condensation resulting in mould growth in rental property

pd001

I m back! Hi Richard...
Update...
Same tenants...which my daughter is ok with
The portable gas fire has, at long last, gone.
The loft access has been attended to, and widened (as already mentioned)
The loft has been lagged by British gas. (as already mentioned)

Other work has been delayed while my daughter sorted out issues that a neighbour said that we had with the party wall in the loft.
This was after that neighbour had roofers at her property, and whilst fixing her roof, they decided that my daughters side of the party wall was unsafe.
It transpired that her roofers were talking c@rp.

Anyway, next step is the installation of a bathroom fan.
Richard, do you still recommend this one?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Envirovent-Silent-Bathroom-Extractor-Humidistat/dp/B00E7UXIVM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1421272071&sr=8-2&keywords=envirovent+extractor+fan

or this one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MANROSE-MF100T-IN-LINE-EXTRACTOR-MIXEDFLOW/dp/B005F41YOM/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1421268067&sr=8-3-fkmr0&keywords=Extractor+fab

richardc1983

Good to hear you've made progress as its getting to that time of year. If there is no fan there currently then go for the inline fan ducted through the ceiling of the bathroom and suspended in the loft from the rafters. Much neater and ensure is wired into speed two.

If there's a fan there already then the other fan will be fine replacement.

pd001

richardc1983 wrote: »

Good to hear you've made progress as its getting to that time of year. If there is no fan there currently then go for the inline fan ducted through the ceiling of the bathroom and suspended in the loft from the rafters. Much neater and ensure is wired into speed two.

If there's a fan there already then the other fan will be fine replacement.

Hi Richard,
There is currently no fan at all.
I can therefore see that you would fit the inline fan in the loft.

richardc1983

Inline fan much neater, silent other than hearing the airflow and more powerful. think I said earlier on how you would duct this out.

baldelectrician

I would suggest having the fan controlled from a ceiling mounted PIR sensor- then if the light is not switched on the fan will still work.


The fan should have an isolator but this can be adjacent to the fan in the loft.

richardc1983

Very good suggestion.

pd001

baldelectrician wrote: »

I would suggest having the fan controlled from a ceiling mounted PIR sensor- then if the light is not switched on the fan will still work.


The fan should have an isolator but this can be adjacent to the fan in the loft.

Good point, thank you

Twiggy_34

I came across this thread when trying to find information regarding condensation damp problems in our rental property (similar to your daughters, a circa 1900 3 storey property, but ours is semi-detached). My sister found this document which explains to tenants how to modify their behaviour to minimise condensation damp. We have in fact shared it with our tenants to see if we can resolve the issue after ongoing complaints from our tenants - this is despite spending in excess of £3k on property maintenance in an attempt to resolve the issue. We recently sought an opinion from a RICS surveyor and discovered that it may actually be condensation damp rather than a structural issue. We now have to hope that they do follow the recommendations, so that we can monitor the situation and establish whether or not the theory is correct, but thought I'd share in case it was of use!

I found all the feedback on this thread really interesting and helpful by the way. We have taken note of a few suggestions which we may adopt to help take some control of the issue ourselves.

pd001

Twiggy_34 wrote: »

I came across this thread when trying to find information regarding condensation damp problems in our rental property (similar to your daughters, a circa 1900 3 storey property, but ours is semi-detached). My sister found this document which explains to tenants how to modify their behaviour to minimise condensation damp. We have in fact shared it with our tenants to see if we can resolve the issue after ongoing complaints from our tenants - this is despite spending in excess of £3k on property maintenance in an attempt to resolve the issue. We recently sought an opinion from a RICS surveyor and discovered that it may actually be condensation damp rather than a structural issue. We now have to hope that they do follow the recommendations, so that we can monitor the situation and establish whether or not the theory is correct, but thought I'd share in case it was of use!

I found all the feedback on this thread really interesting and helpful by the way. We have taken note of a few suggestions which we may adopt to help take some control of the issue ourselves.

Thanks for your contribution, much appreciated

alejamruc

These things are pretty incredible in my opinion.

We have a victorian terraced house with double glazing and tried all other sensible solutions to both reduce moisture production and ventilate the house better (including installing vents in fireplaces etc.). However, we still had condensation and mould problems. On a cold winter's day they were so bad that we have water pooling on window sills and down by skirting boards.

After installing this system (which I did myself with relative ease, thanks to what Nuaire supplied in the box and a great how-to video i found on YouTube) we have had no condensation or mould problems at all.

The day after installing, it was below zero outside. Instead of large droplets on our windows there was not even a fine mist. Black mould growth behind pieces of furniture on external walls has also not come back all winter after cleaning it off.

For landlords, black mould must be an incredible hassle, as it is mostly down to modern living and not as a result of any defect in the property itself. No matter how much you educate tenants on reducing their moisture production (not drying washing inside etc.), keeping the property at a good temperature and ventilating sufficiently (opening windows and using extractor fans), many tenants will usually not be willing to change their habits enough to solve the problem entirely. I have been that tenant, and I didn't want to turn the heating up or constantly open windows and front the increased energy bill!

However, in our own house now, we can set the heating to 'frost mode' when going away and even dry washing indoors on a cold day with no major issues.

If set to the right speed, these things shouldn't really need any input from tenants - they just sit in the loft constantly forcing condensation out of the property so it can't form as condensation and allow mould to grow. I would still encourage them to do all of the normal condensation-control things, but these units do have the potential to solve the problem entirely without constantly battling with a tenants.

If you install it yourself, these will cost you from between £300-500. Compared to the cost of damp specialists, redecorating a place or potential rent-rebates for disrepair, it's a no brainer in my view. I wish more people were aware of them, as myself and my friends/family have all lived with black mould issues for years - hence why I'm now on some forums trying to raise a bit more awareness.