Trickle vents - help reduce mould?

[Coker]

We're getting mould appearing around our bedroom windows, and in small areas elsewhere in the bedroom. The room was redecorated after we moved in about a year ago, and previous mould was treated, cleaned up etc, and now it's recurring it's buggering our wallpaper and curtains up.

I'm assuming this is some sort of circulation issue, and is caused mostly at night by the heat/moisture of us breathing whilst asleep?

Our uPVC windows don't have any vents, and I'm told retrofitting trickle vents might help. Is this correct? Or am I better of fitting a whole new window unit?


Any advice appreciated, cheers.

[steveo3002]

probably needs more than a vent , we have them and it doesnt make a huge differance in the worst months

[H.....]

We had a similar problem in our London flat, it can be left unoccupied for a couple of months at a time, a builder suggested a PIV http://www.nuaire.co.uk/our-products/Residential/p... it runs 24/7 and has solved the problem 100%.

[V8A*ndy]

Dehumidifier....


Pennies to run and will sort this problem out.

Go for an Ebac.

[eldar]

Open the window as much as possible, and check the damp goes away. Trickle vents should help.

[Coker]

Thanks all for the replies.

The dehumidifier is an option, although she wouldn't have it on at night cos I suspect it'll be too noisy - unless there are very quiet units available these days?

The issue certainly lessens on the less-cold autumn/winter nights, when we can have a window open (or at least on "vent"). The problem with that is going to be freezing our proverbials off in bed when it really is cold though.

The PIV thing is interesting, I've never seen those before. I'd have to give them a ring and discuss which one would be best suited, there's quite a few options there. Would that really be so effective though when it's peculiarly cold outside and warm in our bedroom, with the bedroom door shut? Our landing is quite open and has an inaccessible window high-up so leaving our bedroom door open just fills the room with light, which might aid air circulation but doesn't help when trying to sleep...

[H.....]

Coker said:

The PIV thing is interesting, I've never seen those before. I'd have to give them a ring and discuss which one would be best suited, there's quite a few options there. Would that really be so effective though when it's peculiarly cold outside and warm in our bedroom, with the bedroom door shut? Our landing is quite open and has an inaccessible window high-up so leaving our bedroom door open just fills the room with light, which might aid air circulation but doesn't help when trying to sleep...

They work by forcing air out of the building, a closed internal door won't hinder it, (we leave the doors in our flat closed when we're not there to slow the spread of fire). I didn't hold out much hope of it working, but it's surpassed even the claims of the installer. Speak to the manufacturers though as it may not be suitable for your property. Good luck, damp really is a horrible things to live with.

[barryrs]

I agree that the PIV system will almost certainly fix your issues however just as I'm reading this an advert for this appeared on TV.

Can't comment on it's effectiveness http://www.unibond.co.uk/en/moisture-absorber/aero...

[eldar]

barryrs said:

I agree that the PIV system will almost certainly fix your issues however just as I'm reading this an advert for this appeared on TV.

Can't comment on it's effectiveness http://www.unibond.co.uk/en/moisture-absorber/aero...

Couple of kg of silica gel probably cheaper and more effective, and won't smell like a tarts boudoir!

[herewego]

You can get a small humidity indicator quite cheaply. This could tell you if you do have a higher humidity at night. You could move it around to indicate humidity levels in various rooms and times. You could also eliminate other sources of moisture in the house to get the overall level down. e.g. clothes drying, long showers without vapour extraction, cooking without lids or extraction.

[defblade]

Coker said:

The PIV thing is interesting, I've never seen those before. I'd have to give them a ring and discuss which one would be best suited, there's quite a few options there. Would that really be so effective though when it's peculiarly cold outside and warm in our bedroom, with the bedroom door shut? Our landing is quite open and has an inaccessible window high-up so leaving our bedroom door open just fills the room with light, which might aid air circulation but doesn't help when trying to sleep...

We fitted a Drimaster (on this thread), within a couple of days the windows were dry in the mornings and the black stuff has never come back to the bedrooms. If you're going to leave doors shut, you need to make sure there's a 10mm gap at the bottom of each.

[craig1912]

H..... said:

We had a similar problem in our London flat, it can be left unoccupied for a couple of months at a time, a builder suggested a PIV http://www.nuaire.co.uk/our-products/Residential/p... it runs 24/7 and has solved the problem 100%.

We had one of these fitted a couple of years ago and they work. The hall/ landing area is a little cooler but no condensation issues.

[Coker]

Superb, thanks very much chaps for the info and links.

Considering these PIVs are something I'd never even heard of until a couple of hours ago, I'm now feeling much more positive about sorting this problem out. I've ordered a humidity meter as well, just in the interests of science for before and after PIV tests.

Cheers all

[Coker]

barryrs said:

I agree that the PIV system will almost certainly fix your issues however just as I'm reading this an advert for this appeared on TV.

Can't comment on it's effectiveness http://www.unibond.co.uk/en/moisture-absorber/aero...

Going to pick one of those up tomorrow until I get a PIV sorted. For a few quid it seems worth a pop cos it might just help in the meantime.

[V8A*ndy]

I have one of those.....

All the houses in the development had them from when built.

It's now blocked up and switched off.

All it did was blow cold air into the house in the winter time and the local farming smells to. A local land fill added to the smell at certain times as well.

You can get ones with a heater I believe.

We now run a dehumidifier with carbon filters and an extraction system above the showers.

Much more effective IMO, for us anyway.

[Coker]

V8A*ndy said:

I have one of those.....

All the houses in the development had them from when built.

It's now blocked up and switched off.

All it did was blow cold air into the house in the winter time and the local farming smells to. A local land fill added to the smell at certain times as well.

You can get ones with a heater I believe.

We now run a dehumidifier with carbon filters and an extraction system above the showers.

Much more effective IMO, for us anyway.

Oh, well I've just ordered one with the heating element... It seems it's working for some people here so fingers crossed it works for us.

[V8A*ndy]

Good job going for the heated version.

Let us know how you get on.

[Jimmy No Hands]

I used one of those Unibond things in our place, it does help but only marginally, at least in our case. We live in a converted mill and the walls are massively thick. The bedroom window has been near dripping some mornings. Bought a dehumidifier but it was too noisy for night use, however it did cure the problem. Let us know how you get on as I'm very interested. I tend to leave the window ajar on a night but as you say it's getting too cold to do so lately.

[HotJambalaya]

Coker said:

Oh, well I've just ordered one with the heating element... It seems it's working for some people here so fingers crossed it works for us.

Whereabouts are the fitted?

Op I've just had trickle vents fitted too. Cheap and not much downside, so might as well, though I will be investigating the above units too.

[Bluebarge]

HotJambalaya said:

Whereabouts are the fitted?

Op I've just had trickle vents fitted too. Cheap and not much downside, so might as well, though I will be investigating the above units too.

They go in the loft and a large vent is fitted in the ceiling below. They work by sucking air from the (hopefully vented) loft and pushing it down through the house and out of the windows/doors etc. The need for the heater element is that lofts can be bloody cold in winter so you will be forcing cold air into the house.