Damp and Mould Issues in Terraced Property

I agree with previous posters that this is unlikely to be a "damp" issue: the mould in the bathroom and corners of rooms is exploiting excessive moisture levels in the air. The moisture tends to condense and settle in areas that are colder and/or have little air circulation, so "dead" corners are perfect for mould. Your tenants need to change their behaviour and ventilate the house properly (unlikely), or you need to install humidistat extractor fans or a whole-house system.

You certainly don't get rising damp on the first floor, so the "small damp patch in the corner on the floor of the upstairs bedroom" observed by Lynne was either an early manifestation of the condensation mould, or there is a leak from the guttering outside.

The Home Buyers Report will be looking for rising damp from the ground, or areas where water is entering the building due to construction-related problems. Often so-called rising damp at ground floor level turns out to have a clear cause, like earth piled against an external wall, or side paths which have been built up too high and bridged the DPC. Or on internal walls, it can occur around chimney breasts: water runs down an unused chimney flue and gets trapped at the bottom unless there is a source of ventilation to evaporate it. This is why blocking up chimney openings and air vents is such a bad idea!

Basically these old houses were deliberately built to "breathe", with lime mortar in the sold brick walls, openable sash windows, and fires in chimney places to pull fresh air into and through the building. If you install sealed double-glazing and draught-proofing, repoint your bricks with Portland cement, block up your chimneys and install showers and central heating to create the "sealed box" beloved of modern house design, not surprisingly you will get horrendous issues with ventilation, poor internal air quality and condensation mould. The only long-term solution is to add automated mechanical ventilation.

Reply to the comment left by "Simon Holloway" at "10/07/2014 - 09:01":

simon holloway
'If the problem is in rooms other than the bathroom, then I would suggest that fitting a humistat fan in there wont solve the whole issue – but you can never have too much ventilation!'
that is incorrect advice. humidity i.e. steam will migrate from moisture source such as bathroom to other rooms and will condense on the coldest surface, which may well be in a room which does not contain the source.
no one is mentioning the need to heat the premises. make sure if poss that the ch is being properly used (so as to raise dew point and allow ventilation to work better) and that calor gas heaters etc are not being used. the other major culprits are unvented tumble driers and overcrowding.

Having just joined property 118 because of a similar problem I have just had with one of my tenants, I would like to say that all of the advice so far regarding damp is spot on. We did all of the things mentioned and still had problems, however we did not instruct a surveyor Day One, which was a big mistake, instead we relied on a highly experienced roofer to give us advice and dealt with the problem ourselves. However, beware when the end of the tenancy comes up, despite having documented everything, e-mails, photographs, check in and out reports, invoices etc, My Deposits did not award me anything for the damage my tenants caused through inadequate ventilation because I did not have a report from someone with letters after their name. SO GET A SURVEYOR FAST! It will be money well spent in the long run, and I would also say that if the surveyor does say it is the tenants living standards then make sure the tenant pay his costs!

I too, like many others, have suffered condensation issues with tenants. Humidistat extractor fans in the kitchen and bathroom should be all you need....should be. I've found that no matter how you explain to the tenant that it is their lifestyle that is causing the issue (diplomatically of course), they refuse to listen. What I do is give them the phone number for the local department of environmental health and once they've been out, it all goes very quite. Then you have solid evidence that the damage done to the property was down to the tenant. Unless of course there is a problem, which I, and I'm sure any other landlord, would be happy to resolve.

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "10/07/2014 - 09:19":

Hi Mark.

In answer to your question about PIV units aside from Environvent.

A company called Nuaire do them and are retailed to the public through heating and ventilation suppliers. There maybe other manufacturers'' but Nuaire is the brand we found first and continue to use with no complaint. A quick look on ebay will bring up a whole host of units from them through multiple suppliers- it is a specialist product so don't expect to pick one up at your DIY store of course!

We use the one that pre-warms the air which of course then stops tenants complaints about cold draughts and that was about £350. You can buy the non-warming one for around £100 less. The pre-warming one still runs at a very low cost the tenants don't even see.

You can be assured I do not work for this company and nor am I recommending above other manufacturers'- we haven't tried any others to make this comment.

I like you just want to assist my other hard working and hard pressed landlord associates!

Hi Lynne, here is a good tip if your money is tight.
1. Go see neighbor next door and ask him all the hard questions about the damp. Explain that you are new to this and anything he can advise would be grateful.
2. Buy turps/white spirit and mix it with gloss (a cheap one that is not overwhelming in smell), mix these together, that created a waterproof bond. Try this method first and see how it goes, then paint it a week after.
3. Also give the tenants a copy of Rav Singhs points above in reagrds to ventilation etc.
4. It is mostly always about ventilation, clothes drying out on rads with closed windows etc.
good luck.
Kev

Reply to the comment left by "paul landlord" at "10/07/2014 - 14:38":

Much appreciated, thank you 🙂
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Reply to the comment left by "Joe Bloggs" at "10/07/2014 - 10:30":

What is wrong with what I said? As far as I can tell, you are agreeing with me!

Of course you should have a bathroom fan (building regs demand them these days) - but the bathroom isn't the only source of moisture - cooking, breathing, drying clothes all contribute and you can't expect a bathroom fan to deal with all those unless it is permanently on.

The warmer the air the more moisture it can hold - and consequently there is more moisture available to condense out when it finds an area below the dew point. Getting the moist air out of the property (through ventilation) is the most effective way to prevent mould growth. Obviously this is not going to be acceptable to the tenants in the winter months, hence the suggestions to fit positive pressure ventilators which can do the job without causing too much in the way of drafts

Reply to the comment left by "Simon Holloway" at "10/07/2014 - 16:39":

what you said wrong is:
‘If the problem is in rooms other than the bathroom, then I would suggest that fitting a humistat fan in there wont solve the whole issue’
as i thought i said, just because there may be no/less mould in the bathroom doesnt mean the bathroom is not implicated. this is because warm moist air will migrate to colder rooms where condensation and mould result.
also to clarify, building regs do not apply retrospectively.
also the most effective solution is not ventilation but reducing unnecessary moisture sources.

Reply to the comment left by "Joe Bloggs" at "10/07/2014 - 17:22":

Reducing unnecessary moisture sources is often outside of the control of the landlord though.

I think you are arguing semantics in this regard.
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