Mould spots and awful walls help

dr78

Hi can anyone advice how I can sort this. It’s had polystyrene sheets on wall so not sure if this has caused damp spots as room ventilated a lot. Don’t know how to sort this as private rent, also ideas how to cover walls to where don’t show so bad. Feel a bit out of my depth here to sort . Wall by window I have had someone out and wall isn’t damp. Not sure on the other wall whether the wall can’t breath with sheets on but the walls are so bad underneath I can see why the sheets got used

Rosa_Damascena

Rented accommodation so make your LL aware. They are responsible for the upkeep of the building and you will need permission to do any work on it yourself (which I personally wouldn't be seeking).

FreeBear

Looks similar to the state my box room was in - That too had polystyrene tiles on the external walls & ceiling in an attempt to keep it warm. When I finally got round to refurbishing that room, the tiles had trapped moisture in the walls and there was quite a bit of black mold. In removing the tiles, large chunks of plaster fell off. Ended up stripping all the walls back to brick/studwork & taking down the ceiling. After adding ~75mm of insulation to the walls and shoving a bit more into the ceiling, it was plasterboarded & skimmed throughout. Dirty, messy work, and if you have to pay someone to do it, expensive.

You appear to have very narrow window sills, which would indicate solid brick walls (~215mm thick). These will be cold and prone to condensation. Looks like the walls have been skimmed in gypsum - Over time, it will turn to a powdery mush due to the condensation dissolving the gypsum. As this is a rental, I would suggest filling any cracks and then painting with an anti-mold paint or putting up some wallpaper. No point in spending your own money to insulate as the pay back on energy savings is likely to be 10-15 years (if not longer).

[Deleted User]

I thought my walls were bad!!! hope you get it sorted out with your landlord, as Rosa said its up to your landlord to sort it out.

Ive had damp issues in my flat, ground floor north facing bedroom for years, 3 years ago the council came out to inspect it and said its condensation, I asked if it was rising damp and he said no, they put a vent in the wall. It didnt help, I kept washing the mould off regularly. Just before xmas last year I noticed the mould had got into my bedroom furniture, my blanket box was so bad I had to throw it out. I treated the furniture and moved all the furniture away from the walls and bought a dehumidifier, which is taking 600ml a week.  In January I called the council out again and they came in early February to inspect the bedroom wall and carpet with a meter, which showed red, a very high moisture content. They said they will contact a damp expert to find out why my walls and carpet is cold and damp. Now April and still nothing despite contacting the council every week! Its classed as an non- urgent repair!!

FreeBear

Deleted_User said: they put a vent in the wall. It didnt help,

Bet that did wonders for your heating bill.

Extremely unlikely your problem has anything to do with rising damp. It would be more likely to be penetrating damp.

dr78

Rosa_Damascena said:

Rented accommodation so make your LL aware. They are responsible for the upkeep of the building and you will need permission to do any work on it yourself (which I personally wouldn't be seeking).

Yes he knows and he come and stood lost with me. Lol

dr78

FreeBear said:

Looks similar to the state my box room was in - That too had polystyrene tiles on the external walls & ceiling in an attempt to keep it warm. When I finally got round to refurbishing that room, the tiles had trapped moisture in the walls and there was quite a bit of black mold. In removing the tiles, large chunks of plaster fell off. Ended up stripping all the walls back to brick/studwork & taking down the ceiling. After adding ~75mm of insulation to the walls and shoving a bit more into the ceiling, it was plasterboarded & skimmed throughout. Dirty, messy work, and if you have to pay someone to do it, expensive.

You appear to have very narrow window sills, which would indicate solid brick walls (~215mm thick). These will be cold and prone to condensation. Looks like the walls have been skimmed in gypsum - Over time, it will turn to a powdery mush due to the condensation dissolving the gypsum. As this is a rental, I would suggest filling any cracks and then painting with an anti-mold paint or putting up some wallpaper. No point in spending your own money to insulate as the pay back on energy savings is likely to be 10-15 years (if not longer).

Yes it’s a right mess lol. It seems so many layers of this polystyrene stuff has trapped the condensation in. So do I take all sheeting off ? Worry is if I wallpaper over this mess won’t the mould grow through onto the paper. The walls don’t feel damp at all. A guy come and checked the wall under window with meter and said it’s not damp. But the other wall was covered with paper still at the time. It’s a terraced house and this room sticks out from the rest of the house. So I think whoever put layers and layers of this stuff must of done it to try and keep room warm. As it’s always so freezing! But also to hide the state of the walls lol what is the best thing for me to do so it’s safe for my son to sleep there. As he is after this room 

dr78

My oldest son who recently moved out had this room and aired the room a lot. We knew to keep stuff from being against the wall as that causes mould. But it’s what we can do to make it liveable and safe for my younger lad to sleep in this room. I don’t want to take the !!!!!! with landlord and go crazy on what it needs doing as he doesn’t take mic with rent. So it’s what has to be done or what can sort it for some years. As I obviously don’t want to wallpaper this room etc and for mould to appear again over paper. Not sure if having sheets off will help at all. As some areas have 3 layers of this stuff 😬

FreeBear

dr78 said: Yes it’s a right mess lol. It seems so many layers of this polystyrene stuff has trapped the condensation in. So do I take all sheeting off ? Worry is if I wallpaper over this mess won’t the mould grow through onto the paper. The walls don’t feel damp at all. A guy come and checked the wall under window with meter and said it’s not damp.

You strip the paper & polystyrene off the wall, it really needs skimming with plaster to give you a decent surface to paper/paint. But at this point, the landlord should be paying for it - If he/she is willing to spend a bit of money, I'd suggest the following -

1) Strip the plaster off the wall back to bare brick.

2) Fix insulated plasterboard to the walls (use an expanded foam adhesive plus mechanical fixings).

3) Insulate around the window reveal.

4) Tape all joints and plaster.

5) Fit new window board internally.

It is a relatively small wall with a fair sized window - Could probably get away with a single sheet (2.4m x 1.2m) of insulated plasterboard (75mm thick), plus a few offcuts of 25mm Celotex to go round the window reveal. If you (or the LL) did the bulk of the prep work, you could probably get it done for under £500 including materials. It would improve the EPC rating of the property and reduce the heating costs of that room.

[Deleted User]

3 months on with no end of phone calls to the council about the damp in my bedroom Ive just recieved an email saying "In due course work will be conducted on your property by contractors for the council"  mmmmm they didnt say how long 'due course' is, how long is a piece of string!!!!