HELP NEEDED - mouldy bathroom ceiling

jemw

Hi Guys

Just wondering if there is anyone that can help us or give us some advice.

We live in an old house (200yrs) which has a relatively new tiled bathroom. There is an old extractor fan in the bathroom which is wired into the lighting - so when the light is turned on, the extractor fan comes on too.

Problem is that the bathroom gets really steamy when we use the shower (don't have a bath). We always use the extractor fan and also tend to leave it on for 10-30 mins after finishing using the shower. We also open the bathroom window to allow the steam to escape.

The paint used on the ceiling is proper bathroom & kitchen paint, yet the ceiling still gets mouldy.

I don't have any idea of the power / strength or model of the fan - it was already in the house when we moved in - but I suspect it isn't powerful enough to remove the excess steam.

Does anyone have any suggestions of how we can rectify this issue? Do we need to change the fan? If so, to which one and how expensive it is to do this?

Thanks in advance
Jennie

WestonDave

To be honest I'd be looking at other issues as well - make sure the bathroom is warm enough to dry it out - you need warmth and ventilation. I'd also be making sure the loft above the bathroom is properly insulated. You might also try one of the squeegee's that you can use to dry down the tiles as much as possible to leave less water hanging around.

The other thing you can try is anti condensation paint - in effect this is slightly insulating so that the ceiling is less of a cold spot to accumulate water.

Changing the fan might help but to quote the guy that fitted our last bathroom - all extractor fans do is help - if you want to get all the wet air out, you need an aircraft engine rigged up! Small extractor fans don't really change enough air to totally solve the problem so you need to address the other contributing factors.

phill99

It isn't just the fan that is an issue, and I suspect is the least of your problems. The batroom needs background heating and also the ceiling above the bathroom needs to be insulated. If it isn't then the warm mooist air is meeting a cold areaon the ceiling and obviously condensing, which is the cause of the mould.

jemw

Hi Guys

Thanks for your replies.

We had brand new installation in the kitchen and bathroom loft space and also the main loft space installed in April, so I'm hoping that shouldn't be a problem?

There is a radiator in the bathroom and we do use our central heating, but mainly only during an evening (we both work full time + occasional overtime hours). As we tend to shower in the morning before going to work, do you think this contributes to the problem?

Whilst the radiator is hot to touch, it doesn't actually radiate as much heat into the room as the new radiators we had installed in our living and dining room when we moved in. The existing radiator in the bathroom is probably about 15-18 years old (same age as CH system).

We are looking to change the rest of the radiators in our house, but are just waiting for my Dad to return from holiday so we can get the name of the plumber that did the last lot. Do you think this will make a difference?

Thanks again

jemw

just to add - the roof tiles are old slate tiles which are quite thin and are attached straight to the loft rafters. The actual tiles aren't insulated, just the ceiling but there is minimal access for this to be improved. We also don't have the funds to replace the roof as we are currently expecting baby no. 1, which is one of the reasons I am concerned about the mould and why we are replacing all of the rads in the house.

latecomer

If you dont heat the bathroom in the morning then the condensation will form afterwards and probably last until the heating comes on in the evening. I would try putting the heating on in the morning for a while to coincide with the showering and that should help.

Kandipandi

I have this problem too. If I look to get the condensation problem sorted, is there anything I should do before I paint it again.
Last time I washed it down with a mild soap and bleach solution before painting but I obviously didnt get rid of the source of the problem.
Should I get a special anti mould (just guessing here!) primer or someting - or is that just a swizz?

WestonDave

If I were you I would be tempted to change the radiator for a dual "fuel" towel rail (get a stainless steel one if you can afford it as they radiate more heat than chrome or white equivalent sized ones - or get a bigger non SS one). These will heat both from the central heating system, but also from an electric element inside. We've got our electric side wired into a fused spur timer switch so that we can program it to come on seperately from the heating (especially useful for drying towels in summer when the heating is off and otherwise they just sit damp day after day). That would enable you to have enough warmth in the bathroom to help dry it off in the morning so it doesn't sit damp all day. I think not having the heating on for so long is contributing to the mould build up - that said it is very hard to eliminate it completely - we've done most of these things and still have a thin band right near the wall which is prone to mould growth, but we wipe it over with neat bleach every time we clean and that seems to keep it down until we forget!

WestonDave

Kandipandi wrote: »

I have this problem too. If I look to get the condensation problem sorted, is there anything I should do before I paint it again.
Last time I washed it down with a mild soap and bleach solution before painting but I obviously didnt get rid of the source of the problem.
Should I get a special anti mould (just guessing here!) primer or someting - or is that just a swizz?

Cuprinol do a fungicidal spray which you can use before painting - spray on and let it dry before painting. I've not seen an anti mould paint as such although there are some stain blocking paints around

jemw

WestonDave wrote: »

If I were you I would be tempted to change the radiator for a dual "fuel" towel rail (get a stainless steel one if you can afford it as they radiate more heat than chrome or white equivalent sized ones - or get a bigger non SS one). These will heat both from the central heating system, but also from an electric element inside. We've got our electric side wired into a fused spur timer switch so that we can program it to come on seperately from the heating (especially useful for drying towels in summer when the heating is off and otherwise they just sit damp day after day). That would enable you to have enough warmth in the bathroom to help dry it off in the morning so it doesn't sit damp all day. I think not having the heating on for so long is contributing to the mould build up - that said it is very hard to eliminate it completely - we've done most of these things and still have a thin band right near the wall which is prone to mould growth, but we wipe it over with neat bleach every time we clean and that seems to keep it down until we forget!

Hiya Dave

Thanks for the suggestion. We don't have any electrical points in or near the bathroom - so how would we stand with this? And would we need both a plumber and an electrician to install this for us or just a plumber who is Part P?

WestonDave

Firstly you won't want an electric point in the bathroom, as the switch for this has to be outside the bathroom. That being the case its likely the ring main passes near enough to the bathroom to be able to divert to a switch outside the bathroom - they then feed a cable through the wall into the bathroom to actually connect to the heater.

I'd imagine a plumber with part p could do this - alternatively you could use both, with the plumber putting the radiator on with the element in place, leaving the cable for the electrician to connect up. We were fortunate as we knew we wanted to add one of these when we had the house rewired so got them to put a point in with the fuse taken out, and when it came to replace the radiator it just needed connecting up. At first it was just on a switch but then a plumber mate suggested the timer switch so we got one of those added to replace the simple on off switch - having dry towels in summer was definitely a good thing.