Why the heck do I have mould in my house?

[cocoleBOO]

I'm fighting a losing battle in the bathroom with it and now it is growing on my window panes.

Help meeeeeeeeer

The why is easy, two awful wet summers and winters. This years nice weather hasn't been enough to make up for it.

Trying to reduce oil bills doesn't help either

We have mould too and have resorted to a massive trip to the charity shop and buying a dehumidifier in the hope of stopping wardrobes going mouldy.

Other than that it's mould killer and elbow grease, very tedious.

Ok everyone... Mould is forming because you have insufficient ventilation. You have to heat and ventilate. In a bathroom you need a good extractor or you need to open windows. If you get lots of condensation you get mould. Open up the wardrobes. Many people will find it will get worse as they cut heating down and do not have any ventilation because they want to keep heat in. It just makes matters worse. Sleep with windows open a bit. Older houses are more difficult to keep mould free but it is possible.

buy some moisture traps, they can help, i got some from wilkinsons for about a fiver each.

You have to have the heating on and the window open.

We get condensation mould in the bedroom so we have the window open all night.

I saw on pinterest if you have a bundle of chalk in the wardrobe it should absorb the damp.

My downstairs wet room is an extension we had mould on the ceiling every winter for 9 years which meant we had to bleach and repaint. I tried more insulation in the walls and roof it made no difference. Always opened window after using the shower, no difference. I had an extractor fan. I called in a builder who said you need to plasterboard (with the insulation on it ) the ceiling. He was right 2 years on I have not had one bit of mould so no bleaching or painting = no work.

The heating has been broken on and off for a couple of years so there definitely not been sufficent heating. We took the extractor fan out of the bathroom a couple of years ago and when we put a new bathroom on we had a plastic ceiling put up.

The windows stream with condesation in the morning, can you put moisture traps on the window to help this? (I don't actually know what they are ).

Ventilation ! You need to let the steam and damp build up out of the house.

Tell me about it. Five years we have been here and this year, before we've even had any cold weather, I have found that the shoes I keep on the bedroom CARPET have got mould on them.

What is that about?

The floor doesn't feel damp and the shoes have not even been worn, so were not wet.

They are covered in green fluffy mould.

Really odd. Nothing else is.

I wasn't opening the window so much when the heating was knacked .

Last week I found the whole back of our wardrobe and wall behind it was covered in mould, and it had gone through the wardrobe onto all the clothes, and into the shoes . It's now in the cupboard under the stairs and has covered a buggy we were about to sell.

I'm going in the dc's craft box later for chalk!

There's a mini dehumidifier on groupon today that says it removes 350ml water a day.

Ok I've had a Google and I'm going to get some moisture traps. And open my windows.

Yep. Mould only grows in the wet. You're better off cool and dry than warm and damp. Get an air humidity meter to let you know when you need to have your moisture trap running. They can be had for a few quid, more if you want a fancy digital one.

You need to open your windows more. My My rented home was trashed for this very reason. And was costly to repair.

Can affect your breathing/lungs?

Definitely, the spores are designed to spread.

wipe the windows every morning, squeeze out cloth, leave to dry outside.

ventilate, heat, mop up.

Probably not going to affect breathing. Every breath you take contains a whole load of spores and pollens and allied trades. They're only a problem in really high concentrations - like during the hay fever season when all of the treest and grasses are having sexytime - or one of a few rare varieties. There's one that grows on old books that makes libraries a dangerous proposition, and another that grows in old, dry tombs that mean that even if the spikes shooting out of the walls, the pit trap and the big rolling ball thingy don't get you, you die of lungrot within the month.

The cold, damp air is going to do worse than mould spores, frankly.

DH has just been diagnosed with a chronic lung disease, this wont help .

I have been fighting a mould problem in my house for the ten years we've been here.

Even a dehumidifier didn't help, just cost a fortune to run.

My windows are new and have trickle vents, I leave then open at night, don't dry washing inside and the heating is on as much as I can afford to use it.

I've resigned myself to cleaning the mould off walls, ceilings and furniture - anything that's near an outside wall gets it

Our windows don't open, we rent and they have been broken and painted shut for many years afaik, well before we moved in.

I wonder if it's to do with the cellar as they used waterproof paint on the walls last year (not the floor, it's still damp as feck in there) and I think the moisture is wicking up to the floor above perhaps.

argh

Double glazing helps. Without the windows stream in the winter. I am a fresh air fiend and open windows for at least an hour every day. The bathroom window is always slightly open and is opened wide to clear the steam after use.

Dehumidifies can help too.

I have double glazing and I keep the bathroom window open all day. I've been spraying the mould away and now everyone is freezing because I've opened the windows .

Insulation certainly helps, my parents have, somewhat naff polystyrene textured wallpaper on the worst walls in their house it helps a lot.

I want radiator type insulation in our built in wardrobes, I suspect it would help a lot.

But most of all we need less fucking rain!

We only had very minor problems, until we had such a long run of horrible winters and summers.

This years nice weather didn't start until my wardrobes had already grown mould.

gat a few moisture traps, i have three in my bedroom alone, lakeland do some i saw today. they get filled up so quickly with water in our house! if we forget to re-fill them we get awful black mould. white vinegear is really good for getting rid of this, or reducing it.