mould any answers??

[PC]

Wonder if painting ceilings & bathrooms black would fix the problem?

Anyone had "Goths" for tenants??

[charley6]

I would think the reason will be the tennants are useing a gas heater with all the windows closed.

[ream]

When you clean the surface, if you use baking soda, it will prevent any mold and mildew from growing.This is because the PH factor in the baking soda is not conducive to mold growth and mold, especially black mold will not grow when it is present. I have heard vinegar has a similar effect - just test it first.

So does salt - dissolve salt in water & spray on. Works where bicarb and/or vinegar won't, it kills the mould cells. Just done this in our PPOR, worked a treat.

[greenfruit]

Have a bathroom with a Heater, Extraction connected to the light switch, newly painted and guess what It now has mould???
Turns out see doesn't use the heater as it costs money to use???
Refuses to open windows, paranoid about safety but doesn't want security stays because of fire risk....
But that is life in the fast lane.....

[essence]

Huh?

Have a bathroom with a Heater, Extraction connected to the light switch, newly painted and guess what It now has mould???

Does this mean she's showering in the dark?? Boy, you've got a great tenant.

[essence]

Huh?

Have a bathroom with a Heater, Extraction connected to the light switch, newly painted and guess what It now has mould???

Turns out see doesn't use the heater as it costs money to use???

Does this mean she's showering in the dark?? Boy, you've got a great tenant.

[ream]

Maybe it's only the extractor fan that's connected to the light switch, and only the heater that she won't turn on LOL. And the extractor fan isn't doing enough to prevent the mould - no doubt she turns the light off as soon as she leaves the bathroom (or before?) as that costs money to run too.

[charley6]

I think I said before,if you operate a unflued gas heater with little ventilation you will put a huge amount of moisture into the air that will turn to condensation as the temp drops, that is for sure.Bad for the flat and bad for health.

[RentMaster]

I believe you can get some extractor fans which connect to the light switch, but continue to operator for about 10 minutes after the light has been switched off. This makes good sense, because there is still a lot of steam left behind if you get out quick enough.

[Perry]

There's an electronic device that can be
added as a retrofit to achieve what Andrew
describes. Not hellishly expensive. It will
cost more for the sparky than the device.
(unless you're a DIY)

[cube]

I have a property where the mould is very bad to the point where the tenant has been advised to move out.

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of who is responsible, what is the best way of removing the staining - I have tried neat Janola concentrate, and it does a good job, but just isn't going to get it all off.

Once we've done the best we can at getting it off, how good are the mould prevention paints - assuming the tenant's lifestyle doesn't change and windows continue to be left closed and curtains shut?! (You can only insist so many times!) I don't think leaks are a problem, and roof insulation has recently been installed.

Also, has anyone got a 'mould information sheet' that they are willing to share that gives information to tenants about the best ways of preventing mould from appearing in the first place?

Thanks

cube

[Skruff]

Symptom or cause?

opening windows and dehumidifier is in operation.

You need to make sure you're treating the problem, and not just the symptom. Installing DVS or one of the other brands may help, or appear to solve the problem, but, for example, there could be a roof leak quietly rotting your framing timber. Another thing to be aware of, is if the tenants have an unflued gas heater, they produce a lot of water inside your house.

We had two areas of mould in our own home, despite a good airing most days, which were remedied in different ways:

1. Main bedroom developed mould on upper walls and edges of the ceiling. This one was prob condensation related. We couldn't afford a ventilation system at the time, though when we redecorated the room, we found there was no insulation, so we stripped it back to frames, insulated (the ceiling space already had a double layer of insulation), and used mould inhibitor in the paint. As a result, we get little or no water vapour condensing on those surfaces. We've had no repeat of the problem yet.
2. The soon-to-be nursery room had re-occurring mouldy patches on the ceiling, and the room smelt musty. We redecorated it, replaced an area of the plasterboard ceiling, but the problem came back. It turned out that the building paper under the roof had fallen apart, and what we were getting was basically condensation dripping off the iron roof, and puddling in the insulation and on top of the plasterboard. There may have also been a small roof leak, though I couldn't find it. So, we ripped the roof off, replaced the netting, roofing paper, put the roofing iron back on - 3 years later, no repeat of the problem.

It can be a real pain in the freckle, but it's worth finding our the real cause, otherwise it could get much nastier, and more expensive, down the track.

Skruff

[Perry]

Exit Mould (bit pricey, spray bottle, from the supermarket)
seems good, but probably only for modest jobs and yours
does not sound like that!

Chemical supply companies usually have similar stuff, lots
more cost-effective, in 4 litre containers.

I appreciate that there's risk involved, but buy the tenant
a dehumidifier. Sounds like an even better cost effective
way out of future problems.

I recommend the ebac brand, as it seems far better suited
to NZ winter conditions, based on my experience.

[kirschbaum]

extraction with trickle vents is the way to go

As has been mentioned before, reducing the moisture in the home and using ventilation is the key to preventing mould and mildew and condensation.

UK building regulations recommends intermittent extraction (at source) with background ventilation via trickle vents as one of the preferred methods of ventilating a home.

Extraction fans in the bathrooms and kitchen are essential. This keeps the remaining levels of moisture to a minimum, making it easier to remove it via ventilation. Passive ventilation is a lot cheaper and will do the job in most NZ houses as long as you size the trickle vents correctly. There's no need to install a positive pressure system in most cases. The UK regulations and other reports barely give them a mention, aside from pointing out that they don't meet the standard of using outside air (this is also in the NZ ventilation standards NZS:4303). They do however specify trickle vents as standard for all new windows. I wonder why.

Beats me why everyone's being suckered into forking out for overpriced forced air systems. It might work ok in some situations, but it's not the only solution.

[Perry]

Tis said that knowing, understanding and facing
it is more than half the problem solved. The 'dew
point' is critical in all this. For many parts of the
world, dehumidifiers are hot season things.

For NZ, they're a winter requisite. That's why lots
of dehumidifiers sold here do not perform as they
really should – they're designed for the tropics -
the primary reason I suggested Ebac. Running
costs were less than $4/week, when I tested it.

Dry towels by morning, reduced musty odours,
no mould growing on shoes in the wardrobe,
less inside-of-window paint-peeling conden-
sation, etc. How did we manage without them?