Redecorating: how to treat mouldy walls?

[GrouchyKiwi]

We're going to repaint most rooms in our house because they're all boring magnolia, with ugly wallpaper feature walls in some rooms. Cleverly, the previous owners put wallpaper on the walls that seem to have mould issues.

So we need to remove the paper and then treat the walls before painting, but being complete novices we have no idea of the best way to do this.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

What type of mould is it? Black mould from damp?

Oh, yes. Sorry, I forget there are different kinds of mould.

We have a dehumidifier which has mostly solved the damp issue.

We had a mouldy bathroom for years. In the end we had it tanked & use anti mould paint over the top. Seems to have worked.

Tanked?

I think it's some sort of waterproof membrane. It's a room that's built into the hillside and has always been cold & damp.

Once wallpaper off, mould can be removed by washing with neat bleach, then rinse. I would paint the walls with a breathable paint rather than trying to seal it.

We had mould on walls after removing wallpaper applied by previous owners. It appeared to have been caused by condensation, once paper removed, plaster exposed, mould washed off and everything allowed to dry, we have painted and there has been no return of the mould.

Hope that helps.

S.

I would do what Schloss says, but make sure you give the walls time to dry before you repaint - you might have to have bare plaster for a little while.

We washed mould off, then painted with anti-mould/anti fungal paint before applying the real paint.

Wall paper is awful for houses with damp, are you sure the cause for the damp has been sorted?

A dehumidifier will take moisture out of the air, but can only do so much if a gutter is still leaking onto the wall etc.

The best thing to do is expose it first (not to go OTT, but some moulds are nasty so some protective gear may be worth while if it looks grim, also open up the windows and wash with hg mould solution - home base, Robert dyas and b & q have it).

Walls painted with emulsion allow the bricks to breathe and allow water to travel (a good thing!), when the walls or surfaces become saturated with not enough ventilation then you get the damp.

When your cleaning the mould off and find that great big chunks of plaster are coming off, it may mean you need some additional work done to damp proof your house - if the plaster is fine then its a result!