Mould?

[candlefloozy]

Live in a new build. Condensation gets really bad. Which then leads to mould?
Anyway, it’s been reported several times to council but they say nothing is wrong nor can they do anything. We have vents on the windows which are never ever closed. We do have to dry clothes inside as we have no garden. This is done in the kitchen though where there is no mould. Our room and front door is the main problems. Is it normal to get mould inside?? It’s all on the wall near the front door and it is everywhere in our bedroom. A little is forming in child’s room and it’s also started on the ceiling in the bathroom though we’ve never had that before.

Do you have the heating on and you open windows in addition to using the vents? General living creates a lot of moisture so try to have your windows open for a while every day to get fresh air in.

As you have to dry yours clothes indoors I would buy a dehumidifier and any patches of mould can be treated with HG mould spray.

That water that comes off your clothes drying in the kitchen doesn't just turn into nothing. It has to go somewhere. The only way to combat it is to improve ventilation or actively remove the moisture from the air eg with a good dehumidifier.

Are the walls getting mould outside walls and colder than others in the house.
Do those outer walls get any sun?
Seems it's a bit strange to be at the front door rather than on the kitchen and bathroom walls, unless you are drying clothes in the hall?

I'll second the need for a dehumidifier. I had the same problem in a 60's maisonette on all the outside walls, partuicullary my bed room.

I bought a good quality dehumidifier for about £100, kept the top windows on the latch all year (old glazing so no trickle vents) and this solved the problem.

Also try to avoid putting large pieces of furniture again the cold outside walls as any moisture in the air will condense behind these and you won't realise the wall is covered in mould until you smell it!

The dehumidifier I got also had a 'turbo' setting to helping to dry clothes.

It could be a cold bridge or it could poor ventilation. If you are drying clothes inside then its essential to leave windows open. In the meantime clean over the mould with bleach. Bleach will kill the mould spores.

If the walls you get the mould on are north facing that'll be why... no sun heating that brick so tbd surface is colder. The warm air holds the water from your clothes and cooking etc and when it hits that cold surface it condenses and sits. We have similar issues in that we cook in our south facing kitchen which has no mould but the north facing bedroom was prone to it before we started addressing the problem.

Dry laundry in the bathroom on an airer over the bath with the extractor fan on, window and door shut. By far the cheapest way to get things dry without affecting your whole house with condensation.

I had the council out numerous times to tell me the same thing. Finally I got them to get someone out who used a laser pen type thing to measure the moisture in the walls. It was only then they put in extra walling to stop the problem. as mentioned above it was hot air hitting cold air and not enough padding inbetween to correct it.

You can buy a damp tester for about a tenner on amazon.
Here is a blog telling you how to record results.
www.pamties.co.uk/damp-proofing-blog/how-to-test-for-damp/
This would help you decide if you have a problem or not. If it appears to be more than just damp from drying clothes you could take the results to the builder to raise the issue.