Mould from damp on ceiling - help needed!

angelpye

Hi all,

I am hoping one of you know what I can do...

I think due to having alot more washing drying indoors over the winter I have had condensation nearly every morning which has started to cause mouldy patches in the corners of windows. Well, now I have started to get patches on the ceiling near the windows and when I wiped one away it just spread and came back covering the whole area I had wiped.:mad:

Can anyone suggest a solution? I would be grateful for all suggestions as I have a new baby and it cant be good for her.:(

many thanks in advance

Paulie'sGirl

Hi,

You need something anti-fungal. Unfortunately when you wiped you spread the spores over a larger area. I get this problem in our bathroom as OH tends to not open the window when showering!

Some bathroom cleaners have antifungal agents, read the label of what you have at the moment. If not, a bleach solution or Jeyes fluid (ventilate the area, make sure the baby is out for this one) but be sure to not get it in your eyes (I wear goggles for this).

This is just a superficial solution though, you need to dry the area out when the weather improves.

PGxx

BitterAndTwisted

Fungal spores can't reproduce and spread in a well-ventilated and heated environment, so once you've treated the mould, that's what you should concentrate on doing as much as you can. Drying laundry indoors in the cold weather is risky as you have discovered and that's the reason why I take my stuff down to the launderette to dry at this time of year.

Gingernutmeg

Dettol mould and mildrew spray is great. However, be careful with it as it's bleach based and it can take the colour out of paint/fabric etc. You could use thin bleach which is much cheaper, but the dettol has added anti-fungal stuff in it.

elf06

I had a patch of damp in my spare room caused by items lying against the wall outside. I tried a few things but the mould just kept coming back. Eventually i used a fairly strong bleach soloution and moved the things lying against the wall and it seemed to do the job (that was about 6 years ago)

annie123

I used a teaspoon of tea tree oil in 1ltr of warm water, dunked a clean microfibre cloth and wiped over out bathroom ceiling which had started to get little black mould dots last year, didn't come back

Did it again at xmas, just in case but still no signs of any

Not so nasty if it goes in on your face/eyes

No idea if you need to use that amount of tt oil, just wanted to make sure it was a strong solution.

angelpye

annie123 wrote: »

I used a teaspoon of tea tree oil in 1ltr of warm water...

Not so nasty if it goes in on your face/eyes

Thanks annie, I like this idea the most as no 'nasties' and I have plenty of tea tree in as using washable nappies - very old styley!:D DD2 has very sensitive skin so have to be careful with what I wash her things in so only natural and ecover in this house at the mo!

Will try the more hard core bleach etc should it come back - fingers crossed!

Thank you lots to all who replied!

candyblue

I know its cold but if you can double latch your windows to vent the area its a good idea. Also if drying washing indoors try and put in one room shut the door to stop moisture from spreading from other rooms and open the window of the room where the washing is if possible.

sandy71

We had this problem in our old house and tried everything (even painting over it) and eventually a plumber recommended a spray the kills the mould off and stays white as if it has been painted. Can't remember what it was called though. Sorry that was really unhelpful:o:rotfl:

Will ask DH and see if he knows.

dmcb

You need air movement in your house. I had this problem and was directed to Advanced Ventilation in Bolton. They fitted a ventilation machine in the loft which basically works in the same way as a car de-mister, it pushes the air through the house and the constant circulation means that the air does not get chance to settle.

KSB235

I had this problem in the box room in my flat. I used a specialist mould paint (that kills all the spores and stops them re-appearing in the same spot) but as the walls/ceiling was still getting damp (I really panicked when one day i saw the walls were actually wet as though they had been splashed with water) I went out and bought a dehumidifier. I just bought the basic Argos value one (was still £80 though) but it's been a godsend - no more damp, the flat feels warmer and washing dries in less than half the time! I'd definitely recommend it.