New House - Black Mould

tootoo

Hi - I'm hoping someone can help me a little.
We have been in our house for 4 years now and suddenly we have horrendous black mould in the bedroom and it feels really damp. The room in general has always been cold, but we have never seen any mould before now.
I have spoken to the developer (which was bought out so they didnt actually build our property) and they are no help whatsoever. I have also spoken with the company who did the cavity wall insulation as our neighbour found out this year that they "forgot to put the cavity insulation in"! and they too are being extremely unhelpful. Theres obviously something not right, but have no idea what and no one to ask!!
We do have an NHBC.

Thanks

MenstrieBen

Are you using the room or is it just shut up?

it may be as simple as there not being enough ventialation - as a new build you will probably have weep vents above the windows that may have been closed but as a reuslt the humitidy is a bit high.

depending on the finish (paint/wallpaper) in the room there are different ways you could wash it off and with proper ventilation it shouldn't come back

poppysarah

If you have a CIGA certificate for the cavity wall I'd look at whether it's got any guarantee with it. (Or is it all tied in with the NHBC?)

http://www.nhbc.co.uk/Aboutus/Contactus/


Have you turned the thermostat down/up or stopped having trickle vents open?

tootoo

thank you for your advice.
the room is our main bedroom, so has always been used. I have opened the vents to see if that helps the problem. Think a trip to B&Q is order for some paint though!

MenstrieBen

don't rush in with the paint.

wash the wall with sugar soap or a diluted bleach as suggested below to get rid of any mould and leave it a bit for it to dry out and make sure that it doesn't just come back.

otherwise you may find that the mould just comes back trough the new paint

some advice here http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf179100.tip.html

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RE: Removing Mold From Painted Walls

Post by Jo Bodey (288) | (01/24/2005) function send_message_tff64637931(action) {window.open('/scripts/send_message.lasso?message_profile=thr112548','send_message','status=yes,menubar=no,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,width=450,height=400');return false;}ContactMould grows where there is moisture so the 'cure' is to prevent the moisture collecting/condensing on walls and creating the environment where mould spores can settle and breed. If its at the bottom of a wall it may be rising damp, because of an ineffective or breached damp proof course, (often flower beds built up outside the wall allow damp to seep in above the damp proof course) In this case, to prevent the mould you need to repair the damp proof course, (expensive), or remove the structure that is allowing the moisture to bypass it. In cooler damp climates like Britain the atmosphere is often laden with moisture and this can be compounded by the moisture produced within the house - from the kitchen, bathroom and given off from the breath and skin of human bodies. The answer here is to increase ventilation, whether through opening windows/ doors, especially after bathing/showering, or have an extractor fan installed. Raising the internal temperature of bathrooms while showering to heat the walls slightly will also prevent the moisture suspended in the air from condensing out when it hits the cooler surface of the wall. But you must then ventilate to remove it from the house.

A bleach solution, (as directed on the bottle), should remove the mould, kill the spores and whiten/lighten the stain. It will recur unless you sort out the ventilation problem, even if you paint over the stain, although some paints have a built in fungicide to discourage mould growth.

Regards

Jo"