Hi All,
I apologize if this is in the wrong section as this is the first time I have been on this forum.
I am after a bit of help, I have very recently discovered that my bedroom is damp and there is mould growing all over the place.
I have got a few pictures of the mould growing on my wardrobes and bedside table. Also, it has been growing on the walls and it has soaked the concrete under the carpet.
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Quote from Wiki: "The fungus kingdom encompasses an enormous diversity of taxa with varied ecologies, life cycle strategies, and morphologies ranging from single-celled aquatic chytrids to large mushrooms. However, little is known of the true biodiversity of Kingdom Fungi, which has been estimated at 1.5 million to 5 million species, with about 5% of these having been formally classified."
Have a look here:
Most likely you have condensation there, due to the shelf unit being pushed up against an outside wall and restricting the ventilation at that point. This results in the area getting colder than most of the rest of the house, and excess moisture condensing out. This could be made worse by any excessive source of moisture in the house, such as drying washing, fast boiling pans on the stove, etc.
You need to keep external walls ventilated so they get heated by the central heating, and avoid releasing excess moisture into the air.
Move the shelf unit to be against an inside wall.
In article , Andrew Gabriel scribeth thus
+1
If you can't do that then get a sheet of insulted plasterboard or so and bond that to the wall which will if its a solid external wall improve the insulation so you have less cold surfaces for ye olde mould to grow on!....
Firstly as I expect some other kind person might say, its not the type of mould you should be worried about its why its there. As its all over the place it sounds to me like you have a serious condensation issue at least. Portable gas heaters and oil fires tend to do this a lot!
and its not really a forum, you are in fact on a part of the internet that predates the web by a number of years, Its called Usenet and its like emial but to everyone who wants to look at the newsgroup, as they are called.
However the main thrust should be to find the cause of the dmpening that promotes growth, not what it is, as spores of most common fungi and moulds are always in the air, but they tend to only set up shop when they are undisturbed for along time, so I'd suggest if its not condensation the stuff under the carpet might well be a pointer to the damp ingress site.
Brian
This isn't a web site or forum it is usenet:
Yep that is mold, probably 'cause because things are damp producing the right conditions for the mold to grow.
Now what help did you want?
and another option is to put even the thinnest of insulants against that wall behind the furniture. Cork tiles will do.
I speak from experience here.
I've done this too. I opened out a bricked-up fireplace which backed onto an external wall, with the rear of the fireplace being only a half-brick wall. That was obviously going to be a severe condensation problem, particularly with restricted air flow there due to it being at the back of a cubby hole used to house the HiFi (which doesn't get hot) and CD rack, and the flue closed off to the room (but opened to the outside).
I had some 1" cellotex board offcuts, and lined the back wall with it, before plastering. It now shows up as warmer than the external
9" brick walls in the rest of the room, and of course, no condensation.You still need to be careful though. Elsewhere, there's a wardrobe which has bedding piled up in it. Even 1" of cellotex is not going to be a match for 18" of blanckets, and it would still be too cold if they were piled up against the wall. This was solved by spacing the shelves away from the wall, and ensuring there's a gap behind (and I'd never seen or heard of cellotex in 1986 when I did that).
+1
An unhealthy environment that can cause all kinds of medical conditions. Should be sorted out , even if it doesn't look too pretty
another measure is to use a dehumidifier to remove excess moisture out of the air. that should hopefully prevent more fungi growth.
Also worth fitting extractor fans to bathrooms and kitchens that vent to the outside (not recirculate back into room)
If you have a tumble dryer, get a external vent kit to the outside or dry the washing outside instead of on radiators.
I have had this problem too in the past. As others have said, move everything away from outside walls as far as it is possible, and minimise sources of condensation and damp.
Next, shop around for a dehumidifier. At first glance, they all seem to be in the £100-300 range, but I got a good one from ebay for £50 new. I can't remember the make and specs right now though. Once you have this, you can run it all day and it'll suck up a lot of the humidity - they tend to have a lower wattage too so not too expensive electricity-wise. Also, the room feels warmer with one running since it's less damp.
Having the windows open and heating on helps too, but it's a bit too cold just now to keep that up for long.
Whenever I got mould on my wall I'd scrub it off with bleach, then paint over with anti-mould paint. It still came back eventually, but that helped.
Finally, I traced the real issue that was causing the damp - when the double glazing had been put in a few years back, they had made huge cracks in the outside walls of the house extending from the windows outwards. Damp was getting in there. Once we got the cracks filled in, it didn't come back, so that's one thing to check out.
Good luck!
Thank you very much for all your replies!
I am glad to hear that it is nothing dangerous which is what I was worried about.
I have taken all the precautions I can to try and keep the damp and condensation out but it is just impossible in this property. The whole of the extension (where the problems are) is sodden, even the plaster on the ceiling and all the concrete under the carpets.
Luckily I am only renting the property and am moving out ASAP as I have been in contact with my landlord and he couldn't care less about the problems and is not willing to do anything to fix my problems (not that I want to start a debate about the laws for landlords and their tenants!)
Thank you again to everyone who posted.
It is mildew which will give you lung disease if you continue to occupy the rooms.
Without identification, it could indeed be dangerous in the sense of making you ill. The many episodes of House where they find aspergillus or whatever mould, sorry, mold, in a patient's house are based on reality.
Only sometimes fatal.
In article , DavidMartin scribeth thus
Something really wrong there...
Well as a landlord and having a property where we did have this problem
9 inch solid brick walls etc, the lining of the front most exposed bedroom with foam backed plaster board has cured all that and the occupant of that room now says its warmer than she's ever known it!..And No, she hasn't got a new bloke in there;!...
If your landlord was interested in keeping good tenants then he'd look at doing something about this..
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