Mould and Mildew on walls

newbie!

I have a couple of questions, please bear with me!

1. When the weather gets cold we notice these mouldy moldew marks appearing on the walls. We live in an ex-corpo terraced two up-two down house and the house on one side has been vacant for several years. The front walls of the house are the issue. We dont have airvents in any room -do you think we need to put these in?

2. Also, the back bedroom has the gas boiler? Should there be an air-vent in that room also?

3. Lastly we have a single block wall, flat roofed kitchen extension which frankly is baltic when the weather is cold. One wall gets very mildewed so we wonder if there's anything short-term we can to improve this? We really really dont want to spend alot of money on this house.

CBYR1983

If you don't want to spend a lot of money and can bear the cold get a few buckets of zinsser mould and mildew paint. And keep furniture away from the walls.

If you want a longer term solution you'll need to insulate the walls, which is very costly.

michael999999

Getting vents on the walls is not that expensive, you can rent a core drill and do it yourself if your anyway handy!

If you are going repainting the walls, you really should do the vents first. zinsser anti mould and mildew is brilliant, but you need to wash down the walls with bleach and water first, to kill the mould!

JR79

Hi guys,

Do you know where in Dublin you can get zinsser anti mould paint.

Thanks

CBYR1983

JR79 wrote: »

Hi guys,

Do you know where in Dublin you can get zinsser anti mould paint.

Thanks

Mrcb at the bottom of Thomas st do it.

JR79

Thanks for that CBYR

mlumley

Get the mould fixed first. It can cause respiritry problems and in bad cases it could be fatal in people with breathing problems. Get air vents in. You can also get an insulation that is fixed to the outside of the wall. Dont know what it's called, but saw it being fixed to the exterier walls of a house in Clonmel.

The Helpful Engineer

I agree with the guys above. You need to insulate your walls (and possibly your flat roof) and provide sufficient vents and heat.

Your boiler needs a vent and an air intake. But I would be very surprised if that is not already in place, check the outside wall as it may be hidden behind the boiler housing when viewed from inside the house. If you don't have one get a professional gas plumber to provide one.

I wrote a popular post on my blog about solving mould problems. This problem regularly comes up on boards.ie. See http://thehelpfulengineer.com/index.php/2010/10/mould-in-houses-causes-and-solutions/ Hope that helps.