Mould on new windows

[Oblomov19]

We had all new windows fitted last summer. We have mould and condensation on a few. 5 of the upstairs bedrooms ones. This is the worst.

Pics attached. An old one. And today.

Dh maintains that this is not unusual. I can't accept that. Am I overreacting? A builder came to inspect outsides, no obvious holes etc. We Ventilate. Open the windows.
What else should I be doing?

Bump.
Anyone who could offer advice, I'd appreciate it.

yes, it does look like condensation though I suppose it might be connected to rain penetration.

Do you drape wet washing inside the house?

Does your bathroom extractor fan work, and do you use it?

How long do you open the windows each day?

We have this problem in upstairs windows, got new windows, problem still there. I clean it off but it won't all come off the silicon seals. Don't even know who to get out to assess it. Would it be a builder?

We had that the only way to control it was to get a dehumidifier and sit it on the widow sill .
Only a small one, but it's amazing how much 'damp' there is in the air.

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It's caused by poor ventilation. We had the same after having new windows fitted. We had a proper ventilation system installed for the whole house and haven't had any condensation or mould since.

Drum2018 you need a ventilation company.

Damp air rises, so condensation happens upstairs on cold surfaces. You need to either open windows more (ideally on cold, dry days) or get a dehumidifier. I wouldn’t dry clothes inside without a dehumidifier. Use an extractor in the bathroom and the kitchen as well.

Do you dry washing inside?
You need more heat and more ventilation. Also wipe down the affected areas with dilute bleach to remove the mould. It might also help to wipe the moisture off the windows once or twice a day if you are not doing so already.

Thank you.
Yes I do dry washing on a heated airer in the lounge. I know your not supposed to, or people say your not, but I don't have a tumble dryer. I do hang washing outside at every opportunity. But I need to be able to dry washing inside. I just need to.
So what I'm really asking, is what do I have to do, to facilitate that. And not have mould. On my new bloody windows!

I wipe the condensation off regularly. Not every day, but often. I open the windows regularly, not every day, but often.

We have 4 extractor fans in house: bathroom, en-suite shower, kitchen and downstairs toilet.

I do wipe the mould off with bleach.

But my point is that I've just paid £1000's to have all new windows throughout house. And I wasn't expecting THIS!!

So. You all say I need a dehumidifier? Right. I'll talk to Dh about that.

And you say I should call in a ventilation company? Any suggestions or links please? Because all my google searches (many!!) haven't suggested that before.

Brexit:
"We had a proper ventilation system installed for the whole house "

Please explain. What exactly did you need. And what was the cost please?

The difference in the weight of your wet washing and your dry washing is the amount of water you are adding to the air in your house. It has to go somewhere, and at the moment it’s going up and condensing on your colder windows. I would suggest either drying your washing in a room with extraction (in the bathroom with the fan on maybe), or get a dehumidifier.

I’m evangelical about dehumidifiers, I used to dry washing inside and believed we had a damp problem until the penny dropped and I thought about it with my engineering brain instead of my weekend off duty head!

Your nice new windows are better sealed than the old ones, so the moisture stays inside. That's how it goes, physics innit.

Since you can't avoid generating it, you need to let the moisture out or get a dehumidifier.

We have to wipe our windows every day and open them on vent every day. Even if it’s just half an hr. we didn’t have any condensation when we had the draughty old windows. Condensation is the price we have to pay for sealing our home with new windows it seems.

We do have a dehumidifier, it’s quite expensive to run but we do put it on if we have washing hanging around.

Brexit:
"We had a proper ventilation system installed for the whole house "

Please explain. What exactly did you need. And what was the cost please?

First off they installed 'in' vents in every room (picture 1). They allow air in and can be adjusted to increase air flow.

Then they installed 'out' vents (picture 2) into the chimney breast from the living room, kitchen and bathroom. The chimney is now capped with a giant extractor thingy which runs constantly but silently. A bit like picture 3.

Can you dry the washing upstairs in a room with the window open. Can you leave the windows open a fraction all the time (sometimes called night vent)
Can you get a condenser dryer? Can you increase the heat.
And or get a dehumidifier.

if you must dry washing indoors, put it in a room with an effective extractor, turn the extractor on, and shut the doors and windows so the water vapour is drawn outside rather than drifting around the house.

You really need to open your upstairs windows every day. Not only to get rid of condensation but just for fresh air - especially in bedrooms. Wipe the condensation at the same time. By the time you've done the last bedroom you can go round and shut the others.

Bleach does not, ever, kill mould. It bleaches it.

To kill mould, you need vinegar and/or clove oil. Wipe over every day by all means but use vinegar. Just ask Townsville. They can't get vinegar this week for love nor money.

You need a decent sized dehumidifier not a small one.
You move move it around the house from room to room as each one dries out.
Also buy yourself a cheap weather station clock, they measure the humidity of the air around them.
That way you can keep track of how damp each part of the house is.

I don't think people realise quite how much water there is in a load of washing, I didn't until I got a condenser drier and have to empty the water container. It's a lot of water to spread around the house.

Windows need to be opened every morning and left open as long as possible. Trickle vents should be open all the time.

A tumble drier really would make life easier!

We have something similar. We fitted double glazing to our 70s house a few years ago, and had problems with condensation. Not helped by the fact that we live on a main road, so deliberately chose not to have trickle vents installed. Our problem has been helped by doing several things:

• installing a permanent ventilation system with vents in both bathrooms, the upstairs toilet and the upstairs hallway
• improving the insulation in the upstairs end rooms of the house (we're detached and they were very badly insulated)
• upgrading the radiators in the cold end rooms of the house upstairs
• leaving windows open - we leave the shower room window open while we shower and for a decent period afterwards, and for around 9 months of the year we leave all the bedroom windows slightly open during the day (ours have a setting where they look closed from the outside, but are actually partly open)