Damp smell and mould in house

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Alf Veedersane

Karsini wrote: »

Well as I say, there's no visible mould on the walls. Any visible mould has developed on her personal items and wasn't there before. But the damp smell has been there since she moved in.

Are the personal items in a wardrobe against an external wall?

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Sorry I had it backwards.

I never had a problem in a bathroom or house where it was well ventilated. Never needed a humidifier. Exception being internal bathrooms with no Windows.

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Roger Mellie Man on the Telly

beauf wrote: »

Sorry I had it backwards.

I never had a problem in a bathroom or house where it was well ventilated. Never needed a humidifier. Exception being internal bathrooms with no Windows.

We don't have an issue with mould either, we ventilate the house properly. We just find the house more comfortable when the humidity is lower. You should try it, you'll be surprised.

(With a humidity controlling dehumidifer)

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Therefeore EMC will be reached. I mean to say that if the inside air is more heavily loaded with moisture than outside air, it makes sense to purge ventilate. I'd like to see MC's for typical Irish air and a 'typical' room after say a 10 minute shower.

The best form of mechanical extract I believe are humidity sensitive units which will overrun for as long as necessary to reduce MC to the set level.

...it would be interesting to see some official data on it...

Someone must have done a study on it.

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Unless you live in the hallway I don't see the connection to your lifestyle?

Karsini wrote: »

I'm just looking for some advice on behalf of my girlfriend, if anyone could be of help it would be much appreciated.

She moved into a small house about three months ago. The very first time I stepped foot into it, I got a really strong smell of damp - if I had noticed that on a viewing I never would have taken the place myself but she was under pressure to get something before she started a new job. Anyway, I got a disposable dehumidifier and noticed it filling up fairly quickly. There's no visible signs of mould on the walls; the house looks in pretty decent shape and is only about 10 years old. The front door leads directly into the kitchen area and this is where the smell is the strongest.

I told her to report it to the landlord, who got a plumber out, but didn't identify the cause. The thing I'm very worried about is that she's now noticing mould appearing on her personal items such as shoes, clothing and even her passport! This seems to suggest that it's airborne dampness to me. I'm also worried about if this could have a negative effect on her health.

Can anyone suggest where she should go next? Obviously she should get the landlord involved again but is there anyone she can turn to who might be able to identify the source?

I would recommend getting a dehumidifier like this;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/DeLonghi-DES12-Compact-Dehumidifier-Litre/dp/B0029NZW5E

I have one in an apartment which has a bit of damp and because of being on the ground floor we can't leave the windows open.

It's running pretty much all year round and it's a great machine.

It will cure the damp, make the house easier to heat in the winter and cooler in the summer.

It will make drying clothes/towels/etc. easier.

There's an upfront cost but the improved environment is well worth it.

We had a cheaper brand before this one but that died and this has been faultless for 4 years.

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mikeysmith

EndaHonesty wrote: »

I would recommend getting a dehumidifier like this;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/DeLonghi-DES12-Compact-Dehumidifier-Litre/dp/B0029NZW5E

I have one in an apartment which has a bit of damp and because of being on the ground floor we can't leave the windows open.

It's running pretty much all year round and it's a great machine.

It will cure the damp, make the house easier to heat in the winter and cooler in the summer.

It will make drying clothes/towels/etc. easier.

There's an upfront cost but the improved environment is well worth it.

We had a cheaper brand before this one but that died and this has been faultless for 4 years.

Would you need one upstairs and one downstairs in an a 3 bed semi?

mikeysmith wrote: »

Would you need one upstairs and one downstairs in an a 3 bed semi?

No, leave it on the landing or hallway. It will draw damp from the whole house.

EndaHonesty wrote: »

I would recommend getting a dehumidifier like this;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/DeLonghi-DES12-Compact-Dehumidifier-Litre/dp/B0029NZW5E

Compressor type ones don’t work as well in Ireland as desiccant style. Especially on colder days. The compressor ones ice up and stop dehumidifing until it melts.

Desiccant style will work even if the room is very cold. Plus they are lighter.

mikeysmith

TBi wrote: »

Compressor type ones don’t work as well in Ireland as desiccant style. Especially on colder days. The compressor ones ice up and stop dehumidifing until it melts.

Desiccant style will work even if the room is very cold. Plus they are lighter.

Assuming the house is warm for the winter but lots of moisture

Which one is best then?

Do they ice up inside a house?????

mikeysmith wrote: »

Assuming the house is warm for the winter but lots of moisture

Which one is best then?

I’d still recommend desiccant. They have same efficiency from 0c to 30c. Compressor style are most efficient at 20-25c and get worse as the temp gets lower.

dennyk

beauf wrote: »

Do they ice up inside a house?????

Definitely. They work by compressing a gas and then allowing it to expand inside of a coil, which makes the coil very cold, causing water to condense on the coil, where it then drips down into a collection container. The coils are well below freezing, so they will slowly develop a layer of ice even when it's quite warm inside. Normally a decent dehumidifier will run a defrosting cycle when too much ice builds up to warm the coils and clear the ice, but if the inside temperature is too low, the ice will develop more quickly and the dehumidifier will have to spend more time in the defrost cycle, making it less efficient.

TBi wrote: »

Compressor type ones don’t work as well in Ireland as desiccant style. Especially on colder days. The compressor ones ice up and stop dehumidifing until it melts.

Desiccant style will work even if the room is very cold. Plus they are lighter.

I had a Meaco dessicant machine before this one and it died after 2years.

After it happened I researched it and apparently the desicant machines can be unreliable.

Compressor machines last much longer so I chose this machine for reliability.

It has worked faultlessly for 4 years.

The machine also has an anti frost sensor to prevent it icing up.

Could have just been unlucky. Ours has been running solid. But you did your research and got what you thought was best. I’ll still buy a desiccant one though

Brego888

Are there particular clothes dryer machines that are better than others that will not increase the chances of mould? Will be looking at a washer dryer combo for my apartment soon. We have very very slight mould in some areas and will have no ability to ventilate the dryer to an external wall.

Brego888 wrote: »

Are there particular clothes dryer machines that are better than others that will not increase the chances of mould?

Probably the condensing type. We rent and don't use our dryer. We hang the clothes and use the dehumidifier.

Brego888 wrote: »

Are there particular clothes dryer machines that are better than others that will not increase the chances of mould? Will be looking at a washer dryer combo for my apartment soon. We have very very slight mould in some areas and will have no ability to ventilate the dryer to an external wall.

Putting hot moist air into the environment is a bad idea IMO.

We put one of these retractable indoor washing lines in one of the rooms and the dehumidifier dries the clothes in no time.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brabantia-Retractable-Indoor-Washing-Line/dp/B000NT9DN8

What kind of heating does your apartment have? Storage heaters?

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mikeysmith

Anyone heard of these loft mounted PIV units?

Sounds interesting

Wondering if they'd be better than a dehumidifier

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Main unit screwed into one wall and hooks screwed into a wall directly across from it.

Instructions here;

https://brabantia.r.worldssl.net/media/pdf/Manual%20Pull%20out%20lines%20final.pdf

The dehumidifier is running all the time anyway, it obviously sucks more water out when you introduce more moisture in the form of wet clothes, but it's not a massive amount of extra water.

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We have a freestanding unit too but the retractable line is invaluable for big items like bedding and towels.

The hooks can be as far as 4.4m away from the main unit so you have 5 lines of that length and if you hang the line high enough you also have loads of drape room.

dudara

In general my house is very well ventilated but I do have a dehumidifier that I use when drying clothes indoors during the colder months. I hang out the clothes, turn on the dehumidifier and close the door to the room. The clothes dry pretty quickly without developing that damp smell you can sometimes get when clothes dry slowly. And it gives me reassurance that I'm not going to develop mold indoors as a result of the dampness from drying clothes.