Small patches of mould in the house

Ken2000

Good evening.
I've recently discovered some small patches of mould on the ceiling of some of our upstairs rooms in our house and was wondering firstly, what is the best way to get rid of it and secondly a cost-effective way to prevent it... Photos of the mould can be found here.

We live in a small three bedroom semi-detached house in the Scottish Highlands, where it's not uncommon for it to be quite damp. We also dry out quite a bit of clothing and outdoor kit in the house and the average humidity and temperature in much of the upstairs is 75% and 16 degrees C (a bit on the chilly side really). We have old storage heaters, which we really detest, external cladding and triple glazing.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated!

Aylesbury_Duck

Ken2000 wrote: »

Good evening.
I've recently discovered some small patches of mould on the ceiling of some of our upstairs rooms in our house and was wondering firstly, what is the best way to get rid of it and secondly a cost-effective way to prevent it... Photos of the mould can be found here.

We live in a small three bedroom semi-detached house in the Scottish Highlands, where it's not uncommon for it to be quite camp. We also dry out quite a bit of clothing and outdoor kit in the house and the average humidity and temperature in much of the upstairs is 75% and 16 degrees C (a bit on the chilly side really). We have old storage heaters, which we really detest, external cladding and triple glazing.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated!

Ooooh, suits you Sir!

It sounds like you have a humidity problem, the perfect mix of moisture and cool temperatures. The solution is to turn the heating up a bit and increase ventilation. Do you have trickle vents on the windows? If not, can you leave a few upstairs windows slightly ajar?

Is there somewhere else you can dry the damp clothing? It's clearly a source of moisture (along with cooking, showers, baths and breathing).

A dehumidifier would be a good investment, although it's treating the symptom rather than the problem, but it will help. Address the root cause first, though.

Edited to add: to treat the damp spots, give them a wipe with some watered-down bleach. Once you've addressed the source of the problem, the areas can be repainted. If the areas are heavily stained, you can buy special paint that treats and coats the area before the final coat. It would help if you painted with satin paint, which can be more easily wiped in the event of any future mould spots.

glennevis

You're living on the west coast pretty much in a temperate rainforest. Get a good mains-powered dehumidifier with a 12 litre tank and get the humidity down to 50%.


I use HG mould remover, very effective.

chickendipperbabe

Avoid the cheap £30 peltier based dehumidifiers if you go down that route, they’re good for cupboards but not much else. Compressor based dehumidifiers are good but Desiccant dehumidifiers (in my opinion) are even better as they put out warm dry air so they have an added heating effect plus they’re not as noisy. I use an Ecoair Simple dehumidifier myself and it sorted out a damp problem in a poorly heated room in our house (blocked heating manifold)

tacpot12

Move ventilation, better heating and less drying of wet clothes in the house will sort the problem.

HG Mould Remover will get rid of the mould, but there's little point until you stop making the house so wet.

Fire_Fox

Whilst you continue to air dry laundry indoors you will always be battling condensation damp. Treat with a proper mould and mildew remover now because the mould is potentially harmful to your family's health.

The most cost effective way to prevent the mould returning is to ventilate: run kitchen and bathroom extractor fans for much longer, and throw windows open on dry days. Cool air from outside will naturally hold less water than warm air from inside, so this is worthwhile all year round.

If you are on an Economy 7 meter/ tariff the second option is to purchase a decent dehumidifier and run it overnight when you have cheaper electricity. This does not replace ventilation though: healthy indoor air quality is about more than humidity.

HTH.

Ken2000

Thanks all for the messages, really appreciate it. I've got rid of most of the mould, using Stardrops Mould & Mildew Remover. There are a couple of painted walls where no matter how much of the spray I use, the mould won't fully disappear. Any tips, please?

There's also a bit of mould embedded into the silicone, used to seal the windows. Again, this seems to be fairly permanent and won't wipe off, even after using the mould removing spray.

Grenage

For mould that won't come off after bleaching, you're basically down to painting and fresh sealant.

poppellerant

I can vouch for the HG mould spray for removing mould, but you should do it when you can leave the room being sprayed for an hour or two with open windows. I then wipe off, spray on a little more and wipe that off immediately.

Try not to use the same cloth to do one large area. Get a cheap pack of cloths and use them all if you need to. Boil wash them with a tiny amount of biological powder to ensure they are properly sterilised for the next round.

Something I do every so often is use the mould remove from poundland every so often. This makes the HG spray last longer.

I have abandoned my compressor-based dehumidifer now. To get rid of any humidity, I open all my windows in the house to let it breath for a few hours. I actually find the house heats up far quicker once the moist air has been let out - and it costs far less than running a dehumidifier all day!