Winter survival guide 1 – mould and mildew

How to deal with mould and mildew in your student accommodation

It’s now officially too cold. And with the cold we get asked loads of questions about three typical bugbears: how to prevent mould and mildew, get the house warm, and prevent burst pipes.

In this three-part blog, we’ll tackle each one of these issues. Starting off with how to prevent mould and mildew caused by condensation.

Mould and mildew are by far the most common problem that we get asked about in the maintenance team. Lots of houses encounter this problem during the winter months. But there’s some really easy ways to tackle these black, spotted nuisances.

Condensation is the likeliest culprit for those black mould and mildew marks that suddenly start creeping around window sills and external facing walls. It is caused when warm moist air encounters a cold surface, such as an external wall or window.

Three easy ways to tackle condensation are:

1. Ensure a room is ventilated
2. Keep your rooms warm
3. Reduce moisture in the room

Ventilation

This can be as simple as opening a window. This gives the moist air somewhere to go, other than on the walls. With the cold weather, I’m not suggesting that you have all of the windows open all of the time, that would be awful. For a bedroom, a nice airing in the morning after you get up can be enough to do the trick.

Fun fact: Humans exhale 20 ml of water vapour with every breath.

Showers and baths obviously cause a lot of water vapour. While you could combat condensation by not bathing, your housemates might be forced to hold an intervention. A more pleasant solution is to ensure that you turn on the extractor fan and let it run for around 15 minutes after you’ve finished your ablutions.

Top tip: Not sure if your extractor fan is working? Turn it on and hold a tissue against it. If the tissue ‘sticks’ the fan works. If the fan’s broken, contact maintenance and we’ll send someone to have a look at it for you.

The same principal works in the kitchen – when you’re cooking, open a window or make sure that the extractor fan is on.

Warm

The condensation clings to cold surfaces. So combine the ventilation with a one/two whammy and make it too warm for the moisture to cling on anywhere. A nice, even 15°C would do the trick. Having the heating so there are wild swings from hot to cold in the property will actually cause condensation and mould.

Dry

As you’ll know from the fun fact above, we can’t but help fill our environment with warm, wet air. But a couple of easy fixes mean you can reduce the amount of damp-causing moisture in the house.

The big one is drying clothes. If you can, dry them outside on a clothesline – it’s the eco-friendliest method, too. If you’re not able to peg your washing out, then investing in a wire clothes rack is a good move. If you put your wet clothes directly on the radiators, it will cause a huge amount of wet air. Try drying your clothes on a rack and then warming your pants and socks before you put them on, instead. Aah, a real winter warmer.

Other simple fixes include simple things like ensuring doors are closed between areas where there’s a lot of moisture to stop the wet travelling to other rooms.

You can also cover saucepans and turn on the cold tap first, to minimise the amount of steam pan and baths produce.

Treating mould caused by condensation

You can tell that this is a huge problem everywhere just by the number of products dedicated to removing mould caused by damp. There’s lots on the market and can be picked up at any supermarket.

Simply pick your preferred brand and apply as directed. Lots of the them are as simple as spray, leave and wipe. But please always read the instructions before using one.

If mould persists

Some mould can have more serious origins than damp caused by condensation. These are extremely rare, but if the above isn’t solving the problem, report the issue to maintenance and we’ll send someone out to have a look.

Other resources

The National Landlords Association has a hand guide about damp and mould.

The very perky lady in this YouTube video also has lots of exciting tips for cleaning mould – use vinegar – as well as helpful advice on reducing the causes of mould and mildew:

Part two of the winter survival guide is about how to solve problems with your boiler.