The Ugly Truth About Black Mould
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- Опубліковано 8 гру 2022
- Roger looks at the problem of ugly black mould and explains how we can avoid it.
Why does mould grow on walls, why does mold keep coming back and does it make you sick?
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#mould #damp #blackmold
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It is not always a venting / lifestyle issue. My sisters flat had a broken gutter and it leaked water all over the outside wall which gradually seeped through that walls causing mould growth on that wall only. The cure was to fix the outside guttering, re-plaster / clean / re-paint the inside walls and also for safe measure add a de-humidifer on constant run, due to it being a small property.
I agree - it does happen with damp air and mould. But it also happens like it did for you. In my case the original Victorian gutters needed to be repaired or replaced because they no longer collected the rain (or even met under the eaves any more). Rain streamed down the walls outside and bubbled up the plaster once it soaked through, which it had done for years. The landlord wouldn't do anything about this.
No amount of open windows would have fixed this problem!
However I agree too that in a lot of cases the dreaded black mould is preventable and curable! Thank you for raising awareness of this, Roger, and for understanding that it's so often a cost issue.
There are good landlords and bad. I had a great student landlord, that other one is an absolute shyster.
OAP friend of mine who lives in a basement and ground floor council property has complained about damp and odd patches in his walls for about 5 years since I've known him. He's had his carers complain as well. A week after the coroners report on that poor 2 year, someone came out to properly inspect it. It turns out that council skipped in maintenance. The damp comes from not putting guttering to drain the rain from the front door of the flats above his. Instead the rain is leaking onto his walls causing them to breakdown and mould. The weird patches are caused by the fact there is a sewage pipe leaking under the floor in some of his basement rooms.They would have each cost about £200 to fix if the council had inspected it and then fixed it when he first complained. The front door issue will now cost about £2000 to fix while the sewage pipe issue will cost a lot more.
Still a lifestyle problem... dont put fixing the problem off.. if you have a problem fix it asap, dont put it off it wont go away, someone else wont fix it...
@@pauljones5959 You are making a lot of assumptions here!. She got the guttering fixed as soon as the issue was noticed, it took a while as flats have their external walls owned / maintained by the flat management company or council and she is located on the 3rd floor.
That's mould growth caused by water ingress though, not by condensation. Mould caused by condensation happens in all houses, for the reasons Roger mentions here.
It’s great! My shed has been completed and it turned out nice looking and sturdy and it is way better than the sheds that many of my neighbors had put up. Of course, I'm pleased with the outcome and this Ryan’s ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxGZedDTcDfgD7fG_uU4esfx_EgxzlY2_1 Plans was extremely useful to me as a guide.
I've been refurbishing bathrooms for 35 years and thought i'd seen it all until a job i looked at last winter. The house inside was a total mess, disgusting, but that's a different story. Every window sealed and taped shut with quilts nailed over them. Extractors all blocked up and sealed. The radiators on full blast covered with soaking wet washing. But it was the bathroom, never seen anything like it. The ceiling and walls were black and hand on my heart as i was standing there it it felt like it was raining from the water droplets falling off the ceiling. I could smell and taste the mould and just walked out. The people were the worst of the worst, rotting food laying around, dead rodents, cockroaches, i can go on and on. How people like like that is beyond me. Really bad.
That is awful, some jobs aren't worth it.
Bad parents.
Sound like some of the Council house renovations I worked on in the 90's. Most ppl were clean but you got the odd one that would make you itch or heave (both).
We worked on some in a small village that had to be fumigated before we could work in them. We started ripping out the interiors and got bit up so they taped up the doorways and windows and blew poison in.
@@mattydare Mate, i'm sure we could swap stories all day long, i really have seen it all. A social housing estate i worked on in Edgware Nth London, some of the most filthiest most disgusting vile people imaginable. One house, the woman lived downstairs in one room, whilst the rest of the house was overrun with cats. And i mean many, many dozens of cats. The upstairs bedroom doors had cat flaps but the doors were stuck shut, and the smell was biblical. The ceilings in the rooms downstairs were stained yellow from dripping cat faeces and urine. When a specialist firm came in wearing hazmat suits the bedrooms were full of dead and living cats. I have NEVER seen anything like it in my life. Another flat on the same estate there was a man who lived in the kitchen, he was so massively obese he never left his sofa and he had, and this is the gods honest truth, a fishing rod which he hung out of the window for neighbours to put his takeaways into. And all the waste he threw on the floor around him. I could write a book for some of the things i've seen.
@@tilerman Leicestershire down to Cambridge fens - same s**t, different area👍.
Great video. I live in a rented second floor flat next to a major Scottish river. The first winter I was there it was bitterly cold and the heating didn’t help. Had black mould in the kitchen, living room and main bedroom. After bleaching the walls of the mould I did a bit of reading up and bought a 3L condenser dehumidifier. The first time I ran it I was shocked when it filled up in only a few hours. Ran it again, did the same thing. But it made a huge difference. Ever since over the winter I leave it running for around six hours a day, usually overnight, or when I’m cooking, using the tumble dryer or until it’s full. Thanks to the air being drier I’m finding the heating needs to be on less. As for ventilation the kitchen window is open for an hour or so a day and the bathroom window is left open permanently a couple of inches. The mould has never returned.
Yahoo! You’ve cracked it. Well done.
I know you wrote it a year ago, but I thought I might add something. Hygrometer in every room or if you live small at least one, shows the level of humidity and most of them show temperature as well. Never wonder if it's very humid inside or not, not waiting for condensation to tell. Dehumidifier should be in every-single-home in Britain, it's a must, a gamechanger, lifesaver. It's price doesn't reflect the impact on the lives of inhabitants.
I run a small handyman business. A regular thing I get is asked to look at 'the damp problem' by my client, the landlord, following a complaint from the tenant. Now some of the time there is a genuine issue with water ingress but I recon more than 50% of the time it's actually condensation due to lack of ventilation.
This is the truth of the matter, that can be either the building or the tenant, and also that the only way to get to the bottom of the problem is to visit the property and check every possible cause. I'm a landlord and own a flat where the freeholder had cavity wall insulation installed that is now causing a damp and mould problem in just the gable wall. We have to stop labelling tenants as bad if they complain about mould UNTIL we can show that it is something they are doing. Then it's up to them to change what they are doing or be evicted. The damage caused by long-term condensation can be extremely expensive, so leaving them to continue to cause condensation is not a viable solution. Many building problems can be fixed, at a cost, but the tenants hav eto play a part in allowing access and time to get to the bottom of the cause. Roger's subscribers will know how intractable some sorts of leaks can be.
I believe more like 70% of the problems are simply lifestyle condensation rather than something more seriously flawed with the outside fabric of the house.
I live in an 1830s cottage. How often should I open windows and for how long I’m the winter?
@@mystikmeg. I lived in an old house and had some problems with damp. Fix whatever you can and buy a dehumidifier asap, it will really help dry out the house and the contents. When the place is dry it will be easier to heat.
@@mystikmeg I also live in a 1930s flat. My kitchen has lots of drafty air coming in, luckily I have a Butler's door to close it off from the rest of the house and I put a curtain up in from of that door too. I open up both when the heat comes on, then close them when the heat isn't on. What I started doing in addition now is after my nightly bath or shower, I open the bathroom window for about 5-10 minutes, just as the radiator heat is starting (the radiators take longer than that to get hot), so when I close the window, 10 mins later, the radiators are starting to heat things up again.
I don't know if there's a "professional" answer, but it's working for me during winter. In summer everything is open and I dry the clothes in the house. In winter, I dry using the machine, but some things don't dry all the way, and I finish them in the house.
Here in Germany, some rental contracts have a clause requiring tenants to air the flat/house on a regular basis. They’re also required to clean any mould as soon as it appears or else the landlord will deduct the cost of mould removal from their deposit.
Its tricky that becasue some mould is landlords fault. For example where gutters arent properly maintained.
My rented flat doesn't have central heating. If mold appears in cold rooms in winter it's really not my fault.
@@nataliebutler No form of heating at all?
I have a general regular cleaning schedule in mine saying vacuuming every two weeks, cleaning oven every six weeks, etc... Big long list. Obviously I don't check but it does allow me to put someone in breach of contract if there's a problem. Otherwise if they're trashing the place it can be very difficult to do anything about it until the end of the tenancy.
@@ChrisLee-yr7tz electric plug in heaters, which shouldn't be allowed. It costs hundreds £ a month now to run just one heater. I've bought a dehumidifier and should have a woodburner soon. Fingers crossed it will heat the whole flat.
I feel like everyone needs a beefy dehumidifier to keep mould in check on the cheap. Dehumidifiers are probably the best way to dry clothes inside the house on the cheap, it's also very fast. Oh and in my experience putting large furniture up against the inside walls rather then the walls that lead outside helps with the cold pockets that may lead to large flairs of mould.
Exactly, a dehumidifier is the way to go
You read my mind
I just open windows
@@mdcclxxviepluribusunum1066 Not so easy when its -4° outside 🥶
@@anorakus8272 Plus most of the time it's very humid outside as well.
I had really bad mould on my window frames. Not anymore. Make sure you take these steps:
1. Ensure there is a timer on your bathroom extractor fan and it stays on minimum half hour after you have a shower
2. Dont dry clothes indoors. If you do, make sure there is an extractor fan in that room (bathroom or utility room usually) and leave the extractor fan on 24/7
3. Open bedroom windows when you get up in the morning and leave open for minimum 3 hours. I generally close mine when i get home from work. My windows are upstairs and have the anti-burglar latch that allows them only open a few inches.
4. Make sure you always turn on the extractor fan when you are cooking.
5. Get mould treatment spray (its mostly bleach) and if you see mould on your bathroom ceiling spray it straight away and dont be tempted to then wipe off the mould with a cloth, leave the bleach to take effect and within 24hours the mould will have been killed and disappeared.
6. If you remember nothing else remember, fans and windows.
I always get bathroom mould, even though I always open the window after a shower or hot bath, and use an extractor fan after until dry. Over time it just builds up.
Some of these cases may be lifestyle issues, like he said, but there's clearly some very bad plumbing in some of these places. All the continuous leaks that they have to catch with multiple buckets.
Great Advice, we are constantly battling mould in our rented home. Despite following with you say above we still get some mould in most rooms which we treat with spray. It's odd because the house is soo poorly insulated, it's pointless putting the heating on as the heat just whips out around the windows and doors, but the moisture remains? I know a cold house will be more prone to mould but I'm stuck to know what to do.
@@chrisoliver6690 - If i were you i would leave a bathroom extractor fan on 24/7, also if your windows have those leak air vents make sure to leave those open. Sorry, thats the limit of my knowledge!
@@kd2239 no vents on these 30 year old double glazed windows, which 50% are blown anyhow. I'll keep battling!
In the vast majority of cases it's just a matter of opening windows.. Not wide open all day in winter but certainly slightly open when not using a room (eg bedroom /bathroom during the day) for a few days a week..
Bought a house in the summer that was soaked with condensation and covered in black mould. It worked in my favour as it put a lot of buyers off. Previous occupants has blocked ALL the vents.
I unblocked the vents, putting draught flaps up where appropriate, bought a 12 litre dehumidifier and borrowed another off my girlfriend. A few bottles of Cilit Bang black mould killer, a month of running the dehumidifiers almost constantly, and, touch wood, the mould and damp are held in check. I still run the dehumidifier on smart mode occasionally, just as a precaution, but it seems to have been sorted and the house is almost dried out. (it was soaked through)
buy a piv system 👍
The previous owners probably boiled kettles and dried washing inside a whole lot without opening any windows
Run a dehumidifier one day a week, wipe down affected areas with a cloth with weak bleach ! it's worked for me for 50 years ! Love your channel Roger
Borax is much better than bleach for mould.
@@42RHD Borax is illegal in the UK
Sodium hypochlorite kills it fast but its very strong @15%
@@interabang
Blimey!
You can't get anything cheap and effective anymore.
I was aware you had to treat it with respect but not that it was now illegal.
It's the same deal with Gardeners Sulphur.
What hideously expensive and mostly useless patented chemical are they expecting us to buy instead then?
I use Dettol mould and mildew remover. It works extremely well and seems to keep mould at bay for some time after using. The downside is that it absolutely stinks!!
Here are my tips: Leave windows ‘on the handle’ where a small amount of air can circulate or for faster effect open fully for only 5 mins then close to ‘on the handle’. This reduces the temperature drop from a longer duration which works against drying the air inside.
I don’t like drying my clothes in a tumble dryer because it wears them out quicker and is expensive. During colder weather I hang them on a clothes horse in a small (but not tiny) room and run a dehumidifier to dry them quickly without increasing the moisture inside. The dehumidifier is cheaper to run than the tumble dryer (expensive tumble dryers have dehumidifiers built-in to reduce running costs).
After showering use a squidgy to wipe down shower walls and doors so that water doesn’t have to evaporate into the house. Doing that and opening the window means I don’t need to run the extractor fan in the bathroom. I’d keep the fan on for others who aren’t going to be so cautious.
By on the handle do you mean just turn the handle up 180 degrees and leave it like that ?
@Robin Rastle cheers yeah that's exactly what I do, bought an old solid wall cottage last year trying to manage the condensation issue
@@neilinnature Some window frames let you lock the window in a position where it's open about 5mm. We've come to refer to this as leaving the window 'on the handle' but I don't know how widely that phrase is used. I think you're referring to a more recent design that doesn't allow this. My suggestion was that opening the windows more than a crack would lead to chilling the air which gives it less capacity to hold moisture. You want warmer air because it can carry more moisture away. Of course, if it's not too cold outside then it's not an issue, just open the windows wide and ventilate the house as much as you can (open windows on opposite sides of the house for cross-ventilation works best).
Great video, spot on, I’ve been looking at fittings heat recovery partial system, mainly because the bathroom gets so cold with the extractor running and it would be great to recover some of that heat (altho’ probably doesn’t recover much heat when on boost)
It’s worth saying that warm air carries moisture, cold air doesn’t, same as warm water produces vapour, cold water doesn’t (or much less)
Is it still a good idea to keep the windows slightly open even during the winter when the temperature outside is -2 degrees
You have just said word for word what iv been telling my costumers for years love the show I'm a 57 year old builder and you can still teach me things cheers
I have now tackled my mould issues in my house thanks to what I have learnt from UA-cam videos like yours.
I have now enforced all showering and bathing be done with the window open.
Cooking is now down with the window cracked open.
Unfortunately my double glazing does not have trickle vents. So the best I can do is have the entire window on the first latch.
Next task will likely be a extractor fan in the bathroom and the kitchen.
i grew up in the 60/s 9 inch solid walls with air bricks , crital single glaze windows which were full of problems and an open coal fire ,but never saw any mould ! strange now 50 years on and we have insulated homes and central heating BUT we cant afford to turn it on ,thats progress !
open coal fire would allow moisture to leave the building. It's not the insulation but cost of heating, lack of knowledge and massive lack of common sense
@@0skar9193 Any drawn combustion heating device be it open fire or woodburning stove is actively ventilating the house providing there is the minimum requirement for incoming airflow being met with.
The issue is insulation and ventilation need to be considered as a whole system. Old buildings were 'leaky' so well ventilated, but were never properly heated. A coal fire was good for the room it was in, thats why every room had a fireplace. Old building is then made very air tight, central heating, fire places blocked, double glazing installed, not at all leaky, then the problems start as ventilation isn't considered as part of the upgrades. I live in an area of back to backs and they all have tell tale chemical damp injection holes as none of them are leaky due to 'modernisation' and there's nowhere outside to dry clothes so clothes are dried on racks inside airtight lounges.
I had the opposite, rented a house that had the exterior render put on too quickly before I moved in, and it cracked and expanded from the wall, all down that side was mould on the inside, even after showing the landlord and the council etc they tried to blame it on lack of windows being opened, drying clothes indoors etc, of which I never did. You could tell from knocking on the exterior how hollow it was near the cracks.
Luckily I am out of there now and have had no issues in my new place.
All the standard bullshit this builders is saying an Landlords have been saying for decades. Funnily enough when they do actually fix the problem, all the flat near me need MVHR fitting out, even the surveyor who survey my place recently said that the only solution that will solve the proble. Will the landlord do it, as soon as they know they are at risk of manslaughter charges, I suspect those MVHR are going to be flying into the properties around here.
have to be careful with external render , needs to be on "red rib" expanded metal lathes which does not thermally move compared to internal beading
One thing not mentioned in the video are plants. Speaking from my experience, a massive plant lover, I had 40 large plants in my flat at one point and they drink a lot of water. Found mould growing pretty fast so had to reduce the number of plants in the space and yes, drying the washing inside was a terrible idea.
we are having our external clothes line removed to build more flats on, does not make sense.
You just need to keep on top of cleaning around them. Every week without fail. Plus ventilate. If they die due to not liking ventilation then they aren't suppose to be.
Have you tried dehumidifiers
Yes plants can increase humidity particularly if they are high water demand varieties. On the other hand I recently read that some plants actually reduce humidity eg cactus etc as they take water out of the air. Further research is of course prudent.
I thought some plants would be good for absorbing the condensation . I was thinking of getting some ,maybe not 😂
spot on Roger tenants switch off bathroom extractor fans is very common , plus one thing you did not mention but squeegeeing the bathroom tiles and shower enclosure around the shower area when used pushes that water down the drain that would otherwise evaporate into the house , that reduces the moister in the environment also
I've known several instances where the inline fuse has been removed to deliberately disable the extractor fan in the false belief it is saving a significant amount of electricity.
I run mine constantly but haven't worked out yet how much it is costing now.
No other renter i have spoken to is using, they have all disconnected theirs.
I understand why... was installed under showers! (less effort for the installer! i had mine moved) and there is no off switch!! (isolation near ceiling) and wired into lights (assume cos they thought residents would just accept) . I will again have to pay privately to get a switch.... Otherwise it is the fuse in isolation switch to switch off fan..or mains and all lights. Ridic..
Landlords! :(
Everyone is scared about bills... Standing charges are gauging the domestic customer, profiteering (without value).
The best time to ventilate the house is just before you go out. Open the windows let the air circulate for half an hour and do some house work to keep warm. Then close the windows and go and do your shopping etc. When you come back the new air will have warmed up a bit from the electrics, sun etc even if you do not have the heating on.
Brilliant idea, I will try this.
It's the German purge method. Another version is to open all windows wide for just 10 minutes. This is enough to swop the air, bit chilly, but not long enough to allow fabric to cool down, so once windows closed again, the new air warms up quickly.
This was publicised a bit with schools for COVID, and I now do it myself. However, the outside air needs to be dryer than inside. Often in UK it is damp outside, then it's pointless swopping damp, and possibly damper, air.
@@asilver2889 The air outside, especially at the minute, is much colder than inside, which means that it can have a similar humidity but because cold air can't hold as much moisture as warmer air, replacing warm humid air with cold humid air means an overall reduction in humidity inside by a considerable amount.
@@Jablicek Yes, the relative humidity of two air masses at different temperatures can be the same but the absolute humidity will be much higher for the warmer air mass than it is for the colder air mass. From a humidity and mould growth perspective, it is never a bad idea to replace indoor air with outside air.
@@asilver2889 A common misconception. Air outside "feels" damp because the relative humidity (RH) is high. RH is a measure of how much moisture is contained in the air, relative to the maximum amount it can possibly contain. That maximum is then dependent upon the temperature, with warmer air being able to retain far more moisture than cold air. The cold outdoor air therefore contains very little moisture, in absolute terms. It could have 95% RH at 5c, then after being heated to room temperature in the house the RH would fall to 40-50%.
Perfect video Roger. I am renting and I did make the mistake of drying my clothes in my room and keeping windows shut and yes, I did end up having respiratory issues..... all my own fault and I put my hand up to it... now, in December 2022, with this cold weather, I have been keeping the window open during daylight, and not only did my respiratory issues go away, but I actually enjoyed the 'freshness' in my room. None of this was ever intentional, it was simply that my room was often cold (it's an old house) and so the window would remain shut. Clothes are no longer ever going to be dried in my room, and I hope that my breathing issues will go away (they've certainly improved but I don't know if they'll last for ever - I'm hopeful that ever a period of months I'll be okay). Moving forwards, please could you do a video on tackling the removal of mould on windows - ours are old wooden framed ones (with sashes some of them) - also on one of my windows the owner has secondary double glazing which of course has only made the condensation worse, so now I just keep that open all the time...... Great points made in your video, especially about governments and selling off council houses. I personally think that literally every single problem we have here in the UK can be boiled down to the cost of housing. Were housing to be simply affordable, we would all be better off and could lead quality lives, not just the affluent/wealthy.
As a Canadian living is Britian I can say easily the thing I miss most is Forced Air. Nothing better than having furnace to heat and refresh the air in your house.
Excellent rant Roger (as usual!). I find it depressing that in 2022 we are no better off regarding poverty than when I was a kid in the 1950s. In fact I think we were somewhat happier in the 1950s!
Happiness is hard to measure. I was born in 1952 and I can't say I had a happy childhood because we had six kids and no money, it was hard and boring, but my life changed when I got a Saturday job at 12 years old. That ability to earn my own money and take some responsibility was a turning point in my life. Now kids have to wait until they are 16 to find that. I would have been off the rails by then.
@@SkillBuilder interesting perspective... Not sure if I want my daughter to have to get a job at 12 but I remember the same feeling at 16 when I got my first job on the tills at Tesco.
@@SkillBuilder Agreed! I was fortunate. My elder brothers worked for a builders merchant and got me a job when I was ten sweeping up. In those days nails were sold loose (as were many other things) and I was allowed to keep the "dust" which had copious quantities of nails. I was able to keep this "booty" and trade it to my mates in many ways, especially in the Billy Cart market! I was able to fund my childhood when my parents couldn't afford to. Happy days! I also had a Pigs Swill round which got us half a pig at Xmas. Yummy! My Kids all had a paper round but TBH that was always difficult and now seems to rarely happen. very sad.
@@colinmiles1052 Hi Colin great to look back. I never did a paper round but some of my mates did. The Evening Standard round was good because you didn't have to get up. The whole delivery thing was run by a convicted peadeophile who set it up when he was released from prison. He would give the boys an extra shilling if they 'sorted the papers' in the back room.
Saturday job at 12 years old? Pampered eh? I had to go out and work 3 days a week from the age of 8 and pay my father for room and board!
Clients are often reminded by me that they called me to sort their 'dry rot' problems, and also advice for re-glazing. I explain the 'dew point' phenomenon. Worth mentioning de-humidifier, especially for kids rooms.
Comprehensive video and absolutely spot on. Keep up the excellent work.
Martin Lewis has argued for people to buy dehumidifiers. They cost 7p per hour to run!
@
I was looking down the comments for the first mention of a dehumidifier. Bought one (ebac 18L) in March last year. For the first 3 months or so we had to empty it twice a day but now we’ve got a handle on the situation the impact on heating the house has been dramatic.
Even beside the mould factor there’s a saving on heating dry rather than damp air.
Not to mention most of the money spent running dehumidifiers is put out as heat, a small amount but it makes an impact in a room.
@@DrMontague Only if they are running at full blast 24x7
In general they would be set to 55% or at most 60% humidity and remove water until the humidity drops to that level.
Doing so, if they are compressor based in general they will release more heat than the energy they consumed.
After the house has dried, they would consume little energy.
or you could just enter into the modern 21st century an suggests a MVHR
We went to see how bad the condensation issue was with our rented house. As we walked into the house our glasses instantly steamed up and had water dripping off them!
They had washing drying everywhere downstairs and their three kids were having a steaming hot bath... Not one window was open. The tenant complained the house wasn't insulated enough which was causing the problem.
After they refused to accept they needed to open the windows to let all the moisture out of the house we told them to leave.
We suffer from mould. Yesterday a friend gave us a condenser drier. I dried 3 loads of washing. I got 500ml from 1st load. 800ml from 2nd load and an amazing 1500ml from drying 3 bath towels. Unbelievable how much water drying clothes on radiators puts into the air
Edit* the extra money on electricity was saved in gas
"Essentially, the human body feels more chilled on a cold day with high humidity, and less chilled on a cold day with lower humidity."
The same with high temperatures and high humidity being far harder to tolerate than dry heat.
UK feels so miserably cold exactly because we have such a damp climate. Look at our levels of hoar frosts compared to inland continents where you hardly see any frost.
Buy a decent £200 dehumidifier. Can get 4 litres of water a day when drying washing.
@@markcross5572 they help a little but aren't the answer, even more so for them that can't afford a decent one to start with!
@@1stinlastout165 or have the money to run one
Great summary of the many video's you've previously posted on ventilation, heating, humidity and mould. As a bathroom fitter, these video's have been invaluable, a great way to communicate that mould growth can be prevented.
Thanks it is the same old information but it has to be hammered home with some people and watching the news where it is only ever the landlord who is to blame is frustrating.
@@SkillBuilder Have you considered using a simple dehumidifier that also produces heat? Dessicant dehumidifiers does that!
Have been running the 163GBP Sandstrøm SDH08L15E during the past 3 winters in Norway, for both producing heat and drying out the air, so there is also less heat transfer to the cold surfaces ie windows and less heat transfer from skin to air, thereby experiencing the room as warmer. A cheap and good alternative to heat pumps. Draws 650W on max mode, use this instead of heater/radiator. (not affiliated with Sandstrøm, possible to find this machine under other brand names as Iiglo and probably others)
@@valvenos Good idea but 650W in the UK is a significant cost per hour.
Thermo boarding and plastering the colder walls should help. I work as an a.plasterer for Portsmouth council. This not only reduces mould but insulates the house as well..
Another great vid Roger. We had a problem with chronic damp and mould upstairs in our 200 year old stone cottage. A dehumidifier reduced it a bit but didn’t eradicate the problem. I fitted a PIV system last year and it’s completely stopped the mould and damp. Easy to install to.
Was it expensive?
@@fanfeck2844it’s a Nuaire Drimaster. Can’t remember which model, but the website shows them all.
@@bield7 I did look at them last year, but wasn’t sure it would work. There’s often high humidity in my loft in the winter
@@fanfeck2844 Afraid I don’t know if it would work in those circumstances
@@fanfeck2844 I fitted a Vent-Axia PIV yesterday, the heated version was £392 from Amazon, delivered next day. Took me about an hour to install. Early days but first thing this morning there was hardly any condensation on windows that have been problematic in the past, and the upstairs air definitely "feels" fresher. The landing is cold, but that's a small price to pay if it sorts out our condensation/mould issues once and for all.
Great concise and comprehensive talk Roger, I too am considering my position over MEES it will end my time as a landlord (50 years). In my experience, everything government has ever done to the PRS has cost the tenant more and they never get past the innate anti landlord position. I'm going to forward this to my MP who asked me about mould the last time we met.
A lot of these properties with black spot mould issues, were built fifty or sixty years ago. Only in recent years have they fell into decline. As a plumber I occasionally enter these properties, to find the place to be, steamy and humid. Rice boiling away in the pan, and all the window shut tight.
property maintenance is sadly over looked not only by landlords but private owners too. I now educate my customers saying a bit spent every year on those small "forgot about" jobs will save you in the long run.
That seems to be part of the problem, especially in council properties. Many of these buildings were built in the 70's when they didn't seem to understand that the condensation had nowhere to go. They had concrete floors with marley tiles and no ventilation. My first home built in the early 80's was like this and my wooden windows rotted inside 2 years.
Nah mate. I do this for a living and it's either the new houses sealed shut or houses over 100+ years old that cause the issues. Those interwar and post war properties are generally okay. There are always the odd exception, though.
@@narannavan Wow thanks for sharing your expert knowledge
@@narannavan I agree, but I am seeing more mould now in the interwar & post war properties where people have turned of their heating to save money, also many of those houses have been modernised and made air tight (door & windows air bricks & fire places blocked) and are becoming prone to issues. I see lots of condensation & mould issues in properties that were renovated in the 1980/90's
Condensation and mould is almost entirely caused by the lifestyle of the occupants not usually by the building. Inadequate use of heating, ventilation, drying clothes indoors, constant mopping of floors, not venting tumble driers correctly and over occupancy are usually the causes. In one case where I was inspecting a brand new property where it was built to the latest standards of heating. insulation etc. The lifestyle of the occupants had caused black mould to grow on every wall and ceiling in the property within months of them moving in! Discussions revealed that they had the same problem in their previous property, so in addition to inadequate use of heating we concluded that they had also brought over mould contaminated possessions which helped spread mould spores in the new house.
Agree 100%
thanks roger, that was spot on. we are recent home owners and had new mould as a welcome present this winter. indeed, heating and ventilating are key, costing around 10quid a day. we started measuring in all the rooms and also got a dehumidfier that pulls 10L of water out a day, the thing is a beast. now we're around 50RH in the house, and it finally feels cozy. moisture and mould have been new to us since moving to the UK, but is manageable with vigilence. do you think indoor air filters might help as well?
For us, the answer has been a dehumidifier. In winter, hang the clothes overnight in the bathroom (door closed) with the dehumidifier and they’re dry in the morning.
This is the way!
You are right to bring this up Roger. I think when you get exposed to mould it can get in your lungs and specific types of immune cells will attack it. Sadly I think it also attacks the lung tissue a bit and that can produce pain/tenderness when coughing etc. Also a symptom of infection can be itching on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, perhaps even with small lumps or pustules. Defnitely something to take seriously and avoid.
That is good information
Immune cells attacking your lungs lol
@@thinkforyourself3422 there are known diseases from immunity cells being too aggressive
Also, different types of mould will try to fight each other by releasing VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and other mycotoxins into their surroundings. These have all sorts of effects if you're repeatedly exposed, including memory loss due to the immune system attacking neurons in the brain. A house with a lot of fungal growth (eg, with dry rot through the timbers and walls) can output a lot of these chemicals, even producing hallucinations (hence the "spooky old building", with creaky floors, "cob webs" (actually fungus called serpula lacrymans) and visions of ghosts).
Allergies are one long term result of persistent mould exposure, as the body learns to recognise proteins that are present with mould as signs of pathogen that shouldn't be let into the body. Studies looking at kids attending schools with water damage show a much higher rate of asthma, eczema etc.
Search on Google Scholar for papers with "mold inhalation brain inflammation", "water damage school" etc to see data backing these claims.
There was a famous case in the US where the entire house was condemned as a result of toxic mould following a water leak. Insurance company dragged their feet on the water leak and ended up on the hook for millions.
We have ventilated and insulated the house fully, have short showers, leave the windows open, have a de-humidifier, have fans in the bathroom and the oven, dry hair after wash, dry clothes outdoors or use tumble dryer and yet... still get re-ocurring black mould
Absolutely spot on with this video, inclueding keeping the furniture off external walls all of your points were well made and correct. Thankyou
A small 5L dehumidifier is the best purchase we ever made. Saves us opening the windows in the winter and running it a few hours over night picks up plenty of water and stops any condensation on the windows.
I bought a dehumidifier to help with catching the moisture .
Can work very well and efficient too as you get additional heat out of the condensing action, more efficient than running an electric heater.
We have a small bungalow and bought a dehumidifier, it’s been brilliant at getting the washing dry quicker in a spare room, the amount of water it recovers is staggering
Dehumidifier is the answer
This was really interesting. I'm not rich, but never had black mould. My mam knew the risk and told us put on more clothes and open the windows to stop damp/mould. Sound advice. 🍄
Totally agree with everything you said Roger. I have been saying the exact same thing for ages, I also am a part time handy man for a housing association and have seen so much of this for such a long time, and I too am one of the ones who also shouts at the telly when such news articles come on. I have witnessed two buildings the same and are next door to each other yet one has a massive mould problem, Tennant have had it explained to them so many times and have cleaned and painted so many times, we have advised that if any comes back - Just clean it off, better to clean it than leave it as will only get worse for them if they leave it. yet the attitude that comes back is that it is not their problem and that it is beneath them to take the advise of venting and cleaning etc and that it is down to us or the council to sort it for them. They are in complete denial that the problem has anything to do with them. So its not just a living style now, but a dad attitude or just plain disrespect.
We had bad problems in our bedroom window reveals and the wall above the window. Actually wet with condensation. Turned out the lintel was full width concrete. Also the slope of the roof rafters meant the wall above the lintel was single skin. All this behind the fascia boards. With great difficulty I stuck 25mm kingspan on the outside of the wall and lintol (from inside the roof!) Then chased all the plaster out in the reveal and fitted marmox board and had it skimmed. Problem cured.
I would say have extractor fans in the kitchen and bathroom. Use a compressor type of dehumidifier (cheaper to run than the dessicant disk types) in the room you dry the washing.
Great video Roger, I do love your rants! I used to live in an small 1st floor 1 bed flat in a purpose built 1980s block. Not the best design, no window vents, no air bricks and it had an internal bathroom. It did have working extractor fans though. To cut a long story short, I went through quite a bad period in my life and I let the flat go to sh*t. Over a period of 4 years I don't think I opened the windows at all. The bedroom wall and ceiling was the worst, black and other colour mould all over it, as well as mould on my mattress and furniture. I eventually sorted myself out and redecorated the flat. After that, I opened the windows for at least 30 minutes every day and the mould never came back. It makes a huge difference and proves that you can control it even in property which is not of the best quality.
That is a good story and it shows how it is so easy to enter a downward spiral
Very good real world story. I always open my windows, sometimes hang the washing off the curtain rail, nowhere else to do it really but even if it does make the house cold, you can smell and taste the clean fresh air that comes in and you sleep better in a room that has been aired.
Sometimes it's best (and cheaper) to take a lot of wet clothing down to the local launderette. Yes, it might be 50p for only a few minutes of tumble drying, but the drums are huge and they heat up quickly. Tip: If you arrive and there are several empty ones, feel them first. If you can, pick a warm one.
Not all clothes can be tumble dried..
@@TommyT_ Then don't take those clothes but do the rest. Honestly, you're the reason shampoo bottles have instructions.
@@Hustwick Ironic last sentence. I'm highlighting why your entire comment is futile.
you live in dreams my dude
Great informative and factual video, thanks.
I'm a chippy. I had mould toxicity from exposure to toxic mould while renovating a property.
Ironically I was re-installing a shoddily built stud wall in our house, in order to provide adequate support for a MVHR unit at the time. It floored me for six months.
When I removed the stud wall I discovered the previous owner had "installed" foil roof insulation between the studs which had sagged, touched the gable end wall and caused condensation. The wall was literally covered in black mould.
I can absolutely qualify everything you've just said in this vid.
I'd just like to add though that toxic mould exposure can also cause inflammatory responses in joints, extreme fatigue and lethargy, and cognitive issues. In other words it messes with your head too! Really messes with your head in some cases. It also doesn't matter what colour the mould is, they can all be toxic to humans and animals, especially when they release spores.
It's a very serious issue and should be dealt with immediately to avoid illness.
Outlay for a MVHR system can be pricey but since fitting the MVHR in our place, our heating bills have dropped massively. It will have paid for itself in five years.
If you've no option but to dry washing at home, get a dehumidifier and keep it clean. And re-decorate with mould resistant paint as soon as you see mould.
Best thing for cleaning mould off surfaces prior to cleaning or painting is white vinegar.
Hopefully the recent court case has or will put the fear of god into landlords, especially if corporate manslaughter charges are lodge. Which will lead to many rolling out MVHR to their properties hopefully leading to prices falling.
I discovered white vinegars uses off the Internet when I bought my property behind wallpaper in kitchen it had mould that was obvious...looked like they'd previously had a leaky gutter house was owned by an old lady... she had gone into a home but the sons had fixed new guttering I saw this from street view... so I sprayed white vinegar on the mould which when I finally got around to removing the wallpaper in the kitchen was alarming....left it ten minutes wiped it off... it never came back was dead as a doornail... used it also in bathroom between tiles... worked perfectly and on ceiling from leaky boiler... it works VERY well.
Well said. Been waiting a long time for someone to set the record straight.
I see similar comments here but I lived in a house for 5 years, then rented it out for a further 5 years without issue….then the last tenants moved in and within months were complaining about mould. I went to inspect and they had clothes drying all over the house. I advised them to pack that in and open windows more often but it continued. The estate agents managing the house for me were piling the pressure on for me to fix it as it was a heath hazard to the tenants. Ended up paying for a specialist company to survey the house and the outcome was as you said in the video, the lifestyle of the tenants and nothing to do with the building.
I ended up selling the place to get rid of them and the hassle. Will never be a landlord again!
Sorry about that. Not all tenants are bad.
Great rant Roger. Our bungalow had major issues with mould and poor air quality in our first winter. After installing a whole house ventilation and heat recovery system the problems went, air quality good. Yes it does require investment but we no long live in the 1950's where I remember frozen condensation. Botom line life style is a major contributor to mould.
Good video and fair comments. I found some mould on clothes etc I had stored in built in wardrobes in our bedroom. One wardrobe was bad enough that the walls and floor felt damp just from the condensation.
I put some insulation behind the cupboards to stop the surfaces getting as cold, but I think the main thing is that I stopped drying clothes in the room. Now it's either the tumble dryer or they're hung up in a bathroom with the window left open a little bit. No more mould in the wardrobes!
I'd also recommend a window vac so sucking moisture off of windows and walls. Helps get rid of some of the moisture.
As a retired housing association surveyor I agree with everything you say. It is very hard to convince occupants that much of the problem is of their own making. People cannot afford to heat properties adequately and are unwilling to ventilate. Your video should be compulsory viewing for all tenants & journalists. Well done.
not if the property cannot hold heat because it has too much draft, I have heater on as hi as it can go and the room only gets to 18 degrees. In the day time I open the windows & leave the bathroom fan on all day and I still get mould.
@@eightfivezerobraxton5509 same here, i do exactly as you do, i have 4 windows in 1 studio flat. i wipe the windows down have the radiator on and i go out to a friends for a few hours each day while i have my windows open, i still have mould :/
@@pvmchrisy have you got a dehumidifier? the need about 220watts but you do get some of that back as heat
@@gingernutpreacher thats a great suggestion but unfortunaly my studio is very long if i turn my radiator on even that only heats half of my place
@@pvmchrisy that might be the reason for You're problem's I would put the dehumidifier in the cold ened
This is so absolutely correct 💯. It's a lifestyle problem. It's a little bit exacerbated by the quality of the insulation installed in the building, but it's LARGELY a lifestyle problem.
He is 120% right....walk around and you can see how people have stemmed window in houses/flats...never to be bother to open.
Lifestyle? don't talk bollocks, drinking beer. taking drugs and fucking are choices.
Unfortunately not accepted by housing ombudsman.
Realistically some IS behaviour - have had one tenant who managed to make perfectly good house go mouldy. Neither previous tenant or the following one had any problem at all. So conclusion?
But many of the grossest mouldiest properties, often social housing, are badly designed, poorly built and not maintained, and to only blame the tenants is also wrong.
@@robertkacala Agreed, not only is he absolutely right (100%) but he also opened a portal to another reality and was 20% right in that reality too!
Correct - but behaviour is often driven by financial levels of support, so Michael Gove etc. should widen the scope of their comments to address that aspect. Perhaps the government could carry out an education campaign or leaflet drop to highlight the need to ventilate.
We had really bad mould in our 1800's cottage,so we had the internal walls sprayed with cork and then skimmed before decorating.What a fantastic product it has turned out to be and it has reduced our energy consumption because the cold bridging has gone. You should do a video on Cork spray as it really is a wonderful material.
Sounds like a good idea to potentialy destroy your walls -> if there is humidity in them and you gonna put thermal isolation inside then there is a chance that external part of the wall will be able to go below freezing point and when water inside your wall is freezing its also expanding... luckly for you curent winter is warm so less likely that your wall will be freazing inside.
In this topic there is also the problem of your wall resistance to the vapour->if you puting thermal isolation inside and its not putting much ressistance to the vapur it will be easly transfered from its external side to the internal side and you gonna have huge problem with condensation not on the wall surface but inside the wall->that water will be gathering inside and sooner or later the surface of the wall will be also weet and you will be seing mold on it.
From Cork spray webpage you can end up with idea that it is "a wonderful material" i have my doubts about it, especialy when you are talking that it fixing " cold bridging has gone" that sounds to me like talk of someone that do not understand what cold bridging is...
It may be that it fixed your problem but that also would be a hint that your walls surface was only slighty below dew point.
""The dew point is the temperature to which air must be cooled to become saturated with water vapor, assuming constant air pressure and water content. When cooled below the dew point, moisture capacity is reduced and airborne water vapor will condense to form liquid water known as dew. When this occurs via contact with a colder surface, dew will form on that surface.
The dew point is affected by humidity. When there is more moisture in the air, the dew point is higher."
You walls can be also below dew point only when its very cold and making them only slighty warmer can fix the issue especialy in this winter that was warm.
@@Bialy_1 so what is the solution then ,how do you stop that from happening and mold forming. I live in a old cottage and can't put furniture on outside walls due to mold ruining it and curtains and bedding.I use a dehumidifier when humidity is above 60. It has a tin roof and really old draughty windows and door. Landlord says he will fix it but what do we do ?You seem to know why it happens any advice to prevent it .I clean the mold away and have used special paint but it comes back. I have health issues already just want to find a solution. Any advice is appreciated.Thanks Hazel
Masking the source. The house will Rot quicker and collapse.
As a property inspector I’ve found black mould can be caused at high level by blocked gutters pushing water under the lowest roof ridge and if the mould is only on the window frames or the coving above and to the sides it’s usually either failed external mastic seal or failed render where the window was never mastic sealed
100% right. This season you have two choices: be on breadline all winter and not have a mouldy house; be slightly ABOVE breadline and when spring rolls de-mould your house which goes in thousands of pounds...
We are barely making ends meet but we will heat the house 3 times a day above 19degrees (and ventilate) just to prevent mould.
Thousands of pounds to de-mould a house? Just wipe it off every couple of weeks if it builds up and crack a window every couple of days
Great video and what most of us have known for years. Sadly with energy costs as they are trying to get people to ventilate their home is a tough sell, especially during proper cold snaps like we're having now. My front room was 10 degrees when I came home the other day, it barely reached a comfortable temperature before the heating went off before bed, with windows open it would have been like sitting in a barn. The bathroom is permanently vented because of an open extract fan, plus I open the window when having a shower and drying washing in there, so far no problems.
That why instead of demanding the cheap arse solutions like keeping windows open. Landlords should actually invest in technologies like MVHR for properties.
Superb video and succinctly put, thank you. We have a rental property which the tenant was getting black mould on an internal partition wall. I explained maybe not a well as you have what was causing the issue. We provided a dehumidifier with the house and gave instructions why it needed to be used. As you say it’s a lifestyle issue not an insulation problem. Thanks again
I work in social housing and see this all the time, we had one who was blaming us for her children being ill, mould everywhere it was awful- turns out she was using a vented tumble dryer without venting it 🤦🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️ all that hot moist air was pouring into the flat! Dehumidifier for a week, 2 humidistat fans, a vent fitted for her tumble dry and surprise surprise it's gone!
I think a lot of the problem is around education and these scandalous company's who knock doors and encourage people to sue- taking money out of the system. Budgets are already under strain due to the constant government cuts- don't get me started on that 😂
very agreed about the education comment,
That's still not the source of mould enough to make children ill. Mould already exists in most properties that are of a certain price range. Only a certain type of person tends to get trapped in a mouldy house. Most of the mould is disguised and treated with paint and sealant before people move in, and after living there for a few months, the mould re appears and reveals itself. Yes, there are things that don't help the issue, like drying clothes on radiators or not using correct ventilation, but those are excuses that landlords use to legally refuse responsibility and place the blame / responsibility onto the tenant. If you live in. a house prone to mould, you have to continually buy mould spray, and keep on top of it every few months, or it comes back. Some landlords will help and send someone to come and look at it, but they will all tell you you have to clean it and keep on top of it with mould spray yourself but it always resurfaces because the real issue is inside of the walls, behind the paint, underneath the wallpaper the landlords put there.
@@maui313 oh for sure, the actual cause needs to be fixed and needs to be sorted, just dealing and painting does nothing. Your right some landlords will just just cover it up they should be prosecuted if they know there is an underlying cause outside of living conditions a
I absolutely love your channel. I think my husband is getting fed up of me telling him about all the tips I get😂. It's true about opening windows, I'm always flinging them open first thing in the morning no matter what the temperature..even if it's only for 30 mins. I also have a dehumidifier which I sometimes have overnight( cheap to run too) in the bedroom or in a room where my washing is drying. If I do find any mould in the bathroom it gets wiped with hydrogen peroxide. Fresh air is a life saver so opening a window and putting on a jumper is easy. We are not a rich couple either👍
Sorry for long waffling😂
Don't aplogise I am the master of waffle.
@@SkillBuilder but we need your kind of waffle😊👍
Please Waffle on!
As a landlord with a live-in tenants, i despair when the tenants dry clothes indoors. I provide a free tumble dryer, outside clothes line and yet those guys (laziness?) still insist on their way.
not all clothes can be tumble dried and when weather outside doesn't allow air drying then what?
Do you provide free electricity to run the tumble dryer?
PITA!
@@0skar9193 Exactly. In winter I will put heavier things that have to air dry in warm setting on dryer for about 10 minutes then I dry those on the rack. The other things I dry all the way in the dryer during winter.
@@dkspringer yes. Totally free to use tumble dryer.
Great video!
Some houses _are_ problem houses though.
I recall many years back, staying at my Ma's house for a while - lovely little cottage, but it had one wall which was forever getting mould.
No matter what they did.
During that time, I ended up with terrible bronchitis, because the room I slept in ... was _that_ room.
All the moisture in the house clearly found its way upstairs and onto that externally facing wall.
They eventually solved the problem - it had nothing to do with drying clothes inside in this instance, my Ma was always super house proud and everything was always spic and span.
It turned out to be a combination of rising damp and issues with the insulation in the room. They got some experts in who sorted it for them - it wasn't cheap, it was inconvenient for a while with big industrial dehumidifiers running for a week or so - but far better than getting sick!
Many years later, me and my wife stayed in a rental whilst we saved for a house.
It was simply geared up for mould no matter what.
The roof was so low, I could touch the ceiling.
The bathroom area backed onto a tiny enclosed outside area full of pipes, open to the rain and moisture, but never seeing any sun.
It was a horrible house - almost beyond fixing short of spending many thousands.
In our new house we saved up for, we've never had any problems with mould, but apparently a previous owner (the one before the couple we bought the house off), had a terrible problem with mould - and he was doing exactly what you have said in this video.
All the doors and windows always shut, washing drying in the house, just a messy horrible environment, according to our neighbours - they never wanted to set foot in there.
Before we moved in, the entire house was gutted and internal plasterboards and insulation were added throughout - it's now a toasty and lovely dry place.
The double glazing needs replacing here and there - but you know what, that's where the moisture escapes out - that actually allows _some_ moisture to escape and air to circulate.
We often open the windows a bit, even when cold, just to let some fresh air in.
It's not rocket science, but some houses are indeed problems - and of course, the energy crisis is having a terrible impact.
I do wonder how many people are coping in this cold spell - I can't imagine how awful it is.
We're counting the pennies, but can still afford to put the heat on - imagine if you can't?
Millions are in that position right now.
All fair points Mathew. I said that you could have two identical homes, one with mould, one without and that was me quoting a surveyor. I accept there are problem homes but there is way too much reliance on other people fixing the problem. You hear it all the time.
We recently got an air dehumidifier, and it's a game changer. I have already extracted a lot of liters out of the house with it. We have hygrometers as well to keep an eye on the moisture in the air.
I am from Germany and I grew up airing rooms several times a day, especially in the morning after getting up. I am shocked to see that people in England don't seem to be doing this. By the way, I never had mould in my German home :) After airing we always had a room temperature of at least 19 degrees Celsius. Washing is put in a washing cellar or hung up outside whatever the weather.
It was a thing taught in the UK but for some reason when people started fitting double glazing they stopped opening windows. It also doesn't help that we have lots of windowless bathrooms and kitchens with rubbish extractor fans.
Genau!
ahem,ja,mach ich selbstnatürlichst auch...
Yes i agree 100%. People in the UK are terrified to open their windows because they think their heating bill will be too high. But my advice is exactly as you said, open your windows in the morning for a few hours. You can close them after a few hours if its very cold out but i tend to leave a few windows slightly open until i get home in the evening. Germans are smart and practical.
I think it's primarily two types of people who don't air properly in the UK: Immigrants from places where you don't need to worry about humidity, and very poor people who are worried about the cost of reheating the air in their homes after opening a window.
Great video Roger. Sadly the young boy died because of mold, also disappointing that the other side of the story isn't told by the media, i.e. that ventilation is key.
It might have helped so many people if they had looked at the issue in more depth rather than going for the landlord
Media are too afraid to be seen as victim blaming, even though the kid is the victim not their stupid parents.
Had to be another contributing health factor or gene people generally dont die from black mould
@@SkillBuilder There might have been more sympathy if their flat didn't look like it heavily out dated an in need of major renovations without the mold.
He was given a one bed flat for himself he married moved his wife in both of them from hot country (so ignorant not stupid! ) videos like this are extremely helpful and would have saved that boys life...language barrier permitting. Teaching them to ventilate daily in a flat especially when drying washing indoors...plus white vinegar kills mould dead...cheap as chips!
The flat was overcrowded meant for one already had two then created a 3rd then a fourth on the way in that mess?
He could so easily have lived!
You are totally right. People who come from hot country to work and save money never put the heating on and never open windows in the winter. This has caused me more money to repair the damage than I ever make. May we should start to build flats with a centralised heating system like they do in Switzerland.
As a Polish guy I'm surprised how poorly new houses are insulated . Just few cm of Rockwool between 2 walls. External insulation doesn't exist here in UK where on East of Europe 20cm of styrofoam is standard for ages.
I've recently seen adverts to spray foam insulate your conventional rafter/felt/batten/tile roof straight up against the back of the felt. There will be a few rotten roofs in several years' time.
yes that stuff is a nightmare
Double glazing rules changed from june 2022, all must be fitted with trickle vents, but exactly what you said, with heating costs through the roof people just shut them. I totally agree most of black mold problem is lifestyle problem, amount of times I have to explain to customers that windows do not make condensation. You can get condensation on the outside of windows at certain times of the year, I then have to try to explain to certain customers this is a good thing because it shows the heat is not escaping through the glass.
Go back to the old public information films to explain basic things to the general public, seems like they need it.
Nice video, love the rants.
Rules were updated - trickle vent been law for years, but were 4000m2 now 8000m2. But you're bang on about people closing them, I've just closed ours (draughty) whilst sat in sitting room before bed, will open as I go to bed, simples
@@0skar9193 New builds yes, replacement windows no, old trickle vent rules were if they had them you had to put them back, basically you could not make the window worse than it was. That changed June this year, with the updated Document F, regardless of whether the window has them or not you have to fit them. Thing is they dont work very well behind curtains, generally are the first thing to break on a window and get taped up, and they also leak noise, one of the main benifits of having double glazing.
I noticed a few damp patches so i bought a 20L/day dehumidifier and after 6 hours, the patches were gone. It goes on when the clothes are on the airer and they dry quicker. Plus since the humidity is lower, its cheaper to heat and quicker.
Absolutely spot on except for some other causes of damp, I once rented a bungalow where a doorstep trader had laid tarmac on the drive and bridged the damp proof course. That was a very damp house and the chipboard bathroom floor even developed a hole!
Yes. I actually did have rising damp, it does exist, and had breathing problems for a few years until that was properly addressed.
Excellent video Roger and my thoughts exactly. I actually had an argument with my wife about this last week when I pointed out that the majority of times the cause of indoor mould is lifestyle choices. She is one of those who takes the news reports as gospel, so it therefore must be the local authorities' fault. I reminded her that in some of the first homes we lived in together, we had exactly the same problem through ignorance. In our first home we used to use our tumble dryer unvented and wonder why there was black mould forming around it. We learned the hard way how not to do it. I honestly think they should be teaching stuff like this in schools. God knows what it must be like for immigrants settling here from hot countries with no experience of the British climate whatsoever.
You make a good point, some of the people suffering from mould do not grasp the concept and the language barrier makes it harder.
I agree to an extent, but I would replace the word choice with necessity. It's not really a lifestyle 'choice' if you have to dry clothes on a radiator and keep the heat in to stay warm, without using up all the credit on a pre-paid meter.
What the govt are doing by helping people with their bills, without taxing the energy firms profits is pushing the problem down the road. Probably onto the Labour govt now in all likelihood. The Tories would just try and cut something else from the public bill, not that there's much left to cut. They really want public services to collapse, that is their real agenda.
My experience with renters, is that a fair proportion of them are scamming arseholes.
@@stevenwatson3963 True, but some of the landlords I've had could be described as that too.
@@pancakesgo7995 Fair point Pancake, Seasons Greetings to you Sir.
My 1910 house had a horrendous mold problem until I removed the gas central heating and re-established the coal fires. It's the ventilation. Now nice and warm even with all the windows open in winter.
Yea now instead of inhaling mold all the time they can just inhale nasty dirty coal smoke instead!
You could have the same effect with gas heat and more ventilation. Plus better air quality for you and your neighborhood.
Well said, Roger, thank you. It’s a big problem in Canada too…where I live all new houses must be equipped with an HRV or ERV. I lived in an older house that had been tightened up by the previous owner with no ventilation. I installed an HRV that helped a lot, but the finished basement was still very damp and I had to run a 70 pint dehumidifier during the summer.
Absolutely great video and hopefully this may stop people trying to solve the problem with mould paint! It is just a fact of our lives.
Brilliant summary as always Roger. I've found my dehumidifier is rubbish when the house temp drops to 16-17°c, ventilation is key.
Mine says the same. Theyre designed to run at room temperatures to minimise defrost time. Is worth having the temp a but higher they help themselves out. Drier air is cheaper to heat. ,warmer air is easier to dehumidify.
Why do you let your house get so cold?
There are two types of dehumidifiers - ones that run like a fridge with hot/cold fins and the other that uses a desiccant. The former have problems at lower temperatures because it relies on dropping the local temperature to cause condensation to form. This means they do well at high humidity and temperatures and the extraction rating is for 80% RH at 30°C. The desiccant ones don't care about temperature really a just absorb moisture. This means they work even at lower temperatures and are rated for 60% RH at 20°C. Downside is they use heating to pull moisture out the desiccant and so consume more power than the refrigerant ones.
@@bunnywarren spot on. My compressor one struggles now the heating is turned down. Dehumidifiers help, but can't totally solve the issues Roger raises
Thank you everyone who contributed to this thread about dehumidifiers. I guess just opening a window for a few minutes right before the radiator heaters get hot is a good solution. About 10 mins later, I chose the window and then the radiators warm everything up again.
Anyone have other ideas?
Finally a common sense video that backs up what I’m trying to tell my wife, I’m currently in the process of insulating the house, started replacing windows that make the issue ‘worse’ and exactly what you say is backing up everything that I say. We’ve fitted the PIV after the recommendation from one of your other videos where you was having a chat with an installer, I’m doing all the bedrooms first because everyone spends more time breathing in there. Thanks for another great to the point rant Roger 👌🏻
So well said! We rented property and this was our biggest issue people complaining a perfectly decent flat was mouldy when it was actually them who made the property mouldy, we would have a tenant keep a flat perfect for 10 years, move out and within 6 months the next tenant would say the flat was mouldy.
I've lived in houses that never got mouldy and I've lived in houses that have terable mould, same life style different houses!
Hi Roger I’m a joiner and was lucky enough to be taught by tradesman like yourself many years ago , Another great Video . I’m qualified in structural waterproofing and I explain it to people with example of the droplets on a glass of coke or beer , even on a hot day moisture will cool and turn back to droplets on the cool glass and what is known as “dew point “
If the surface is cold enough and in property this is normally external walls in winter dew point occurs then mould grows
When I was a landlord I found that the tenants never want to except responsibility for anything and expect someone else to sort it out and pay. When you see the news showing houses with loads of black mould, the first thing that pops into my head is why the hell have you not cleaned it sooner before it gets into that state, after all it usually starts out as a small patch and you can get very affective cleaners for literally a couple of pounds!
Yes! and i was even super slack to sort my bathroom mold out, i put it off for weeks. Some Cillit Bang mold killer and P3 mask were maybe £7, plus some wipes, took half hour. Hell normal bleach is 50p
Had to deal with that type so many time.
Won’t spend a pound on a bottle of Astonish but the JustEat delivery driver is there every other day dropping of a takeaway.
@@tabularasa7775 then that is fair grounds under section 8 to apply for eviction, and then probably scuppers your chance of going into private rented accommodation again!
@@tabularasa7775 If the property was mould free at the start of the tenancy and you have then reported an issue with mould, if the building isn’t letting in water and the mould is down to tenant lifestyle then why should it be the landlords issue to sort? If the fabric of the building is causing it, let’s say for a blocked gutter or crack in the render causing damp and the landlord is dragging their heals to sort it then that’s different. However the law does state that a reasonable amount of time can be taken to fix it as fact of the matter is the landlord might not be in a financial position to get it fixed. I personally didn’t make any money off the property I let out, I got £500 a month and the mortgage was £475, plus I was required to have building insurance, landlord certificate on the boiler and any repairs plus paying the tax man so it’s a bit of a myth when tenants think their landlords are living the high life off the back of their payments..............well not all anyway!
Great article and bang on. We don't ventilate our house much even though it's got great sealing. However, we do remove all moisture using a window vacuum twice a day.
We noticed that cleaning mould with bleach seemed to feed it too, cleaning with water or mould killer got rid....but anyway, since we decorated the house and replaced silicone with caulk on windows....no more mould.
People have to get rid of the moisture!
It is also an issue of education, many people are not aware of the need to ventilate your home and the importance of monitoring air moisture levels, with a hygrometer.
I spent over 13 years inspecting social housing for upgrades & refurbishments in 6 London Boroughs and lost count how many home I visited. I can count on my hands the amount of genuine damp problems I ever came across in properties and no one or no argument will ever change what I saw when it come to black mould. The " Lifestyle " term used = Lazy people , Ignorance , absolute lack of any air flow leading to condensation issues going on for years the tenant rarely addressed themselves that a bucket of hot bleachy water would have solved in minutes. I actually went into a Somali home on a Peabody estate and all the wallpaper had fell off the wall due to mould and the home being kept like a sauna, they even had some illegal copper heating elements around the bath to increase the temperature of the bath water, the list is endless at what I witnessed people doing to cause mould, yet they put more energy into complaining about it than actually cleaning it.
Excellent. At last, someone talking sense and telling it like it is. I bought a dehumidifier which costs me 7p per hour to run. Having it on a couple of hours a day has eradicated my condensation problem completely. The drier atmosphere also makes it easier (and less costly) to heat. This video should be a public information film shown on tv
Spot on Geoff! Roger speaks huge levels of common sense of how to avoid damp related black mould. However, this does not fit the media narrative of blaming rouge landlords and poor building standards.
Have you ever noticed that over 98% of properties with this particular issue are enclosed flats with no open exterior area (balcony or garden) to hang washing for drying?
Folks in these kind of properties MUST ventilate ALL rooms where activities of moisture production (drying of washing, sleeping areas - yes, we all produce huge levels of moisture by simply breathing) plus bathroom/shower rooms. Such common sense yet no, lets all blame the landlord (yes their are some bad ones out there) for poor upkeep/ maintenance of the building!
This problem is so easily solved by using a bit of common sense (as above) which apparently is not so common these day's!!
mould grows in dehumidfier!
@@esecallum not in my dehumidifier. It's fitted with UV lights to eradicate mould in the machine and if you follow the manufacturer's cleaning guidance, mould can be prevented.
@@esecallum You can add a bit of bleach to it and empty it periodically. Yes it can grow but as with all things maintenance will save you a lot of headache.
I went to a flat where they were concerned that the roof was faulty. Every surface / ceiling was covered in mould.
I knew there was nothing wrong with the roof.
In the kitchen - they had a tumble dryer.
The extract hose was inside.
I asked - do you put that hose out of the window when it’s running 🤔
There was the problem!
I’m here all day
Skill Builder
You my man
Are so down to earth.
I regard your information videos as some of the best quality advice on heating and plumbing.
Keep them coming my man.
My own circumstances are -
My home was built in the fifties. There is still a chimney running from a fireplace in the iving room. My fireplace is closed off except for a vented plate. The house is completey double glazed, but the front door is purposely not draught-proofed. The result is that the chimney draws air up it due to wind. The air that replaces that chimney draft is sucked in via the front door and by the time it gets into the living room the cold air has been warmed up a good bit.
The hallway is bloody feezing in winter but who lives in the hallway.
The only room that suffered from any mould was the bathroom. That had an extractor fan fitted some years ago. The fan comes on with the light switch and keeps going for twenty minutes after the light is switched off. Mould gone.
Upstairs is never a problem At bedtime, the heating is off and the windows are opened to get circulation going.
Folk I have encountered who have the black mould issues all have the same problem. Not much air moving around the rooms.
In all of them I find they keep all their windows shut - even at night.
Why?
If the windows are opened - what is the point of having double glazing and draft proof windows !!!!
Great video. Hadn't really crossed my mind that improving insulation can often transfer the problem to a cold spot! I will keep this in mind!
Drafty houses rarely have mold problems lol.
@@MarkkuS I don't know about that. My last house was a timber house on stilts with single glazed drafty windows and french doors so plenty of air circulation. Insulation in walls and loft. We aired the house out everyday and still had mold spots on the walls and windows in winter.
I think a big issue that people don't talk about is the finishes in the house play a massive part of the problem. Modern finishes are heavily vinyl/plastic based and so either stop water vapour passing through or don't allow any water absorption, e.g vinyl paint, vinyl plank flooring, polyester carpets etc. I think the issue with my last house was the three layers of vinyl paint on the walls and woodwork (one under coat and two top coats) and the vinyl plank flooring. Effectively creating a lined tank room where moisture can't move in or out.
I rented a house from sanctuary housing and had to report mould to them. They sent a bloke out to have a look he was about 60 plus and honestly I couldn't believe what he said to me. Regarding the black mould situation he said " it's not dangerous to your health unless you LICK IT ALL off the walls. Needless to say I through him out of the house. As for the not venting the house we live with windows ajar in all the rooms so not venting moisture wasn't the problem with the cause of the mould.
Agree with everything you say, come across this problem many times with tenants not opening the bathroom window when showering and black mould forming across the ceiling, even had the problem at home but a terracotta air brick and a couple of trickle vents soon solved the problem.
You gave a good explanation about mould and highlighted a crucial point that moisture tends to accumulate in areas where insulation is inadequate. It's worth noting that council houses in the UK are often very poorly insulated, and councils refuse to install even the minimum required insulation. This contributes to tenants having to block air vents that shouldn't exist in the first place. One solution you didn't mention is insulating flats and houses from the inside. In my experience, adding 50mm of Celotex/Kingspan insulation to walls and ceilings can resolve mould issues and reduce heating bills.
Cheers Roger, an on-going disagreement with my other half about cracking the window open during cooking or showering might just be solved after I show this video to her.
I open them for a few minutes AFTER cooking/bathing...that way I'm not freezing during the activity.
Good luck, didn't work for me!
First video of yours I've seen. What a relateable and friendly gentleman! Great video. I've never suffered mould myself but this makes perfect sense and was well explained.
Great presentation,as always first identify causes, sometimes it may be a leak, cold bridge or even a true damp issue, but 80% of properties I visit with condensation related mould is from moisture produced by us humans and it needs to be removed.
The use of approved mould treatments is required to successfully eradicate spores and their roots and applying a mould resistant paint to future proof the decor. Trigger sprays do little as many are bleach based and only lighten the surface.
MGC offers a good range of treatments for the public and professionals
Great video . talks about how mould is caused and trying to prevent it. But, what is the best safest way to remove treat black mould?
How do we get rid of old legacy inherited mould out of the plaster even after trying to prevent moisture build up?
At the moment found few cold corners in a recently purchased 60s bungalow ( room to be decorated)
I use Detol mould spray which does get rid of it ( temp) , but, I don't spray it on, which causing spray droplets to go every where, bleaches the surround surfaces, goes on your clothes on your hair in your lungs. Instead I carefully spray a small amount directly into a jar or old cup (away from your face and over empty sink ) If you can get the trigger top off pour a tiny amount in then carefully use a paint brush. ( gloves) Let it do its work , then wipe the surface over . if you wipe the surface before treating it you could be spreading the mould even further.
I know most people hate vinyl sheen paints or cant afford extremely expensive waterproof eggshell paints but in the rooms I've painted with it ( especially bathroom and kitchen) , the immediate moister sits on top of the paint ( dries soon with open window or an air gap setting on the windows) rather than gets sucked into the matt paint and then trapped contaminates into the wall and ceiling plaster .
What's your view on paint types?
It seems very difficult to convince people that drying clothes on radiators or other devices that are not venting to outside is the worst thing they can do. Seen the problem of black mould caused solely by excessive humidity and insufficient ventilation many times but persuading occupants to rethink their way of living in the house is a difficult bridge to cross.
Utterly agree. My brother, a plumber, said he regularly went back to social housing issues. The rads went rusty after 2 years, due to people drying clothes
I dry clothes on a clothes horse in front of radiators, near a wood Bruner or in the conservatory. Every window trickle vent is open, at least 1 window in each room is cracked open. I cook and boil kettles, I have never had mould. Ventilation is the answer.
@Big Geordie too true. I have a bathroom without window and when my extractor broke down mold started to grow within days before managed to replace it. Now always on trickle and there is no issue whatsoever
im from poland 25 years i drying on radiators and all my friends newer seen ant mould ... or moisture wired :/ where i need dry cloathes outside ? its -10 now :/
@@adredy can I assume you are in rented accommodation and that a tumble dryer hasn't been provided? You might not of got mold in Poland because you had an older, air leaky house. This would vent the moisture out and not cause a problem. When you are in a more modern built home, moisture WILL get trapped inside the home and cause problems. You would either have to open windows (but why when its cold outside, hence you drying clothes indoors) or use a tumble dryer that either captures the water or vents directly outside.
Spot on. If only we had you to explain this on main stream media instead of the clueless numb skulls we have at the moment. 👍
Spot on vid mate. Everyone needs to see this so we all understand what causes damp and mould.
As you say, open a windows as often as you can. Dry air is easier to heat as well. This time of year my morning chore is to go around every window and wipe the condensation off. I leave the windows open for a while and wrap up warm and the house is generally fine til the next day. No central heating or bedroom heating required just a wood burner in the living room. Electric blanket for going to bed is the hight of luxury. Lovely. I check for mould every day this time of year. When I find it I use any old spray bottle filled with Asda cheap bleach, it's very diluted already so little extra water is needed and spray the effected area lightly (do not soak) and it's gone a short while later, if not just repeat. Of course protect yourselves and any are you don't want bleach on. been doing this for over thirty years with no problems.
Cold walls are the biggest cause of cold rooms after draughts, they act as reverse radiators which us why all walls should be plasterboarded etc or use insulating wallpaper. A good dehumidifier is highly recommended for every household
does plasterboard / insulating wallpaper make a difference? I have a room with a cold wall and that sounds like a fairly straight-forward fix I could do... if it would work.
@@Satoshibtc Dehumidifiers can cost a fortune to use - I tried one in a house that was ancient, had no insulation and was horrid to live in. They only mask the problem. Open the damned windows!!!
@Satoshi Nakamoto Pro Breeze® 30L/Day Dehumidifier
The refrigerator principle at work.
Cavity insulation helps, BUT we need to re-educate that it's draughts and cold surfaces that cool a room quickly. If a surface is less conductive to heat then a room will feel much warmer. Insulation starts inside the room or a product preventing any heat loss.
unfortunatly no matter what you do it is as you say the people in the house that mainly cause the problem , i have been to houses where there is wet clothes being dried in the airing cupboard! ,No one helps there self anymore it always someone else’s fault,and a lot of its due to poor education
We were getting mold on the north facing bedroom walls in our 1930's semi even though we had trickle vents and windows open every day. We also got loads of condensation which we had to vac every morning. About a month ago we install a positive input ventilation unit (pozidry pro) and the condensation disapeared overnight. If we close the bedroom door we get a little but nothing compared to what we had before. We leave our heating on 18 when out and overnight then 19 when we are in via the Tado system. Humidity has gone from 78% upstairs to 55% and 65% downstairs to 50%. Running constantly at lower temps has actually worked out cheaper for our house. Last months useage was £40 cheaper than for the same period last year. (we are still locked in at last years procing thankfully) I also read that heating is more efficient when using a PIV as it circulates the air and because the air is less humid it takes less energy. I'll check if mold retuns over the winter months but so far it's been a game changer. We do occasionally use the tumble dryer but ensure the extractor fan is on and small window open in that room. If drying on a rack , it's again in the room with the extractor on and window slightly open and the door closed. The PIV does cause a cold draft at the top of the stairs but it seems to disapate quickly and it's not noticable anywhere else in the house.
I think part of the reason is that modern homes are just more insulated with less places for air to circulate. Back in the old days those draughty doors and windows would make the place colder but also circulate the inside air outside and cause the moisture levels to equalise.