Mouldy walls!!!!!!

CFC

You should ask Environmental Health to come and take a look at your flat. You are also legally entitled to withhold rent if repairs need doing, or to get them done at your expense and repay it out of your withheld rent. It may well be that ventilation slots are blocked or what have you. I suggest you go to see your local CAB.

As for cleaning it off yourself - there are a lot of things on the market that will get rid of it, but if you're allergic to them all then you have a big problem as they're all pretty nasty. The most important thing is to keep it aired, which you are already doing.

Search the web for this and give the supplier a call, might be worth it:
DM1 Total Hygiene for allergy and asthma sufferers - supposed to kill mould spores in a non-allergic way

Try two teaspoons of tea-tree oil and two cups of water in a spray bottle, and then apply it directly to the surface, with no rinsing. You could be allergic to it though, so watch out and wear rubber gloves.
Try a strong vinegar and water solution, same caveat applies.

With both of these remedies you'll need to keep right on top of it on a daily basis once you've cleared off the worst.

sammy_kaye18

Thanks all

I will definately get on to the CAB (local one) and get Enviromental health involved - ive made sure i have plenty of pictures of the bleeding things.

Sounds daft but i spoke to my mother yesterday and she said that i could try using neat dettol and wiping round the window frames, she said at least his would kill and horrible bugs on it but it would probably inevitably come back. also she has brought me whats called a drip strip to sort out the condensation - i basically lie it at the bottom of the window and it absorbs the moisture so it doenst all run off the window sill adn soak into the wodden/laminate floor we have down (yes you'd think i lived under a waterfall some days)

definately will be looking for a dehumidifier. If need be ill sit it in the bathroom for a while to see if it will totally dry it out in there! (cant put it in the hallway as pooch would probably wreck it.

Jsut looked on Argos and the cheapest one is £45!!! i dont have that sort of money - just wondered - i have a small fan heater - if i could put that on in the bathroom to dry it out for an hour or so. would that have the same effect???? adn jsut repeat it every so often.

anywya htanks for the help people i will elt you know how i get on with CAB etc

love

Sam
x x x x x x

tr3mor

sammy_kaye18 wrote:

Jsut looked on Argos and the cheapest one is £45!!! i dont have that sort of money - just wondered - i have a small fan heater - if i could put that on in the bathroom to dry it out for an hour or so. would that have the same effect???? adn jsut repeat it every so often.

A fan heater wouldn't do the same thing, it would just heat up the damp then let it cool again. A dehumidifier removes water from the air.

You could ask on freecycle, even if you could just borrow one for the winter months it would be a vast improvement.

The model in argos for £45 isn't worth getting to be honest. It removes 250ml of water a day. The one there for £80 removes 10l a day.

You could possibly argue with the council or environmental health that they should be buying you one.

beachbeth

We live in a 1930's house which doesn't have cavity wall insulation. Before we had double glazing put in, our bedroom windows and kitchen window would just pour with condensation. We put the drip strips on the windowsills in the evening which would expand to hold a lot of water and yet it would still be dripping on the floor by the morning. The double glazing helped a lot but we still get mould on one of our walls. We have fitted wardrobes on the said wall (which is an outside wall) and even though I can't see it, I can smell the damp and mould.

We are soon to redecorate and have decided to remove the wardrobes from that wall to leave it open to the air and put the wardrobes on an interior wall instead. Luckily the bedroom is big enough that we can swop things round like this. I just hope this solves the problem but don't know if I'll need a dehumidifier too. We have a bay window which gets damp too even though we have a radiator on it!

Murtle

Use detol or vinegar to help the mould problem.

Beachbeth, it might be worth using bathroom paint where the mould problems are or getting something like this to put on first

http://www.nwepaints.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_Anti_Condensation___Anti_Mould_Paint.html

x x

amazon_spice

contact your local MP.

good Luck.

Valentina2

I agree with the others in that you should contact Environmental Health but just wanted to say that you could wipe down the walls with a kixture of bleach and hot water. In the last flat I lived in we had a mould problem of three walls of the bedroom and that worked- surprisingly enough it didn´t take the paint off either.
After wiping the walls I opened all the windows to ventilate the room for most of the day. Whenever it´s dry weather, open all of your windows and doors to ventilate the flat well.
I hope you get the problem sorted soon because you must be very miserable having to live in those conditions.

moggins

I know it's only a temporary measure but they sell some moisture absorbers in Wilkinsons about £3 or £4 each. It's like a plastic box with a bag of crystals in the top and it soaks up all the moisture in the air. We have a slight damp problem in the hallway because of a damp proof course being put in the wrong place and I have one of these tucked into a corner. You should see the amount of water I pour away every week!

I did find some of these in Lidl once for £1.99 each and stocked up on a load.

mee_2

We have a mould problem too in our rented flat. Have to scrub certain walls about every 6-months.

The best way to slow re-growth is to clean the mould off with bleach - only don't make it too strong or it will strip the paint off the walls.

Some areas that we scrubbed with bleach have never grown back, others are much slower re-growth now than they used to be.

My only concern now is when we move we will take the spores with us and create a new problem wherever we go...

carrieparkinson

is you're mould as ugly as mine?
http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g134/devils!!!!!1979/mould/ :eek:
ive been nagging the council for 3 and a half years and all they say is 'bleach it' but it doesnt work. ive even sued them for the damage to my clothing etc and won, but they still not done anything decent about it. ive rang env health and they say its nothing to do with them. now trying to get through to my local cab about it to discuss where i can go now, as the council just arent responding. i too have a small child and the 'blue wall' is his bedroom wall. the council are just a joke.

good luck with things your end.

(grr the link doesnt work due to the last 5 letters of my photobucket being w.h.o.r.e)