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?

We've ripped out the built ins (against external walls) and have someone booked to come and clean and check the gutters as where the damp is there are gutters directly above. We're heating the house (not living in it as it's being renovated) and hoping these things will help. Was in a bad state of repair so hadn't been cared for really

Just saw those companies with full Poe and plastic sheeting that remove mould and test the air, and didn't know if that was a better option

*ppe

Thanks for all your responses everyone, I really appreciate it as it's been a point of stress for me.

Just wanted to give an update - I bought 2 dehumidifiers (one for upstairs and one for downstairs). After a few days of having them on it didn't really feel like they were making a huge difference. I did notice the radiators weren't piping hot and asked DH to check the boiler pressure. Turns out during the summer he turned the boiler down and then forgot to turn it back up with the cold weather! After about a day of proper heating the problem seems sooooo much better! We still have a lot of condensation but the house no longer feels damp. We still have the dehumidifier running in our bedroom but in the morning the windows are absolutely streaming, I'm talking puddles on the window sill (us plus baby sleep in the room). I've found the dehumidifier really help with drying the washing and I've also just bit the bullet and have been doing smaller loads. The problem downstairs seems to be that the kitchen/dining room/livingroom are basically open plan as the kitchen doesn't have a door. As much as I have the extractor fan/window open when cooking/dehumidifier on it still seems a bit of a problem!

Are your window trickle vents open? If you dob't have trickle vents then sleeping with one of the windows open a crack at night will help a lot with condensation on the windows