Hi,
My partner and I bought a property around ten months ago, the property was ridden with damp. I posted an old thread regarding the house in February: //www.diynot.com/diy/threads/damp-floorboards-and-underneath.426317/.
Long story short, we had terrible damp and rot throughout the ground floor which was, according to many people we spoke to, due to a lack of airflow and ventilation underneath the suspended timber flooring (air bricks covered up, honeycomb sleeper wall not clear). We ripped out all of original floorboards and timber joists on the ground floor and replaced them with treated timber joists and chipboard. We also had a DPC installed around the house which was finished with a "breathable" plasterboard and black waterproof paint internally.
We finished the work in October and have been living in the house for around two months. We have had considerable problems around the windows with condensation, damp and green mold. This wasn't really a huge concern because the windows are old, the outside seals aren't in great condition and there is a big temperature disparity between indoors and outside (the house has a two-leaf brick wall with no cavity). We assumed we could resolve this by replacing the windows, installing trickle vents and being smarter about how we deal with condensation (open windows more, dry less clothing on radiators etc).
Recently, however, we noticed very small spots of mold on the wooden floor we have in the kitchen/diner. This is located around the chimney breast (which has now been covered over) and along the shared wall on which the chimney breast is located. The question is, where is the source of this mold?
My granddad, a retired civil engineer and very knowledgeable on the subject of building and DIY, thinks that we should sell the house because we can't guarantee that the damp and rot from underneath will not return and this would cripple us. We do cook and dry clothes in the kitchen/diner with the windows closed, so could the mold be an indictment of this? There are other bits of mold around the house too (skirting board in a completely separate ground floor room, olive oil in kitchen cupboard, windows, bathroom ceiling).
How do we ascertain the cause of this mold without ripping the floor up and taking a look? Do we sell the house just to be on the safe side? Can we pull an airbrick out and shine a torch in to take a look? We will have made a fair amount of money on the property so it wouldn't be the end of the world but we do love the house? My granddad suggest we wait until the winter is over and take the skirting off and have a look and then decide. Are we simply burying our heads in the sand by cleaning the mold up. The pictures below show the room before we replaced the floorboards, an example of how bad the rot was in places and the area where we found mold (flooring close to skirting near the gym set and floor close to chimney breast) and finally two pics of the mold.
Any help would be appreciated, sorry for the long post!
Chris
My partner and I bought a property around ten months ago, the property was ridden with damp. I posted an old thread regarding the house in February: //www.diynot.com/diy/threads/damp-floorboards-and-underneath.426317/.
Long story short, we had terrible damp and rot throughout the ground floor which was, according to many people we spoke to, due to a lack of airflow and ventilation underneath the suspended timber flooring (air bricks covered up, honeycomb sleeper wall not clear). We ripped out all of original floorboards and timber joists on the ground floor and replaced them with treated timber joists and chipboard. We also had a DPC installed around the house which was finished with a "breathable" plasterboard and black waterproof paint internally.
We finished the work in October and have been living in the house for around two months. We have had considerable problems around the windows with condensation, damp and green mold. This wasn't really a huge concern because the windows are old, the outside seals aren't in great condition and there is a big temperature disparity between indoors and outside (the house has a two-leaf brick wall with no cavity). We assumed we could resolve this by replacing the windows, installing trickle vents and being smarter about how we deal with condensation (open windows more, dry less clothing on radiators etc).
Recently, however, we noticed very small spots of mold on the wooden floor we have in the kitchen/diner. This is located around the chimney breast (which has now been covered over) and along the shared wall on which the chimney breast is located. The question is, where is the source of this mold?
- Is this mold coming from condensation that is coming to rest on the cold floor that is a result of warm moisture in the air and is thus causing small spots of mold?
- Is the mold coming from moisture that is migrating from the chimney breast somehow?
- (worst case scenario) Is the mold coming from damp that is reappearing from underneath? The mold is located very, very close to the skirting board where, I believe, there is a small gap between the chipboard and the wall?
My granddad, a retired civil engineer and very knowledgeable on the subject of building and DIY, thinks that we should sell the house because we can't guarantee that the damp and rot from underneath will not return and this would cripple us. We do cook and dry clothes in the kitchen/diner with the windows closed, so could the mold be an indictment of this? There are other bits of mold around the house too (skirting board in a completely separate ground floor room, olive oil in kitchen cupboard, windows, bathroom ceiling).
How do we ascertain the cause of this mold without ripping the floor up and taking a look? Do we sell the house just to be on the safe side? Can we pull an airbrick out and shine a torch in to take a look? We will have made a fair amount of money on the property so it wouldn't be the end of the world but we do love the house? My granddad suggest we wait until the winter is over and take the skirting off and have a look and then decide. Are we simply burying our heads in the sand by cleaning the mold up. The pictures below show the room before we replaced the floorboards, an example of how bad the rot was in places and the area where we found mold (flooring close to skirting near the gym set and floor close to chimney breast) and finally two pics of the mold.
Any help would be appreciated, sorry for the long post!
Chris
