Who is the right professional who can come and advise me about mould and damp and what the cause might be?

[BewareTheBeardedDragon]

I keep getting disgusting mould growing on the carpet along my back wall. I know about ventilation, reducing humidity, furniture placement etc but even where there's no furniture at all it's happening which leads me to suspect that the cause is more complex.

Is there someone who I can pay to come and advise me unbiasedly, without having an interest in selling me anything, and investigate/diagnose the cause and the solution?

I suspect it is a combination of poor/no insulation in that wall, potentially some kind of problem hiding behind the upvc cladding, lack of central heating in that part of the house, but I don't want to go gung ho in following my instincts which might be wrong and lead to expensive and unnecessary work and potentially missing the real problem.

Would a surveyor be the right person? Ime they tend towards the arse covering and lack of clarity - but I need someone who can say it's this and you need to do this this and this.

Help!

I'd get a dude out. If it's rising damp they'll be able to see straight away.

We have the same problem at the moment on our bedroom wall as it’s an outside wall. I’ve just moved the bed and the wall was absolutely covered in black mould
I just did some research and Rentokil seem to have a good service for identifying the source of the problem. Interested in others recommendations

There are damp surveyors and damp specialists. We found someone through check a trade when I had damp issues at my old property.

They came and did a survey using a damp meter and made some checks. I think we paid about £175 for the damp survey.

The trouble with damp surveyors is that they don't tend to be independent so I don't trust them? In a previous property they recommended a whole load of unnecessary and expensive work. Are they independent ones who don't have any interest in selling you stuff?

Is dude a typo or a joke?

I expect it's a joke - I'm feeling bit overly literal at the moment having spent the day scrubbing various windows, doors, skirtings with bleach to remove gross black stuff.

In any case it's def not rising because problem is on 1st and second storey - ground floor is fine.

Get damp detectives - they don’t do any of the work themselves so totally unbiased. Pricey though - I think £400 for a complete survey of a house. V thorough.

@DentalWorries not Rentokil! They trade on the big name and they're terribly over priced. They might be okay for pests and stuff but I'd never recommend them for home property services

@DragonMovie that sounds good - will they be holistic in that if, say, the problem is lack of insulation or lack of radiators rather than a direct damp issue, will they be able to pinpoint that? I don't really want to pay someone to come along and say there is no water getting in anywhere (if there isn't) and not say what the problem actually is.

It's difficult to be specific as to what the likely cause of the mould growth is without seeing the property, but if only 1st and second floors then condensation would be my first thought - consider buying a good dehumidifier (cost approx £150-300) and that should make a massive difference. otherwise consider contacting a qualified building surveyor (through RICS) and get them to inspect your property. I would never recommend a damp company for above ground floor issues.

@unadulterateddad you sound like you know what you're talking about so I will give some more info in hopes you might be able to advise further - if you can't or don't want to that's absolutely fine!

The house is brick built with an insulated cavity in the ground floor, then the first floor is non-insulated timber frame with upvc cladding (so essentially like a glorified shed imo), and the loft is a sloped roof both sides (no dormers) conversion which has decent solid insulation but still freezing in winter and boiling in summer.

The mould growth is happening on the back wall, which is south west facing. And appears to be worse towards the party wall end of the house (it's a semi - the whole gable wall is brick insulated cavity).

Last year I had the same issue on the gable wall, which is not happening there this year, possibly because I had the brick cavities insulated in the summer?

Also the problem is worst in the loft - where I currently have no central heating - just one rather rubbish electrical heater on the opposite wall.

I feel like the solution may be to get the first floor timber framed but properly insulated, and install central heating in the loft (the central heating I will do in any case), but the insulation is likely to be mega pricey so I don't want to go down that route if it's not going to help.

Thanks for the further information, whilst I don't want to be definitive, because the construction you've described is non-standard, the lack of 1st floor insulation would be a concern to me ( I presume there is a vapour control barrier in place though?). I'd get the advice of a building surveyor and review the best way to regulate the temperature in the property and how to install suitable insulation.

It does sound like condensation. You need to heat and ventilate and reduce the amount of moisture in the air (extractor fans in bathrooms, open windows, don't hang wet washing indoors etc). Insulation is good, but patchy insulation and no heating/ventilation means the moisture will find the coldest surface to condense on.

Make sure you have an air gap behind any furniture against the at risk walls. Ideally keep them as free of stuff as possible.

I was living in a flat and had mould behind most of the furniture. As much as i hate to be cold (this was always in winter time) making sure the place was well ventilated solved the problem.That flat just seemed to be prone to.Hope you get to the bottom of the cause :)

I got a damp surveyor and he was brilliant.

I was convinced we had rising damp and was prepared to pay to get it fixed but he said we just needed part of the wall repointed.
He also checked the mould in my bedroom on the same trip and didn’t charge us twice, and he told us exactly what to buy so we weren’t tied into using his company.

It was one of the big companies.

@Brusca thanks - that is good advice.

@unadulterateddad thank you - so a chartered surveyor is the person I would need? Will they be able to help me come up with a practical plan to address the problems? Is there any particular specialism or anything that I would want someone to have to be the most effective?

I don't know if there's a vapour barrier. I assume so but 🤷‍♀️

The house was built in the 60s. The first floor construction is a real pita.

It doesn't help that there's no bathroom fan and the 'extractor' in the kitchen doesn't actually vent outside 🙄🙄🙄
Inherited stupid issues.

Is the first floor the loft or is there a floor above the first ? Was it all built at the same time ?

If you get a qualified building surveyor they'll be able to properly advise you, with such an unusual construction it's worth getting proper qualified advice. Good luck!

The house is brick built with an insulated cavity in the ground floor, then the first floor is non-insulated timber frame with upvc cladding (so essentially like a glorified shed imo), and the loft is a sloped roof both sides (no dormers) conversion which has decent solid insulation but still freezing in winter and boiling in summer.

The first floor construction sounds weird.
Is there just a space between the cladding and the internal walls?

fwiw we get black mould on a bit of kitchen wall which has tongue and groove cladding on the outside, which is in next door’s backyard, which is awkward.
The wall itself is brick with a cavity, but Victorian, so not really a proper cavity, and can’t be insulated.
Anyway I suspect the neighbour’s cladding is trapping moisture in the wall and it’s coming through to us.
I’m wondering if your first floor gets moisture trapped between the insulation above and below?
(It’s also strange that an apparently well-insulated loft room actually isn’t. It does sound complicated )

2nd storey is the loft conversion. It was a 3 bed semi and then had the loft converted for extra bedroom space.

Yes - my neighbour insulted his 1st storey and showed me pics of what they are like inside the wall. Basically cladding over some kind of bitumen stuff, board, timber frame which is empty, then the interior plasterboard walls. From the outside it looks similar to many half clad 60s and 70s builds up and down the country, but I know that probably most of those have breeze block under the cladding (?). Ours don't - guess the builder was saving money.

I will find a surveyor to consult! Thank you so much for the advice all.

Good luck.

It sounds like you need good advice on both insulating and ventilating the property.

While you're waiting open the windows every morning for as long as you can tolerate!

Also after baths/showers open the window and close the door.

Open a window and close the door when you're cooking, and use lids on pans.

If you're drying washing, either put in a closed room with a dehumidifier or use a tumble dryer. I use a condenser dryer and it really is quite alarming how much water one load of washing produces.

Thanks - lots more good advice 😊

It's funny, I lived for years in a completely uninsulated Victorian terrace and never had any issues like this. Sigh.

I'd strongly recommend a specialist damp and mould surveyor. They're not allied to suppliers so won't give you scare stories to make you buy, just tell you the situation. Google 'independent damp surveyor' and that should find you one.