Mold problem in bedroom

goldenfox

Okay, I'm really sorry if this is in the wrong place first of all. 
We've had a problem with mold in our main bedroom for a couple of years now. It only affects the exterior walls of that one room, which happens to be the corner of the building that bears the brunt of the weather. It grows across the whole of both walls pretty equally with more around the window and corner. The windows are open most of the time, we don't dry washing in there and we have a dehumidifier. The dehumidifier has slowed it down a bit, but not stopped it. The room's noticeably colder than the rest of the flat and it always feels slightly damp. The outside brickwork is pretty green on the corner, level with our flat, I don't know if that indicates anything. Our neighbours have also told us they've had mold problems on their exterior walls.

The building is housing association and we are part buy, part rent but they insist it's our problem. I've spoke to them multiple times, they've promised to send an inspector twice and both times no one has turned up. The office also has no knowledge of the appointment when I call them, funny that. 

Sorry for the rambling post, but I am at a complete loss with what to do now. We wake up every morning with stuffy sinuses and feeling pretty awful. We're also expecting our second child and I'm worrying about a baby sleeping in this room. Is there any way I can make the housing association come and look at the problem? (After all this lockdown business of course.) Or sort it out ourselves without just painting over it like the previous owners did?

Davesnave

How old is the building, what's the wall construction and has cavity wall insulation been added since it was built? Those are the questions I'd be asking if it was a house, but I appreciate that info may be harder to obtain on a  part HA flat. I'd also be looking at potential reasons beyond exposure for the greening of external walls, like faulty guttering.

There's always a reason for mould growth, which isn't always down to lifestyle factors.

RelievedSheff

If that corner is green on the outside then you need to find the reason behind it.

FreeBear

RelievedSheff said: If that corner is green on the outside then you need to find the reason behind it.

Agreed. A wall that is green has a steady supply of water from somewhere. Either a leaking water pipe or a defective gutter. Some photos of the problem area (showing roof/gutter/downpipes) would help.

If the wall is permanently wet on the outside, the wall inside will remain cold and attract moist air which condenses and then lead to mold forming. Fix the damp problem outside, and the wall inside will slowly dry out.

goldenfox

Thank you all for the replies.

The building is about 12 years old, I'm not sure about cavity insulation unfortunately. It's plasterboard, a gap and then the brickwork as far as we can tell if that helps. (Not very knowledgeable about these things, sorry.)
I've had another look at the outside wall and the green stain does look like it's coming from up by the guttering, following the drain pipe. Too high up to get any decent photos annoyingly.

Encouraging that if the outside is fixed, the walls will dry out though. Should I keep ringing the housing association? Is there anywhere I can go to if they keep fobbing us off?

lesalanos

goldenfox said:

Thank you all for the replies.

The building is about 12 years old, I'm not sure about cavity insulation unfortunately. It's plasterboard, a gap and then the brickwork as far as we can tell if that helps. (Not very knowledgeable about these things, sorry.)
I've had another look at the outside wall and the green stain does look like it's coming from up by the guttering, following the drain pipe. Too high up to get any decent photos annoyingly.

Encouraging that if the outside is fixed, the walls will dry out though. Should I keep ringing the housing association? Is there anywhere I can go to if they keep fobbing us off?

If it's just a damaged/misaligned gutter then it's probably worth getting someone to have a look at it yourself.  I appreciate that it should be the housing association doing this but for the sake of what may be £50 for a handyman to sort to me it's worth that for your sanity

RelievedSheff

I agree with the above. Getting a local handy man or roofer to have a look and fix it might be easier in the long run.

If the cause of the damp on the outside is fixed then hopefully your walls in that area should start to dry out.

goldenfox

Okay, that makes sense. We'll look into getting someone in to have a look ourselves. Thank you both very much for the replies!