Windowless bathrooms, are they awful?

[lavenderscenteddrawerliners]

I've just accepted a SH flat that has no windows in the bathroom or WC. The housing officer said they have proper ventilation (looks like a smoke alarm) but I'm expecting major issues with mould. I'm hoping posters might come along and say it will be fine [wishful thinking]

yep, mould
on the ceiling.
there is a fan but it is not very strong

We always open the landing window after a shower and we have a dehumidifier outside the bathroom. You can manage it, but the extractor alone will not be sufficient

mine is fine. There's a ventilation system in the flat that draws air out of the kitchen and bathroom, and exchanges it somehow with fresh air that goes into the bedroom and living room. called an MVHR system I think.

I'm not keen, but tbh sometimes it can't he avoided. Definitely buy a dehumidifier

I’ve got one and it’s fine, I open the bedroom windows for the air to circulate

Mine is fine. I have an extractor fan and leave the door open after a shower. Been here for seven years and no sign of any mould. The only things that really annoy me is lack of a windowsill and not being able to have live plants in there.

When I was last househunting, a bathroom with a window was on my non negotiables list - natural light and ventilation is a key thing for me. I always think windowless bathrooms are never as fresh smelling as ones with windows that can be opened.

Mine is fine, never had any mould

Our main upstairs bathroom has no window. We've never had mould in there. The light is attached to an extractor fan and it runs for the whole time the light is on and for 10 minutes after the light goes off. It is less steamed up, less damp and better than the downstairs one where we have a window.
My mothers flat has the same kind of bathroom, no mould or damp.

I’ve lived in a house with one - it was fine - never had any issues with mould. The light was linked to a fan/timer so once you turned the light off, the timer stayed on automatically for a while.

Depends on your extractor fan and the run to an external wall. I had an internal bathroom previously which was a pain until I redid the bathroom and pit in a new fan. I simplified the run and got a decent fan and it worked perfectly.

I have had two in the past and they have been fine, just made sure I left the fan on for a while and left the door ajar when not in use

I agree. Our downstairs loo is internal - has a shower too- decent extractor & leaving door open after a shower (downstairs window open) is suffice. Busy house with teen DC we need 2 showers. We refitted recently & didm't need to upgrade extractor.

It should be fine if you're mindful.

The house i grew up in was like that.
There was mould elsewhere but not in the bathroom.

Hotel bathrooms never have a window and they are ok!

Hate them. I would run a dehumidifier after every shower unless you have an excellent extractor fan. And hang damp towels outside or in a better ventilated room, not in the bathroom.

Be careful that a noisy fan doesn’t come on if you use the loo in the night, waking up the whole house!

there’s 3 in our rental and there’s zero mould whereas in our 80s house bathroom with 2 windows it was a constant battle no matter what we did including showering with windows open. The mould then spread. I love our windowless bathrooms 🤷🏽‍♀️

i had one in the house I grew up in zero problems
the fan was connected to the light so always on when light was in and it had a humidistat so the fan run as long as it needed to till the humidity was down to normal level

Some hotels have good extractor fans, others rely on cleaners removing the mould !!

We had one in a newish build that had no problem with mould, and then had older houses with bathroom window always open bht a rubbish extractor fan which had moukd issues.

All comes down to how effective the ventilation system is.

Very pleasantly surprised by these replies, thank you. I don't think there's an actual extractor fan, nothing comes on with the light. The hallway is also windowless, so I'll have to leave all doors and available windows open to circulate air in general. Will definitely look into dehumidifyer

If you use one of those squeegee things after a shower to scrape as much water down the plug hole as possible it will make a huge difference. Followed by a wipe with a micro fibre cloth.
we do this even though we have a window in the bathroom as it prevents mould forming on the silicone.

Lived in a flat until recently and it had a windowless bathroom and the extractor was shit.

I was militant about using a window scraper to go over not just the shower screen but the tiles too after anyone had a shower. Trained the DC and it was considered a major crime in our household not to have done the water scraping! This made a big difference as it meant that there wasn't water just sitting on the glass and tiles waiting slowly to evaporate, keeping everything more damp than it needed to be.

I also used mould sprays regularly, as well as keeping the flat well aired generally. After 11 years, other than a few small mould spots on the sealant, it was all good.

We had a windowless en-suite and had no problems had a fan in there.

Interestingly we used to get mould in the main bathroom between the shutters and window and we barely used that bathroom!

I think from my experience with a good fan it should be fine.