Mould, damp, and other such nasties.

[superlambanana]

On entering our new house we've been faced with massive patches of mould everywhere, that were obviously behind furniture before. It's almost exclusively on outside walls (detached 1935 house with cavity walls). Surveyor said it could need new damp proof course and dpc specialist agreed - but then he would, and I'm suspicious because he quoted us twice what it should be anyway.

Other (better) surveyor reckoned we should try condensation management first but we might need new course. Next door neighbour, whose house is pretty much identical, had to have their entire ground floor dug up, polythene underneath, then reconcreted when they moved in 15yrs ago.

Has anyone got any ideas what I should do next? If I paint over it (wall isn't wet) will the mould come through or is there some way I can stop it? We're going to do an 'interim redecoration' - ie paint everywhere in cheap light paint to freshen it up, then do it properly after we've rewired.

Something tells me this house may eat money

Also, look at where it is in the house. If it's upstairs then, unless leaky guttering/roof, I would have thought dpc is unlikely to help and much more likely to be condensation problem.

do as you plan, clean it all off, prepare the surface properly, slap up the pale paint and see what happens. With any luck it is just condensation from the usual sources; drying washing indoors, long showers with no ventilation, never opening windows (even for 10 mins is enough) etc etc.