Moldy Britain: A foolproof guide to saving your home from damp
Complaints about mold in social housing have doubled in two years, and with the climate crisis, increased rainfall means the risk of damp and mold in buildings in which we live and work goes only in one direction. Yet it remains a fuzzy issue that is understudied and misunderstood, allowing bad advice and costly mistakes to stalk the landscape. But sorting out mold can be relatively simple, if you know how. Here is our expert guide.
Why do I have mold?Don't be so surprised. "Mold is everywhere, all the time," says Dr Yasemin Didem Aktas, Deputy Academic Director of the UK Center for Moisture in Buildings (UKCMB), a non-profit organization set up by University College London to improve the way whose moisture risk is understood and managed. UK. "We live in a humid country, so we have to expect mold to grow, maybe in the bathroom, on the windows and in other cooler areas. But it's important that we do our best to clean it regularly to prevent it from building up. Mold is very difficult to deal with in UK buildings and is very common. UKCMB has a handy humidity calculator to help you assess humidity balance in your home, plus tips for people moving into new homes and how-to videos for people living in older buildings.
< figure>What is a problematic quantity?Patching on walls or ceilings should never be ignored, even if not currently posing a threat to health, they increase the spores in your air, encouraging more mold to settle on all hospital surfaces. You can also rely on your nose to alert you to problems. Sometimes mold isn't visible, explains Didem Aktas, "because it's inside the fabric of the building, like in cavities, or behind heavy furniture. If you can smell it, there's definitely a moisture problem, even if it hasn't shown up on interior surfaces. The short answer is yes, says Didem Aktas, but it's complicated. "If you're doing mold testing anywhere , you will find mold, but at what level this becomes a problem is something that is not yet well established and therefore has not transpired in policy or practice." This point is taken up in
Complaints about mold in social housing have doubled in two years, and with the climate crisis, increased rainfall means the risk of damp and mold in buildings in which we live and work goes only in one direction. Yet it remains a fuzzy issue that is understudied and misunderstood, allowing bad advice and costly mistakes to stalk the landscape. But sorting out mold can be relatively simple, if you know how. Here is our expert guide.
Why do I have mold?Don't be so surprised. "Mold is everywhere, all the time," says Dr Yasemin Didem Aktas, Deputy Academic Director of the UK Center for Moisture in Buildings (UKCMB), a non-profit organization set up by University College London to improve the way whose moisture risk is understood and managed. UK. "We live in a humid country, so we have to expect mold to grow, maybe in the bathroom, on the windows and in other cooler areas. But it's important that we do our best to clean it regularly to prevent it from building up. Mold is very difficult to deal with in UK buildings and is very common. UKCMB has a handy humidity calculator to help you assess humidity balance in your home, plus tips for people moving into new homes and how-to videos for people living in older buildings.
< figure>What is a problematic quantity?Patching on walls or ceilings should never be ignored, even if not currently posing a threat to health, they increase the spores in your air, encouraging more mold to settle on all hospital surfaces. You can also rely on your nose to alert you to problems. Sometimes mold isn't visible, explains Didem Aktas, "because it's inside the fabric of the building, like in cavities, or behind heavy furniture. If you can smell it, there's definitely a moisture problem, even if it hasn't shown up on interior surfaces. The short answer is yes, says Didem Aktas, but it's complicated. "If you're doing mold testing anywhere , you will find mold, but at what level this becomes a problem is something that is not yet well established and therefore has not transpired in policy or practice." This point is taken up in
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