When a critical event occurs, we can usually deal with it. The replacement of the kitchen roof, repairing the hall roof, and insulating the attic went pretty well. We've decorated three rooms: Mr A's office, my 'study' and the bedroom. The rest is looking very shabby indeed, inside and out. And the shower cubicle is still leaking, despite my sealant efforts. Not drastically, but enough to need more work.
The latest thing to happen is that black mould is growing on the wall of the shower room. The upper walls and ceiling of the shower room are papered rather than fully tiled or painted. Some of the paper showed signs of damp a while ago, but that was before the roof was fixed, and it didn't seem to get any worse afterwards.
Mr A and I went out to look at the outside of the wall with the mould, to see if any damp was obvious there. The external wall looks pristine, so maybe it's condensation. From the outside it looks as though the wall has a ventilator opening, but there's no sign of it on the inside. Maybe it won't be a huge deal to add an extractor fan, but I want to know if that will solve the problem.
My other question is whether perhaps the damp is rising from ground level and only showing up on the wall above the tiles. Can it do that on the inside and leave the outside surface untouched?
4 comments:
Lola, do you remember the house we shared in Manchester, 1990 to 1991? Remember how the bathroom had green AND black AND white mould?
If you can't shift your current mould, maybe that's something to aim for...?
LSPCxxx
I'm with you on sealing the shower - again - 3rd time better be the charm for me. We have one of those corner showers - kit thing from home depot. The silicone does not want to stick to it no matter what I do. So - once again I will have to strip every last bit of sealant off and redo the whole thing. I'm told if this is one speck left that a proper seal will not happen.
Do you have a fan in your bathroom? That's quite a bit of damp happening there. And does it vent outside?
Usually mould means bad ventilation... We have that problem too as the bathroom is the only room without any windows. It has one ventilation point and I always open the door of the bathroom and the closest window (in the bedroom), but we still get some mould.
I don't think it's rising damp - I think condensation/bad ventilation is your problem. (Of course, everyone's an expert...)
A fan that vents outside (like an Expelair - other brands are available..!) has really improved things for us - they are compulsory on new build houses now - we had to have one fitted in our extension. Good luck!
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