Mould causing ill health

[Owenski]

Anyone ever had experiance of it, know what the key symptoms are?

Further to that what did you do about it

What did you learn from it and what would you have done different.

[Specialone]

Matt, in the states they have really bad problems with it, It is to be fair partly caused by the construction style of houses.

It can be worse for people with asthma or young children I believe.

If you've got mould, it's either lack of ventilation or a water source, ie a leak or bad damp course etc.

Common on newer houses with cavity wall insulation, new air tight windows and no vents.

There's tons of different strains of mould though and not all are harmful.

Where is the mould?

[Owenski]

In brief - All over.

We've got a crappy tiny cellar which has a spring or something running through it, as fresh as this water is the moisture is obviously absored up the walls and its visible all the way up to our damp proof, which seems to work as the blocks above it which can be seen are uneffected.

I really need to clean all this back and get it painted over but Im looking for product reccomendation, and method suggestions bleach and scrubbing seem to be the favorite followed by gobbo filling the cracks/holes and then coating it all with a suitable paint (about £50 for 5ltr)

The lower portion of our house is stone fronted with no cavity, above that its common block with render coating, again no cavity. The inner face of external walls are really cold to the touch, this causes condensation in places like the kitchen where it obviously gets warm from time to time.
In there we've had the plaster removed, a treatment applied and new damp seals injected. Its then been replastered with mould resistnat stuff. The plaster itsself was then painted with mould resistant paint and finally a colour coat - this seems to have worked a treat along with the 200mm extractor unit I've fitted but at the price it was it would be cheaper to move house than to get the remaineder of the house done.

The upper bedrooms all have problems if items are left in contact with the external walls, its scary how quick stuff in our house gets moldy. Nothing is ever left in contact with these walls anymore, this seems to have helped but still mold spots can be seen in corners and close to the windows despite treated paints etc.

The bathroom is about to be fitted with its 3rd extractor, the first 2 were both 100mm - one was to BS the second was much higher. The third which is on order is a 150mm flowing at 230ltr/hr which for our 2x2x2.4 bathroom way above reccomended (its the same as the kitchen one).

The timbers (even under the house as they're above the damp proof) are all sound the house has been coated externally in what can only be described as laquer in attempt to water proof it but still it seems the moisture is getting through.

I've known we had this problem with the house and its been an on going battle to get rid of it but since Nate was born he's had 2 chest infections. I'm suffering from my 3rd cold and chest infection in as many months, I've been given an inhaler due to the discovery that I have asthma. Its an on going joke between friends of mine that Im a bit of a sick note - the frustrating bit is that I never used to be ill EVER and I mean ever. Then I had liver problems and since then I've regularly gotten ill, but nothing compears to how its been recently, I just cant stay clear of infection or illness for longer than a month.

[andrewsmith]

Matt

I'd get a building surveyor out to look at the cellar and be prepared to spend the reddies. You ideally need to have the spring diverted or covered over.

As Phil's suggested try locking open some windows and allowing air to flow through. How you got your heating set up (run temp etc...).
Matt if you PM after you've finished work or fire up some pics of the mould and its location in the house, also the cellar it'll be easier to give advice on it than guessing

[-Ralph-]

Both my son and I are asthmatic and we are both very susceptible to chest infections, though him much worse than me. You probably saw my post about his last asthma attack and hospital admission, and he has got another bacterial infection now and we were in hospital again last night until 4am, as he was having breathing difficulty and even 10 puffs of Salbutamol at a time wasn't helping him so off we trotted into A&E for a nebuliser and a course of anti-biotics & steroids.

Now what I am going to post here is not a doctors point of view, it's from experience, and often the only general practitioner that really understands this stuff is one who suffers with it themselves or has kids who suffer from it. Allergy and Asthma is really difficult to diagnose without going for spirometry tests, allergy testing, etc, even then there could be a big difference between test results on a good day and the same tests on a bad day. "Viral Infection" is the default diagnosis for these things, because the doctor can't explain it any other way.

Last night it took about two minutes for the words "viral infection" to come out of the doctors mouth, at which point I told the doctor I wasn't accepting that diagnosis as it was a default answer to everything, he had a temperature of 40 degrees and the doctor hadn't even looked at his throat and ears yet. So he comes back two minutes later, takes one look in his ears and says "yes, that is rather red, and his cough does sound very chesty, is he OK to have penicillin?". Just remember that you know your kids better than the doctor does.

What I say is if you struggle with breathing, your blood oxygen level suffers as a result, it is a recurrent problem, and Salbutamol relieves the symptoms quickly, then from a laymans point of view you ARE asthmatic, regardless of whether the doctor wants to make that diagnosis or not.

Mould will definitely not be helping you IMO, with a baby in the house you need to fix it, and the best man to give advise on that is a grumpy brummie and he's already posting in the thread ;-) .

Whenever we have been exposed to mould, even such as staying a weekend in a friends mouldy house, we have struggled with a bad chest, and living with it definitely causes chest infection type symptoms, even though it is probably actually allergy/asthma symptoms. An "infection" as such needs to be caused by a virus or a bacteria, but asthma symptoms themselves can cause wheezing, mucus production in the lung and trachea, and of course this causes coughing. It's your body trying to fight something that it 'thinks' is an infection. In your case you're breathing in mould spores, and your body is reacting badly to it.

What that does also do though is make you more susceptible to any virus or bacteria that does come along, as your body is already trying to fight the allergy/asthma/reaction to the mould, so your immune system is less able to cope with it.

Allergy in particular (and you could both be allergic to mould, and asthma is closely linked to allergy) works on a trigger, and each trigger causes a level of symptoms. So lets say your a bit allergic to dust and on a scale 1 to 10 that affects you as a 2 so it's not really noticeable, other than dust makes you sneeze. Then your allergic to cats too, that affects you at level 5, so runny nose and runny itchy eyes. And your allergic to mould, and that affects you at level 3 and makes you get a cough. The triggers all contribute and build on top of each other, so whilst you can cope with dust, cats, or mould on their own, stick you in a house with all three, and you'll get symptoms at level 8 and think you've got the full on flu virus.

It won't do you any harm to start taking an anti-histamine for a week to see if that helps at all. As for the baby, you just have to do what the doctor advises in terms of drugs and dosage.

[-Ralph-]

I'm not even going to try and suggest I know how to sort out the mould, other than the obvious stuff like central heating, keeping steam from escaping from bathrooms and kitchen (door shut, window open, extractor on), and be careful where you hang wet clothes and towels.

But, I did use this stuff to paint the inside of my garage in Scotland recently to prevent water ingress as two of the walls are below ground level. It was fantastic stuff and has worked a treat, the garage is now dry as a bone even after heavy rain.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/cementone-aquaprufe-5ltr/36405

[Owenski]

a LOT of what you describe ralph makes perfect sense, I do have what I'd call mild allergies so mild they seem to come and go, so mild i dont even think about them until I react to it. I'll sit playing with cats etc until I get a lick off one and go all itchy. Dust well everyone reacts to that from time to time, fortunatly Abi keeps our place pretty damn clean. So I know what you mean by a culmination of these exposures may manefest itself as something much worse.
I've taken anti histamenies in the past, I dont perticuarly notice them working but I sure as hell know when I've had one recently as I get terrible synus pain for days afterwards.

Im heading to the docs now so I will enquire about the allergies, I'll mention the mold too

[missyburd]

While at uni I shared a house with nine other students, it was on the sea front and was always severely battered by the elements. I was fortunate to have a nice big room at the front with big bay windows but the chap in the room next door to me had a room like a box closet, small window and the heating was often on (them mostly being pansy southerners :-P)

We'd been there a year when I and another mate had noticed Dave had started witha funny cough...and that, thinking about it, he'd been coughing for a while (not a phlegm-y cough, just a dry one) and he actually smelt mouldy! We went to investigate and half of his walls and nearly all his ceiling was damp and mouldy. No ventilation (he never opened his window, heating on) and general studently slovenliness had resulted in a horribly musty environment, seriously not healthy. He hadn't a clue, hadn't even noticed the smell or the mould. He tried to deal with it himself not wanting to bother the landlady thinking it was his fault...when we eventually got him to ring her she'd said it happened every year, she just painted over it :rolleyes:

Hope you get it sorted Matt, the long term damage mould can inflict really isn't worth it.

[Mr Speirs]

We used to suffer from damp and mould in our flat. Last winter was quite bad.

We ended up buying a dehumidifier and running it over night and into the morning until we both had our showers. Located it centrally. Got rid of all the condensation everywhere in the flat apart from the bathroom when we were having showers.

If you have a house I'd say you'd need one upstairs and one downstairs.

Theres probably other things you can do to your building I guess but a quick and relatively cheap fix is a dehumindifier.

We were extracting around 3l a night.

[Specialone]

Matt, I'll drop you a pm in a bit, I'm just waiting to do a bathroom quote so when I get home I'll pm you.

[-Ralph-]

Im heading to the docs now so I will enquire about the allergies, I'll mention the mold too

I don't think your problem is an allergy per se, the doctor will almost certainly dismiss it, but if you are prone to allergies or asthma, you are much more likely to suffer chest infection type symptoms as a result of mould. If there is an allergen trigger affecting you which normally doesn't manifest into symptoms, then dealing with that allergen with anti-histamine may help you to deal with the mould.

[Owenski]

Matt, in the states they have really bad problems with it...


Hope you get it sorted Matt, the long term damage mould can inflict really isn't worth it.

This was my concern, Ive seen enough house episodes to know TV can make you think its a problem even though its not and even more episodes where mold was the culprit.Thats why I wanted to see if anyone in this 100No. community had a first hand experiance with it, chances are if they did then its not just something ive created to in my head.

I know the mold is there so thats not made up, I know the symthoms I've got so they're not made up either, but the likely hood of the two been connected was where my head went fuzzy.

I've spoken with the doc, you're right ralph - "viral infection here take anti-biotics for 10 days". They've also bumped me up to the brown inhaler to be taken 4 times a day, not bad to say 3 weeks ago I never even had the blue one.

Questions asked:
Can I have a flu jab? - You'd be having it now if you werent already ill, its been arranged for Thursday.
Should I consider allergies? - No, why! Do you have a new pet? - No, well its asthma then
I think we've mold in the house could that be the cause? - Cause, No but definate factor to why I've seen you 3 times in 3 months but dont recall meeting previously. (We have but a loooooooong time ago).

Plus other questions about doses' etc.

Im quite satisfied now that the asthma is agrivated by the mold but not caused by it, I will be doing my best to remove as much mold from the house as I can. I may even fit one of the former bathroom extractors into the cellar and have it come on for a couple of hours a day once I've completed the other treatments down there.

[-Ralph-]

How old are you by the way?

[missyburd]

How old are you by the way?
(m) old.......

:lol:

[yorkie_chris]

Then I had liver problems

Not guilty.

[Owenski]

I'm a baby ralph, 26yrs young.

Yc - supisingly he's not lying my liver was pickled long before yc staggered into my life.

[Davies]

We used to suffer from damp and mould in our flat. Last winter was quite bad.

We ended up buying a dehumidifier and running it over night and into the morning until we both had our showers. Located it centrally. Got rid of all the condensation everywhere in the flat apart from the bathroom when we were having showers.

If you have a house I'd say you'd need one upstairs and one downstairs.

Theres probably other things you can do to your building I guess but a quick and relatively cheap fix is a dehumindifier.

We were extracting around 3l a night.

This!

We live on a houseboat and keeping things dry and mould free used to be difficult before we bought a dehumidifier. If you haven't got a source of heat and ventilation in a room then keeping it damp free will be hard. You can get dehumidifiers that run continuously that drain via a pipe in the back rather than to a tank (limiting) so maybe think about running one in the cellar once you've stopped the water source.

[fizzwheel]

In brief - All over.

We've got a crappy tiny cellar which has a spring or something running through it, as fresh as this water is the moisture is obviously absored up the walls and its visible all the way up to our damp proof, which seems to work as the blocks above it which can be seen are uneffected.

Well if it were me. I'd be looking at doing something with that first, Dehumidifiers, anti mould paint, sealers etc all are just masking the problem IMHO, you need to stop the wet getting in, once its in your then just constantly dealing with a problem, best way is prevention in the first place.

I'd talk to a builder / somebody who specialises in the wet problem you have.

As for mould, I would wager you are being effected by it. One of my friends lived in a flat that had a damp problem and ended up needing and inhaler / coughing all the time. It got a lot better when they moved out of the flat they were in and into a house that was dry.

[Owenski]

I've already dug a trench around the house around 1m deep then tanking painted and 1200guaged every inch. Then on top of that I installed a land drain, before back filling the trench with rubble and gravel.
we've upgraded to plastic mains water pipes and refitted the supply. As **** luck would have it, It appears as though the spring is actually in the cellar which is a proper nut buster.

The brain trust that is the org have given me some fantastic ideas for what to do next so that's what I'll do.

If I remember I'll get pics etc all on here and please please keep the ideas coming.

[Bluefish]

Don't forget to bottle your new spring water, a la celler ;)

[dizzyblonde]

You should take mould very seriously. It can be extremely harmful to your health, if ignored or not gotten rid of.

Last year I read a bizzarre story, and you reminded me about it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1297862/Brittany-Murphy-Mould-home-kill-actresss-death-linked-fungus-LA-mansion.html

I have mould in my bathroom, as its tiny. It never used to be bad, I put a new bathroom in four years ago, and neither before or after did I have an issue with mould. Since Pete has moved in, and his OCD shower needs I can't get rid of it!! Even leaving a window open doesn't make it go away, nor when the heating is on.

Maybe I should just take the shower out instead, so Pete doesn't use it!!

[-Ralph-]

Are you telling us you're still in the habit of having a bath once a week? ;-)

I assume it's mould growing on the walls Dizz? I had a flat in Edinburgh with an internal bathroom, now window, just a crap old extractor fan. It was a rented flat, so I just washed down with bleach every so often and killed it, but the neighbour with the same bathroom layout tiled the floor and all 4 walls from floor to ceiling then had an impermeable surface that he could wipe dry with a chamois leather.

[dizzyblonde]

lol, I'm not an unwashed Yorkie tha knows!

it got a window. Just a tiny one.Its black in the grout at times, round the window too. I spray it with mould killer which keeps it at bay, but it always comes back. When Pete has showers my house is full of steam, and all the windows condensate, hes terrible!

[Sally]

As for mould, I would wager you are being effected by it. One of my friends lived in a flat that had a damp problem and ended up needing and inhaler / coughing all the time. It got a lot better when they moved out of the flat they were in and into a house that was dry.

This +1

Mate lived a flat with serious bad mould, was constantly ill/flu symptoms.

Moved out, and no issues now.