t ventilate adequately it will create damp walls and mould. It usually sticks to cold outside walls and corners first.

A dehumidifier will help, but you do need ventilation regularly. We expel a pint of water in breath in a night. It has to go somewhere.

no of course not. It sounds like you need to put your heating on. It’s condensation and you need to allow it to dry out. Ventilation and heating

No it is not just a thing, it's a sign of poor ventilation. Def let landlady know as it could cause damage to the house which will end up being expensive for her if not tackled early.

Apparently having the windows open a crack is not the best method, for the best air exchange you should open windows wide on opposite sides of the house to create a cross-wind for approx 5 mins every morning.

Do you live in a flat or a house? Flats with balconies can sometimes get what's called cold-bridging, where the design of the building draws in cold from outside which can be a pain in the neck for avoiding mould.

You need to dry all the wet off the windows in the morning and heat/ventilate the room adequately. When I was in my first flat we had a lot of damp and one of my flat mates got environmental health round and they said it was down to us to adequately heat and ventilate the place rather than an issue for the landlord.

The cracks in the plaster are more likely to be from the long dry summer causing the house to move a bit - is the house on clay? Have you had any trouble with doors not shutting? Is it an older house (ie pre 1970's?). I'd definitely let the landlady know about the cracks but no idea if they're an issue or to be expected.

It is not normal. I've never lived in house with mould.

It is a huge problem in rented accommodation and is due to inadequate maintenance/negligence.

Mould creates a range of health problems and can exacerbate asthma to the extent of hospitalisation.

I know of a few cases where landlords have been sued because of mould In Properties causing health issues.

Your landlady isn't great.

Ok thank you everyone.
Will get onto her now. She said the last tenant had damp but it wasn’t an issue when she lived there alone. So it won’t be a surprise to her.
There are 3 of us sleeping in there but that’s not going to change soon.
We have no heating upstairs, just 2 storage heaters downstairs, one which we used last year but won’t be able to afford to put either on this year unfortunately.

It's not normal, but is probably down to lack of opening windows and ventilation as others have said.

Flats (and houses) with no real heating are also susceptible, back in the 1970s when we didn't have central heating our windows inside were like that every morning. I remember my mum wiping them down.

Make sure you put in writing to your land lady and keep a copy of the email. Just in case any damage is done and she tries to blame yoh at the end of tenancy.

Explain the things you are doing to help inc airing room, dehumidifier etc.

I’m afraid you might need to reconsider this. If you do not adequately ventilate and heat a property in the UK over the autumn and winter you are likely to get damp from condensation. This is a problem you will have created and you will be responsible for paying for. A landlord will assume that you will adequately heat and ventilate the property.

You do need to heat and ventilate. Everyone has to do this. Your LL should provide heating upstairs for you. It will get worse if you don’t make a change.

You need a combination of heating and ventilation to keep the humidity levels down and avoid condensation and therefore mould. Drying clothes indoors is a real culprit for this.

Unfortunately your home has inadequate heating if there is no heating method in the bedrooms. There might not be anything you can do about that, except move if you can - though I realise that might not be possible. But you can ventilate properly - open all windows wide first thing to get rid of the moisture you’ve created overnight. Do you have access to any outside space for drying washing? Even a balcony. If not, make sure the window in the room in which you dry is left open. When you cook, open the kitchen window to allow the moisture out. Same when you bath or shower.

If this still doesn’t help, then clean the mould away regularly. You can get bleach based sprays which work well and help to delay its return.

I’m sorry you don’t have adequate heating or the money to run what you do have. It’s miserable. You could calculate the difference between what the dehumidifier costs to run and how much it would cost to put the heating on instead.

This is happening is my new home. (1940s bungalow) can't say I noticed last year but lots of renovations going on so thinking doors and windows were open.

So get your, wipe windows down and open a couple for air flow for 10 mins or so?

If you don't have any heat in this climate, the house will be damp over the Winter. It shouldn't be damp and mouldy now though, so it sounds like there is a problem with the property.

This is a helpful page from shelter

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housingadvice/repairs/damppandmoulddinrentedd_homes

I'm guessing if you have no heating or aren't using it you also aren't opening windows. That's the source of the problem here. The only bit the landlady can realistically be blamed for is there being no adequate heating option upstairs - but it sounds like even if there was, you wouldn't be using it, and that's on you. As a PP has said, the onus is on tenants to be heating and ventilating their home adequately. A home that is unheated will definitely suffer as a result.

I mean this kindly - you do need to consider what you are going to do in December/January, as you won't actually be able to cope using no heating. I know people go on about how back 50 years ago people didn't have central heating, but they did have fires in several rooms to heat the home at least a bit. Have you thought about ringing your energy supplier to ask if there's any help available - you mentioned 3 of you sleeping in one room so I'm guessing you have a child? Seek help now with your energy before it gets colder.

You need to turn on the heating. I've got storage heaters too and had a couple of winters with damp and mould when I couldn't afford to have the heating on. If you heat your home properly, it will help massively.

This isn't normal. Are you hanging any washing indoors? Do you have good ventilation in the bathrooms? Do you have a cooker hood to extract moisture from cooking to the outside (ie a externally ventilated cooker hood)? These are sources of excess moisture we generate from living in our houses. If all these are done, and you are still getting damp problem, then you'll need to look at the guttering to see if it's leaking. All of these are costly to fix. (Except for the hanging washing indoors if you have a tumble drier and are just not using it).

And yes, you need your heating on. To around maybe 16-18C. If it's too cold, you'll get condensation on your external walls too.

Not sure if already mentioned but get a window vac. Not a Karcher, we didn’t think that was a good one and bought a Beldray one which was brilliant!

Where we lived at the time our daughters bedroom window went almost to the floor and was covered in water every morning and because an ottoman was in front of the window, black mould started to cover the back of it.

The window vac was easy and quick to use and stopped the problem completely.

Biggest cause of mould is failure to heat.
Obviously fuel poverty then leads to condensation which leads to damp and then mould.
Your landlady wouldn't have had a problem because she probably heated the place more than you.
Whenever DS has rented a flat he has been given leaflets about how to prevent damp and mould.

Remember that mould likes four things:
moisture
heat
poor air circulation
dark

if you have high heat and high moisture, you are creating a tropical atmosphere -perfect for mould growth in dark areas with poor air circulation (behind wardrobes etc)

May be worth asking your landlady for a dehumidifier as a temporary solution. Cheaper than using your heating and will reduce the moisture.
Great post here refurbinators.com/how-to-prevent-mould/