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Advise re built in wardrobe please

13 replies

Cerseilannisterinthesnow · 08/04/2018 18:58

We have been in our current house since December, it’s an old farming cottage, sandstone walls etc

Anyway our room has a medium sized built in wardrobe, well more of a space with a door on which is on the outside wall. I had a major clear out of clothes before we moved but it’s still quite packed in there and the room if fairly small for any more storage like drawers (already have one chest of drawers).

Today I went to get a pair of shoes and noticed a pair of sandals covered in green Mould! There is no visible signs of damp and the only other Mould are was at the back (there are two large and wide shelves) of the top shelf, a tiny area in the corner.

I open the windows every day, but have oil central heating so don’t have that running all the time, set for an hour or so in the morning, again in the afternoon and 2-3 hours evening.

I’ve done some reading and I know ventilation is a problem as well as heat so my ideas are to remove the door completely and perhaps get a strip heater for in there? I already have one of those small dehumidifiers with the block on the top that you just change when the block disappears? Although maybe I need the medium sized one. I also thought about the sachets to hand up on the rail.

Anything I can do for the shelves? It’s kind of difficult to let the air circulate just with the position of the shelves and how the clothing has to be stored on them (row of clothes at the back, row of clothes at the front)

OP posts:
ChocolateChoux · 08/04/2018 19:06

You say the wardrobe is on an outside wall, is it possible there's something on the outside wall causing the damp? A leaking gutter or something?

Cerseilannisterinthesnow · 08/04/2018 19:11

I don’t think so as DH checked and cleared all the buffering just after we moved in as he said they looked full. The guttering is quite new also so think this has been done just before we moved in as we are attached to another cottage and their guttering is still the old metal type.

I know when it was those really cold harsh days, especially the snow ones! It was very very cold in there!

OP posts:
Cerseilannisterinthesnow · 08/04/2018 19:12

I will get him to check again though

Also forgot to mention, for all those shoes were covered in Mould there was none on the wall where the shoes had been sitting or on the carpet, just on the shoes!

OP posts:
ToriRay · 08/04/2018 19:32

We were in a similar situation. All our clothes has a funny musty smell. Ended up ripping the whole thing out, plastering and replacing with freestanding wardrobes! It was too far gone for anti mould paint etc... when we ripped it out, it was so so mouldy! Confused

Cerseilannisterinthesnow · 08/04/2018 19:41

That’s what I’m hoping to avoid by tackling it now hopefully!

OP posts:
Cerseilannisterinthesnow · 08/04/2018 19:41

Oh and we only rent so ripping out etc isn’t an option unless landlord does it!

OP posts:
Anxiouschild · 08/04/2018 19:41

What kind of door is it? Would it be possible to cut a hole in it and fit some vent plates over the hole?

LostMyBaubles · 08/04/2018 19:43

Another one here with a place with mouldy shoes

Defo no damp in that room
The iron is used in there and i open the windows
Heating is on in there too

Cathpot · 08/04/2018 19:48

Similar issue and we think the problem
was warm air inside the house hitting the cold inside face of the external stone wall and condensing out any water. In the end we insulated with solid insulation between the outer wall and the back of the cupboard. We also run a dehumidifier in the winter and have a heat exchange extractor fan running all the time in the room we use for drying clothes.

Cornishmumofone · 08/04/2018 19:54

Get some desiccated silica gel packets and put them in your shoes.

For a cheap dehumidifier, fill some old tights with cat litter and put them in the wardrobe.

sleepingbaby1125 · 08/04/2018 20:38

We put v low wattage heater bars in the bottom of ours which was a fudge but fixed any problem. Were solid metal bar type things. Would avoid fitted furniture on outside walls in future if possible.

Cerseilannisterinthesnow · 08/04/2018 20:46

I know, when I viewed the house I thought great what a space saver and it’ll be fine not thinking about the heat/cold outside wall thing! We are getting a new boiler fitted tomorrow wish I had mentioned to them about fitting a small radiator in there!

It’s just a wooden plain door but think maybe taking it off would be better and think it would actually look better aesthetically and will try those bar heaters they don’t seem too expensive.

I was very surprised at the amount of water in the small dehumidifier I have actually and hoping that helps. For now I am going to move the clothes along a bit so they aren’t sitting against the outside wall

OP posts:
MiddledAgedMother · 08/04/2018 20:47

Get an ebac dehumdifier and leave on with cupboard doors open during the day.
They use very little electricity and work wonders!

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