getting rid of mould/damp

bladebrew

have just read a thread going back a few weeks and it answered most of my questions,basically i live in a rented apartment and there is mould forming on two different parts of the wall in two corners of the room,i know i was doing things mentioned on the previous post eg rarely opening the windows and drying towels on the rad which definetly would not help,but in two places it ends in a perfectly straight line!!
could this be an external problem? (ground floor apartment) and if i sand the wall and paint it with some sort of sealant will it get rid of it?
apartment is 3 years old by the way! are the spores given off actually harmful??
sorry bout the long post
cheers!

RKQ

Spores can be harmful over the long term.
Wash the affected area with mould cleaner and allow to dry.

Its likely caused by condensation on a cold external wall. Drying towels etc is not helping.

Increase ventilation and see if problem persists. Painting over the problem may hinder the mould growth but won't solve the underlying cause.

gsxr1

As RKQ suggested , the first step would be to ventilate. It also helps to use the heating in the same room along with good ventilation.

There could possibly be a small leak in a pipe in the wall or rain water dripping in the cavity.

There could also be an insulation or cold bridging problem.

But all these possibilities should be investigated after you have tried the first suggestion.

ClimateGirl

EcoShop.ie sells a natural mold removing cleaner that is supposed to be very effective. I haven't tried it myself but have heard a number of people singing it's praises.

Kashkai

We had the same problem in a walk in wardrobe that was between our bedroom and the ensuite. It has no natural daylight (unless a door is left open and with the steam from the shower, the air was pretty humid. I had to bin a load of clothes when I discovered that they were covered in mildew. We now open the bedroom windows for most of the day and once a week I run a dehumidifier that takes almost 3 litres of water out of the walk in wardrobe after a 4 hour period. Its solved the problem now but I must look into a longer term solution for airing this room.

bladebrew

thanks for the replies,
going to stop drying towels on the rad and leave the window open a few hours a day,also goin to buy something to actually take the mould off the wall and see if the problem continues,would they have products like this that wont damage the paint on the wall say in b&q or woodies??
also too prosperous dave we are having the same problem with mould/mildew on clothes in the wardrobe does the dehumidifier literally remove 3 litres of water from the air?
sorry bout the long post again!

Kashkai

Yeah Blade, I was amazed at how much water was sucked out of the air by the dehumidifier. I had put it in the walk in wardrobe, closed the door and left it running for a few hours. Later on when I went back to check on it, as soon as I opened the door, I could smell how dry the air was and my clothes had a nice fresh smell off them instead of the faint whiff of mildew and damp. When I opened the water storage compartment of the dehumidifier, I was shocked as it was full with water.

Now as you know, there's water vapour in the air anyway but that wouldn't explain how much water was collected in the dehumidifier. It must have sucked every ounce of water out of my clothes. I've since used it in all the other rooms of the house and they all smell better. I now plan to use it once a week to make sure the mildew problem doesn't reoccur.

As for drying clothes in the house, the model I bought has a "laundary" function that will dry clothes by sucking the moisture out of the air around them so this could be used if you dry towels etc in the house.

sam34

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

As for drying clothes in the house, the model I bought has a "laundary" function that will dry clothes by sucking the moisture out of the air around them so this could be used if you dry towels etc in the house.

i gotta get me one of them.... dave, could you tell me what brand/type you got, and where you got it please. oh, and price too, thanks

Kashkai

sam34 wrote: »

i gotta get me one of them.... dave, could you tell me what brand/type you got, and where you got it please. oh, and price too, thanks

I bought it in B & Q after checking the other electrical outlets for one. It cost €150 but it was worth it as it has done the job in drying out my walk in wardrobe and stopping my clothes feeling slightly damp all the time. Some might think that €150 was a big wad of money but if I had bought it months ago, it would have saved me having to bin a lot of clothes that were covered in mildew which will cost me a hell of a lot more than €150 to replace them.

I can't remember the brand name but its about 2 feet high and is white. The "laundry" feature sets it apart from the other models in B & Q. I'd thoroughly recommend it, especially if you have a wife like mine that keeps on drying clothes on a bloody radiator when we have a brand new clothes drier lying idle "as it uses too much electricity" - says the wife:mad:.

NickTellis

We use one of these - does a great job:

http://www.delonghi.co.uk/product_page.php?id=228&key=Dehumidifiers

We got ours from Argos, not sure if they still do them.

blindman

Dave, if I remember corectly you're in a relativly new house. believe it or not you probable still have construction moisture in your house. I recon it takes at least two years for concrete to dry out fully, with warmth and good ventilation.

are the spores given off actually harmful??

I don't know about the health issue, but the spores are like seeds and care should be taken not to spread them to infect other areas of the house.

mad m

Had a book in work about fungus/mould. It actually said its not harmfull. But will check tomorrow. I Think Aldi were doing dehumidifers a while back, they normally come around again so maybe keep an eye out.

sam34

i bought a dehumidifier a few weeks ago and it was going great, noticed a difference and thought i was sorted. but lately, theres been a deposit/layer of black stuff on my kitchen tiles and on the windows. i dont know what it is. its not on the walls or doors, just the tiles behind the cooker and the windows, both of which are the areas that get steamed up. its a thin layer, tbh i dont notice it until i go to clean them and see black stuff on the cloth. ive also noticed that im obviously breathing it in, as when i sneeze what comes out is black!

any suggestions/advice?

Kashkai

Its probably just grease that comes off with the steam from the cooking process and when it condenses on cold tiles/windows, the water runs away but the grease remains. If you have a look at the ceiling over your cooker, you might see little blobs of black grease. We have a large canopy over our range cooker and its slick with grease as the wife doesn't use the extractor fan as its too noisy :rolleyes:

Slideshowbob

Dhumidifiers are great but what is the actual problem in these cases and is there another alternative besides a dehumidifier such as increasing insulation etc? Thanks