An expert has shared his top tips on how to beat mould in your home - and stop it coming back. It follows a recent coroner's ruling that a two-year-old boy was killed by breathing in mould in his family's one-bedroom flat.
It shows how serious the problem can be - but there are steps you can take. Richard Brown, a damp expert with RBBA Ltd Building Surveyors, is keen to stress that 'mould is a result of condensation, mould is not the cause'.
Our day-to-day living adds moisture to the air - cooking, showering and even breathing. Richard told the MEN the secret to tackling damp and mould is to 'minimise how much moisture we ourselves add to the atmosphere'.
He said: "What is meant by that is something is occurring that is allowing the germination of the mould and it is that something that must be rectified, not the mould itself. If you just treat the mould, it will continue to return, as you have not got to the bottom of the root cause.
"Mould spores are present on all surfaces, and largely, these spores lie there, dormant, waiting for the elixir of life, water, to spring into life. So it is dealing with the water that offers the success in treating mould. Stop the water, stop the mould."
'The daddy of all damp causes' he says, is condensation, which occurs when this warm air strikes a surface and cools rapidly, leaving a wet surface, 'which in turn germinates these mould spores that are always present'.
Richard said: "You are always going to have a certain amount of condensation on your windows in the morning, about an inch around the bottom is normal. The entire window being covered is not normal.
"I would suggest, if there's that much water on the window, there is a problem not with ventilation but extraction."
He said the ongoing maintenance of extractor fans is vital, especially over cookers as they clog up. It's also important to remember that damp will move around in the house, from bathroom to bedroom for example.
He said: "The damp will always move to the coldest room in the property. So if you have a room that's constantly cold and you're showering at the far end of the property, that damp will migrate towards that colder end of the property."
Nine times out of 10, where the damp is occurring is not where the damp has been made. So how do we limit the amount of moisture in the atmosphere to stop the moisture providing the growth?
Richard's top tips for stopping mould growth
- Make sure you extract as much of the moisture you create as quickly as possible. This means using your extractor fans in the kitchen and bathroom. But make sure your fan is actually working. Just because it is making a noise, doesn’t mean it is working. Hold a piece of toilet tissue against the grill and see if it holds the tissue. If it doesn’t, it's just a “noise maker."
- Keep your property warm. Heated air can hold more moisture than cool air. The warmer the air is, the more moisture it can hold. Try and keep your air temperature at a low background heat of 18°C+.
- Don’t use the boost button on your boiler. Using the boost for an hour is very inefficient and expensive, plus one hour is not enough time to substantially heat the air. Keeping the air temperature consistent is a lot cheaper and more comfortable, plus as mentioned earlier, warm air holds more moisture.
- Use trickle vents at the top of the windows, and NOT wide open windows. We are constantly told to ventilate our houses, but this doesn’t mean unregulated ventilation. Most radiators are sited below windows and we know warm air can hold more moisture than cold. So how do we get the best of both worlds. We open that little slit at the top of the window. This allows a certain amount of air into the property, whilst allowing the radiator to heat the air up.
- When showering, close the bathroom door, dry yourself in the bathroom, exit, close the door and let your extractor fans run for another 10 mins after you leave. Most extractor fans are connected to the light fitting and have a setting that allows it to run after the light is knocked off anyway.
- With our weather, it is not always possible to dry our clothes outside and using a tumble dryer is extremely expensive. So if you must, dry them in a room with an extractor fan and keep the fan running. Remember to keep the door closed and turn the heat on to a low constant setting of 18°C.
- Try drying your clothes at the warmest time of the day, when the natural air temperature is warmer than in the evening.
- When cooking, use the extractor fan and keep a lid on the boiling pots. This will lower the amount of moisture going into the atmosphere.
- When running a bath, run a little cold water first, just enough to line the bottom of the bath and then run the hot water. This will stop steam.
- Boil your kettle under the extractor fan that is running.
