Most landlords and tenants don't worry about preventing mould until they experience black patches on white walls for the first time.
Tenants complaints about musty smells, danger to their health. The tenants and landlord need to find a cure. A quick, immediate fix, with minimum disruptions.
Tenants are unhappy. If they move out, prospective tenants will not not take out a rental. The price for rental or sale may go down. The property management and owners then want to identify the cause, cure the problem and prevent it from recurring.
What are the causes of mould in a house or flat?
Identifying the area of the problem
Look - inside.
Look at the four walls. And ceiling.
Check Behind the furniture.
Leave gaps to allow flow of air. No furniture aginast the wall. No duvets or cushions.
In the old days beds, chairs, sofas, side tables and wardrobes were on legs. This allowed air flow.
Beds
Head boards and the side of the bed should be away from the wall. A bed on legs, and with a slatted base, allows air flow.
Checks
Check Skirting board.
Floor.
Around the windows.
Check living rooms, bathrooms, bedrooms, kitchen, wardrobes.
You can see the damp inside.
Windows
You can see drips - on window handles. Or misted windows and mirrors.
How often do you need to check? Every year, if letting. Every three months if managing. Every day if renting the property or living in it.
After or whilst using a dshower or bath, or just washing cothes and cleaning your teeth.
In the kitchen when boiling a kettle or cooking a stew on the hob.
Cleaning - cups of tea, coffee, hot and cold drinks, cans, any water without a lid, flower vases, toilets.
Wipe water. Cover water 9eg lidded cups. Put down the toilet seat.
Remove or reduce water sources.
Put wet items outside or by open windows.
Reduce Water Use
Shorter showers instead of long baths. Water conpanies advise you to save water and to turn taps off while cleaning teeth. Only turn on the tap again to rinse your mouht and brush.
Check on return if you have been away on holday, or have a relative in hospital.
Wet items brought into the house - wet shoes, rain coats, umbrellas opened to dry out, dogs sahking themselves dry. Vases of flowers which could be left near windows (although some instructions say avoid light which makes them bloom earlier and then die earlier).
In the olden days, when you had a glass of water by the bed at night, it came in a narrow neck continer with an upturned glass on top.
Or use a damp meter. which is cheap and can be bought from DIY shops, or online. When surveyors check walls, ask them which walls are dry or damp, and try to look at the reading.
We called a company which said they would do a free survey with no call out charge. The two men chcking were reluctant to let us look at the readings and kept saying that their boss would send us a report. However, the boss wanted a large sum to send the report, and several thousands to do the work, which he claimed involved pulling down the walls and replacing them.
The management company said the walls had no problem. The damp was caused by condensation, caused by the tenants.
Feel - inside the building
Or feel damp. Can you feel the water? The damp? Shower glass, shower curtains. Bathroom windows. Ceilings above radiators.
upplyier, building supply stores, and online. About ten to 20 pounds or dollars.
Overhead
From Outside
Is the water coming down from the buildings roof (or leaking pipes overhead). If so you might see damp patches in the corners of the ceiling.
Or in from plants against the walls above the damp course.
Or below the damp course, from water below. Making the skirting boards go rotten.
From Inside
Is the damp around a bed, bedding, or an item against a wall, clothes in a cupboard or wardrobe, or cushions or furniture such as bookcases against a wall?
I have experiences mold from a leaking roof or gutters when being a tenant renting flats in Singapore.
Who is responsible for organizing repairs and paying for repairs?
Plants Outside
Leaning against the wall. Rainwater on the leaves. (with insects flying in the windows. Important to pull curtains at night or when lights are on, to keep out insects, which in turn attract rodents.
If children run around holding drinks, or eating cakes and biscuits in their hands, crumbs drop, or drinks spill. This attracts insects, which attract mice. The living mice, or their smell, attracts cats (domestic and wilk) and rats, which urinate, causing smell and damp.
Mice, cats, rats, pets, and pests, create damp from breathing,sweating, urinating. All of these have short life spans. They die, leaving smells, and a source of food for other creatures. And they breed.
Water Sources - Inside
Plants Indoors. Animals indoors. Humans indoors. People living in the building. Visiotrs, eg, parties, business meetings, social groups, committees.
A single widow with few visitors and open windows creates little moisture.
Sentis Court in Northwood, where my late parents lived, was sold as a retirement complex. It was sold only to buyers aged over 50. No children and no pets, so that it was quiet. No parties or gatherings in the gardens which were not a playground, but simply for access to th back, and landscaped to provide views or trees and flowers. No businesses allowed. You could work from home, but no coming and going of visitors and strangers through the security doors.
Residents included an elderly widow in number 15. One person, sleeping in a large bedroom. Nobody in the spare room.
No mould. She entertained one lady in the afternoon, playing scrabble on her patio under the awning, serving tea outside. she could also play bridge with three visitors, again outside on the patio.
What's more, Germans have a standard nationwide system of airing the house every morning, called burping the house, letting the air through.
Reult, no mould.
My parents lived for many years without mould.
When the house was empty, during probate, the windows were shut for security. I did not know about the vents over the patio door, or that you needed to air a house. Curtains developed mould.
I was executor for the will of an uncle. When the house was empty, again under probate, green mould grew in the water of one of the toilets, the second toilet, which was never used even when we went to check the house and dispose of the clothes, food, furniture, papers.
You flush the toilet every time you use it. But do you wipe dishes dry? Do you open the windows whilst showering? Do you open windows every morning and whenever you see mist on mirrors and windows? Do you leave wet shoes outside the door? Do you shake umbrellas dry, rather than drying them open inside the house? Do you cover the saucepan when boiling water with vegetables or cooking a stew? Do you leave coffee cups and glasses of water or other drinks in the home office, on the table after meals, all night after a family dinner or party?
A Few Don'ts
Don't dry wet clothes over radiators. In the old days
A Few Does
Use a humidifier.
If you are a tenant, buy one. If you are a landlord, buy one for the tenants. It is neded for every occupied bedroom.
If you let the house to one person, occupying one large bedroom, do they then use the spare bedroom for a relative to stay long term or permanently? Provide a hmidifier for each bedroom. Whatever the cost, repainting, with anti-mould paint, it is cheaper and less stressful than having ro repaint and re-carpet the entire room.
However, after Covid, more people re working from home.
Bad plants -
Good Plants
Succulents
Inside Sources - Bulding Inhabitants
People breathing. If you read the indsturction on camping tents, they tell you that each adult (or child or pet) breathes out about a liter or water every night (and all day). In a tent when you wke up from one or two or three people sleeping in the tent, having shut the tent flap to keep out intruders, and for privacy, in the morning the tent is all wet. You have to open the flap for 15 minutes to half an hour to let it dry. And not sleep with the sleeping bag against the wall.
Summary
Check all rooms. Clear water, dampness and mould regularly.
Useful Websites
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