Help! Mould everywhere!

[Mamabear04]

I moved into a house last October and never had any problems apart from some condensation on account of old windows that are doubled glazed but old.

This year I keep finding mould everywhere and the condensation seems so much worse. There's a few things different in that we have a new baby so we've constantly got washing drying and also in the house all the time whereas last year I would be out at work/generally out and about more.

The things that are getting mouldy are wooden objects like an unvarnished dolls house that was under a window of an exterior wall, wax fjallraven backpack that was hanging on a coat hook also on an exterior wall, clothes in the bottom of our chest of drawers but not the upper drawers (in our bedroom).

My question is why is this happening all of a sudden and why is the condensation so bad? We have the heating on for an hour in the morning and then a couple of hours in the evening. We usually have the washing drying in the dining room but the other rooms are just as bad for condensation. I try to leave the windows ajar when we go out in the morning but it doesn't seem to help with anything.

Any suggestions?

Not enough ventilation, not enough heating, drying laundry inside and too high humidity.
Reverse those, add in cleaning away the mould and applying mould resistant paint/sealants (whatever decorating needs doing).
less heating and ventilation and not drying clothes indoors, may save money now, but in reality only causes further, expensive problems further down the line.

And just add - check things like guttering is running free and devoid of blockages and broken guttering, make sure weep vents in doors and windows are blockage free and damp proof courses aren’t bridged outside, air bricks aren’t blocked and extractor fans actually work and vent outside.

We have bought a dehumidifier for this reason. Windows have been open and the heating has been on but there was still some growth so we bought one. There hasn't been a huge amount but enough for us to ensure it is kept at bay

If you had your heating on constantly, windows open constantly and didn't dry laundry inside you wouldn't have this issue. (As long as there isn't a cellar full of water or cracks in walls letting water in or anything like that)

So, you have to strike the balance of heating on enough, windows open enough and drying laundry.

You could add a dehumidifier into the mix.

Had the same issue.

I now leave my windows open for 1.5/2 hours a day (I just shut the doors) and then heating on afterwards. Hasn't come back.

Kill it all with white vinegar and bleach first though.

Hanging wet washing indoors us a terrible source of damp, condensation and mould.

If you have no alternative, and have no tumble dryer, put a rack or line in the bathroom, SHUT the door and window, and leave the extractor fan running continuously.

This will suck the water vapour outside and prevent it drifting round the house.

A typical modern batbroom fan will run for a hundred hours on one kWh of electricity, costing around 20p. And can be very quiet.

my house is 300 years old and we used get a lot of mould - we got a dehumidifier and always have It on next to drying laundry - we also stick the dehumidifier in each room for a few hours through the week! It’s helped massively! We got an extractor fan in the hall (that’s where the laundry usually dries)

This is going to be a big problem this winter.

People are drying clothes inside as they don't want to/ can't afford to run a tumble dryer

They are either limiting heating or in extreme cases not using it at all

They are keeping the windows closed to prevent heat loss

All the above Will lead to mould

Does anyone know how much it costs to run a dehumidifier? My flat has just suffered a leak and the freeholders are still trying to diagnose where it’s coming from.

If you have a dehumidifier or are buying one then the details will have the wattage on it and you can work out the cost per hour from that. So if it’s a 270watt device and a Kw of electricity is 34p then it will cost just over 9p an hour to run the dehumidifier.

that is 0.28 x 0.34 is 0.0918

Please do not mix vinegar and bleach. It produces toxic chlorine gas.

I agree with all previous advice but would recommend using HG mould spray on the mould patches. Warning though…the fumes are very strong.

1. Dehumidifier - have it near where you dry laundry
2. Wipe visible condensation off from windows, doors, walls etc every day - usually noticeable in the morning especially bedrooms and anywhere you dry laundry
3. Dettol mould spray with active bleach is amazing

It's the humidity that causes it, a dehumidifier will help. Plus you do need to wash down cold outside walls periodically I found (the hard way). Ideally dry laundry in a room you can open the window eg I used the bathroom until I moved (now no window)

No. Do not. You'll kill yourself.

How do you reduce humidity?

If you've got any other way of drying washing, do it. Drying indoors is the problem here. In winter, I do all the week's washing on one day and bundle the drying into the car and take it to the launderette to dry. Also religiously run a dehumidifier and 'never' position furniture by exterior walls

It's not just ventilation into a room, it's air being able to circulate around your furniture, so if you have boxes or other things packed under the beds, you'll find they start to go mouldy - you have to have some space between them, between items of furniture etc, particularly those against outside walls. We discovered this in our house, despite not having a particular condensation problem.

I'd wipe everything down with bleach solution to get rid of the mould and hopefully prevent it growing back immediately, and make sure there is a bit of room around furniture etc. If your chest of drawers goes down to the floor, that's why only the bottom drawers are affected - cold floor and no air circulation.

Can you afford a good dehumidifier? We got one from AO for £200 on a payment plan for £14 a month for 2 years and honestly it’s made such a huge difference. We had to weigh up whether it was worth doing that or having the heating on more and in the end we went for it and it’s been so good.

We've lived in our house for 7 years and have dried washing for 2 adults and 2 kids on maidens for all that time with no problem, AND we're pretty stingy with the heating! We hardly ever use the tumble dryer, although of course we dry outside when the weather allows. We do have a logburner though, so I presume that makes the difference.

The log burner if used is heating ….

Get a heat pump tumble drier.

Opening windows does nothing as we have a mild & damp winter. Right now the humidity outside where I am is 94%. If I opened my window, I’d be letting more moisture in than out.

Use a couple of drops of tea tree oil in some water to get rid of the mould, it wipes away, safer than bleach and the mould doesn’t come back.

Not if your home is heated. If you look again, you will find that 94% is the relative humidity.

The same amount of water content in the air, if heated, would have a lower RH.

That's how a cubic metre of hot, dry air in the Sahara contains more water than a metre of cold, damp air in Manchester.

93% humidity here.

OP could you take the washing to a laundry to dry as suggested up thread? Or dry as PigletJohn suggests.

Re the clothes getting mouldy in the chest of drawers, is that against the wall? Council you move it forwards?