Here at Seaside Homes, we know it is not acceptable for any Seaside residents to be left living in damp and mouldy homes. In this article, we give advice on how to prevent, report and manage damp and mould.
If you notice any signs of damp or mould in your home, we encourage you to report it to our Repairs service as soon as possible. You don’t need to wait till mould appears – if you notice damp patches on your walls, ceilings, or floors; or if you notice that your curtains, couches, or other soft furnishings are damp to the touch – please report this to our Repairs service so the issue can be resolved before it gets any worse. Our Repairs service is run by our Managing Agents, Brighton and Hove City Council. They have put together a specialist damp and mould team and they are aiming to respond to all reports of damp and mould within 10 days. Where mould has begun to appear, they will complete a “mould wash” to remove the mould, and they will investigate the cause of the damp to see what repairs may be needed to stop the issue from reoccurring.
What is mould?
Mould is a form of fungus and is usually green or black. Mould grows on moist surfaces, so the most common causes of mould growth in the home are:
• Humidity: Rooms that are often filled with steam, like the kitchen and bathroom, are most at risk of mould because there is so much moisture in the air.
• Condensation: When moist air comes into contact with a colder surface, it turns to liquid water and causes that surface to become damp. Mould is most likely to grow on damp surfaces.
• Rising damp: This is a form of damp that may indicate a serious issue in your internal wall. The issues related to rising damp could be due to plumping leaks such as in the water pipes behind your walls or under your shower or bath.
• Poor ventilation: Because mould grows when the home is damp and humid, it’s vitally important to let moist air out of the home, and get in dryer air from outside – before the moist air has a chance to turn to liquid water on your walls, ceilings, floors, or furniture. To help with this, you need a working ventilation system in your home. If your extractor fans and other vents aren’t working well, it’s much harder for you to prevent damp in your home.
When you report damp and mould to our Repairs service, they will check to see if the damp was caused by a structural issue or leak and if so, they will book in a repair to resolve this issue. They will also check to see if you have enough fans and vents in your home to get damp air out and dryer air into your home, so they may book in an appointment to repair, upgrade, or install new ventilation systems.
Once our Repairs service has discovered the source of the damp and resolved this issue, it’s important that you still take certain actions to discourage damp from returning to your home.
Managing Condensation
Even when there is no rising damp, no leaks, and the ventilation systems in your home are working well, it is unfortunately still possible for your home to become damp. Condensation happens when the moisture in the air in your home cools against a cooler surface and turns to liquid water. Basic household chores like cooking, taking baths, showers, and drying clothes indoors can produce up to 20 pints of water vapour each day within your home!
The key thing to preventing damp is to keep the temperature of the air and the surfaces in your home warm, and to frequently replace the moist air in your home with dryer air from outside.
Optimum Temperature
It’s best to keep the temperature in your home at around 21 degrees during the day, and not letting it drop below 16 degrees at night. If your heating system has a thermostat and programmer, you can set it to keep your home at these temperatures. If not, you could use a thermometer to keep track of the temperature in the home and turn the heating on and off accordingly. If you do have a programmer, it’s best to get the heating to come on an hour before you get up in the morning, and an hour before you get home from school or work, so that the rooms have a chance to warm up before you start doing household tasks that will release moisture into the air.
Bringing in dry air
The quickest and easiest way to bring in dry air is through opening and shutting windows. Luckily, water vapour is always looking to get out of the home as fast as it can. So you only need to open a window, count to five, and shut it again, to get lots of moist air out of the room. A good rule of thumb is that if you get cold whilst opening the window, then you’ve opened it for too long! It’s a good idea to briefly open and close windows in each room when you first wake up, and before and after cooking, showering or taking a bath.
Ventilation systems are also key to bringing in dryer air; make sure you use the extractor fan in the kitchen whenever you cook, and the fan in the bathroom whenever you shower or bathe. Fans are cheap and efficient to run and won’t make much difference to your electricity bills, so do try to remember to keep them on.
There will also be ‘trickle’ vents in your home that help bring in dry air and these don’t need to be switched on and off. They are normally on your windows and doors, and they let moist air out and bring in dry air even when the window or door is closed. It’s important to make sure you haven’t accidently blocked or closed any trickle vents, as this increases the risk of condensation – which leads to damp and mould.
Drying clothes
Drying wet clothes indoors is often unavoidable, but does release a lot of moisture into the air. If you dry clothes on a radiator, the air will quickly fill with too much water and cause damp. So it’s best to dry clothes on an airer, and it’s best to put the airer in the bathroom and turn the fan on whilst the clothes are drying – to get the water from the clothes out of the home. The next best place to dry clothes is the kitchen, with the extractor fan on. The worst place to dry clothes is the bedroom! There’s not as much ventilation in
bedrooms so it’s more likely to cause damp.
Furniture
Water in the air can get trapped behind furniture and in drawers and cupboards and cause mould to grow. Furniture that is pushed up against the colder external walls in your home are most likely to get damp from condensation as the water in the air cools against the wall gets trapped behind your furniture. If possible, try to put furniture against warmer, internal walls, or leave a gap between the back of the furniture and the wall so that the moist air doesn’t get trapped.
