I've been refurbishing bathrooms for 35 years and thought i'd seen it all until a job i looked at last winter. The house inside was a total mess, disgusting, but that's a different story. Every window sealed and taped shut with quilts nailed over them. Extractors all blocked up and sealed. The radiators on full blast covered with soaking wet washing. But it was the bathroom, never seen anything like it. The ceiling and walls were black and hand on my heart as i was standing there it it felt like it was raining from the water droplets falling off the ceiling. I could smell and taste the mould and just walked out. The people were the worst of the worst, rotting food laying around, dead rodents, cockroaches, i can go on and on. How people like like that is beyond me. Really bad.

It’s great! My shed has been completed and it turned out nice looking and sturdy and it is way better than the sheds that many of my neighbors had put up. Of course, I'm pleased with the outcome and this Ryan’s kzfaq.infoUgkxGZedDTcDfgD7fG_uU4esfx_EgxzlY2_1 Plans was extremely useful to me as a guide.

It is not always a venting / lifestyle issue. My sisters flat had a broken gutter and it leaked water all over the outside wall which gradually seeped through that walls causing mould growth on that wall only. The cure was to fix the outside guttering, re-plaster / clean / re-paint the inside walls and also for safe measure add a de-humidifer on constant run, due to it being a small property.

Great video. I live in a rented second floor flat next to a major Scottish river. The first winter I was there it was bitterly cold and the heating didn’t help. Had black mould in the kitchen, living room and main bedroom. After bleaching the walls of the mould I did a bit of reading up and bought a 3L condenser dehumidifier. The first time I ran it I was shocked when it filled up in only a few hours. Ran it again, did the same thing. But it made a huge difference. Ever since over the winter I leave it running for around six hours a day, usually overnight, or when I’m cooking, using the tumble dryer or until it’s full. Thanks to the air being drier I’m finding the heating needs to be on less. As for ventilation the kitchen window is open for an hour or so a day and the bathroom window is left open permanently a couple of inches. The mould has never returned.

I run a small handyman business. A regular thing I get is asked to look at 'the damp problem' by my client, the landlord, following a complaint from the tenant. Now some of the time there is a genuine issue with water ingress but I recon more than 50% of the time it's actually condensation due to lack of ventilation.

Here in Germany, some rental contracts have a clause requiring tenants to air the flat/house on a regular basis. They’re also required to clean any mould as soon as it appears or else the landlord will deduct the cost of mould removal from their deposit.

I feel like everyone needs a beefy dehumidifier to keep mould in check on the cheap. Dehumidifiers are probably the best way to dry clothes inside the house on the cheap, it's also very fast. Oh and in my experience putting large furniture up against the inside walls rather then the walls that lead outside helps with the cold pockets that may lead to large flairs of mould.

I had really bad mould on my window frames. Not anymore. Make sure you take these steps: 1. Ensure there is a timer on your bathroom extractor fan and it stays on minimum half hour after you have a shower 2. Dont dry clothes indoors. If you do, make sure there is an extractor fan in that room (bathroom or utility room usually) and leave the extractor fan on 24/7 3. Open bedroom windows when you get up in the morning and leave open for minimum 3 hours. I generally close mine when i get home from work. My windows are upstairs and have the anti-burglar latch that allows them only open a few inches. 4. Make sure you always turn on the extractor fan when you are cooking. 5. Get mould treatment spray (its mostly bleach) and if you see mould on your bathroom ceiling spray it straight away and dont be tempted to then wipe off the mould with a cloth, leave the bleach to take effect and within 24hours the mould will have been killed and disappeared. 6. If you remember nothing else remember, fans and windows.

Bought a house in the summer that was soaked with condensation and covered in black mould. It worked in my favour as it put a lot of buyers off. Previous occupants has blocked ALL the vents. I unblocked the vents, putting draught flaps up where appropriate, bought a 12 litre dehumidifier and borrowed another off my girlfriend. A few bottles of Cilit Bang black mould killer, a month of running the dehumidifiers almost constantly, and, touch wood, the mould and damp are held in check. I still run the dehumidifier on smart mode occasionally, just as a precaution, but it seems to have been sorted and the house is almost dried out. (it was soaked through)

I have now tackled my mould issues in my house thanks to what I have learnt from KZfaq videos like yours. I have now enforced all showering and bathing be done with the window open. Cooking is now down with the window cracked open. Unfortunately my double glazing does not have trickle vents. So the best I can do is have the entire window on the first latch. Next task will likely be a extractor fan in the bathroom and the kitchen.

We went to see how bad the condensation issue was with our rented house. As we walked into the house our glasses instantly steamed up and had water dripping off them! They had washing drying everywhere downstairs and their three kids were having a steaming hot bath... Not one window was open. The tenant complained the house wasn't insulated enough which was causing the problem. After they refused to accept they needed to open the windows to let all the moisture out of the house we told them to leave.

Here are my tips: Leave windows ‘on the handle’ where a small amount of air can circulate or for faster effect open fully for only 5 mins then close to ‘on the handle’. This reduces the temperature drop from a longer duration which works against drying the air inside. I don’t like drying my clothes in a tumble dryer because it wears them out quicker and is expensive. During colder weather I hang them on a clothes horse in a small (but not tiny) room and run a dehumidifier to dry them quickly without increasing the moisture inside. The dehumidifier is cheaper to run than the tumble dryer (expensive tumble dryers have dehumidifiers built-in to reduce running costs). After showering use a squidgy to wipe down shower walls and doors so that water doesn’t have to evaporate into the house. Doing that and opening the window means I don’t need to run the extractor fan in the bathroom. I’d keep the fan on for others who aren’t going to be so cautious.

Run a dehumidifier one day a week, wipe down affected areas with a cloth with weak bleach ! it's worked for me for 50 years ! Love your channel Roger

i grew up in the 60/s 9 inch solid walls with air bricks , crital single glaze windows which were full of problems and an open coal fire ,but never saw any mould ! strange now 50 years on and we have insulated homes and central heating BUT we cant afford to turn it on ,thats progress !

One thing not mentioned in the video are plants. Speaking from my experience, a massive plant lover, I had 40 large plants in my flat at one point and they drink a lot of water. Found mould growing pretty fast so had to reduce the number of plants in the space and yes, drying the washing inside was a terrible idea.

I had the opposite, rented a house that had the exterior render put on too quickly before I moved in, and it cracked and expanded from the wall, all down that side was mould on the inside, even after showing the landlord and the council etc they tried to blame it on lack of windows being opened, drying clothes indoors etc, of which I never did. You could tell from knocking on the exterior how hollow it was near the cracks. Luckily I am out of there now and have had no issues in my new place.

"Essentially, the human body feels more chilled on a cold day with high humidity, and less chilled on a cold day with lower humidity."

spot on Roger tenants switch off bathroom extractor fans is very common , plus one thing you did not mention but squeegeeing the bathroom tiles and shower enclosure around the shower area when used pushes that water down the drain that would otherwise evaporate into the house , that reduces the moister in the environment also

You have just said word for word what iv been telling my costumers for years love the show I'm a 57 year old builder and you can still teach me things cheers

We suffer from mould. Yesterday a friend gave us a condenser drier. I dried 3 loads of washing. I got 500ml from 1st load. 800ml from 2nd load and an amazing 1500ml from drying 3 bath towels. Unbelievable how much water drying clothes on radiators puts into the air Edit* the extra money on electricity was saved in gas

Excellent rant Roger (as usual!). I find it depressing that in 2022 we are no better off regarding poverty than when I was a kid in the 1950s. In fact I think we were somewhat happier in the 1950s!

The best time to ventilate the house is just before you go out. Open the windows let the air circulate for half an hour and do some house work to keep warm. Then close the windows and go and do your shopping etc. When you come back the new air will have warmed up a bit from the electrics, sun etc even if you do not have the heating on.

As a Canadian living is Britian I can say easily the thing I miss most is Forced Air. Nothing better than having furnace to heat and refresh the air in your house.

Thermo boarding and plastering the colder walls should help. I work as an a.plasterer for Portsmouth council. This not only reduces mould but insulates the house as well..

Clients are often reminded by me that they called me to sort their 'dry rot' problems, and also advice for re-glazing. I explain the 'dew point' phenomenon. Worth mentioning de-humidifier, especially for kids rooms. Comprehensive video and absolutely spot on. Keep up the excellent work.

A lot of these properties with black spot mould issues, were built fifty or sixty years ago. Only in recent years have they fell into decline. As a plumber I occasionally enter these properties, to find the place to be, steamy and humid. Rice boiling away in the pan, and all the window shut tight.

Perfect video Roger. I am renting and I did make the mistake of drying my clothes in my room and keeping windows shut and yes, I did end up having respiratory issues..... all my own fault and I put my hand up to it... now, in December 2022, with this cold weather, I have been keeping the window open during daylight, and not only did my respiratory issues go away, but I actually enjoyed the 'freshness' in my room. None of this was ever intentional, it was simply that my room was often cold (it's an old house) and so the window would remain shut. Clothes are no longer ever going to be dried in my room, and I hope that my breathing issues will go away (they've certainly improved but I don't know if they'll last for ever - I'm hopeful that ever a period of months I'll be okay). Moving forwards, please could you do a video on tackling the removal of mould on windows - ours are old wooden framed ones (with sashes some of them) - also on one of my windows the owner has secondary double glazing which of course has only made the condensation worse, so now I just keep that open all the time...... Great points made in your video, especially about governments and selling off council houses. I personally think that literally every single problem we have here in the UK can be boiled down to the cost of housing. Were housing to be simply affordable, we would all be better off and could lead quality lives, not just the affluent/wealthy.

I work in social housing and see this all the time, we had one who was blaming us for her children being ill, mould everywhere it was awful- turns out she was using a vented tumble dryer without venting it 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ all that hot moist air was pouring into the flat! Dehumidifier for a week, 2 humidistat fans, a vent fitted for her tumble dry and surprise surprise it's gone! I think a lot of the problem is around education and these scandalous company's who knock doors and encourage people to sue- taking money out of the system. Budgets are already under strain due to the constant government cuts- don't get me started on that 😂

I bought a dehumidifier to help with catching the moisture .

Great concise and comprehensive talk Roger, I too am considering my position over MEES it will end my time as a landlord (50 years). In my experience, everything government has ever done to the PRS has cost the tenant more and they never get past the innate anti landlord position. I'm going to forward this to my MP who asked me about mould the last time we met.

thanks roger, that was spot on. we are recent home owners and had new mould as a welcome present this winter. indeed, heating and ventilating are key, costing around 10quid a day. we started measuring in all the rooms and also got a dehumidfier that pulls 10L of water out a day, the thing is a beast. now we're around 50RH in the house, and it finally feels cozy. moisture and mould have been new to us since moving to the UK, but is manageable with vigilence. do you think indoor air filters might help as well?

Sometimes it's best (and cheaper) to take a lot of wet clothing down to the local launderette. Yes, it might be 50p for only a few minutes of tumble drying, but the drums are huge and they heat up quickly. Tip: If you arrive and there are several empty ones, feel them first. If you can, pick a warm one.

Great summary of the many video's you've previously posted on ventilation, heating, humidity and mould. As a bathroom fitter, these video's have been invaluable, a great way to communicate that mould growth can be prevented.

For us, the answer has been a dehumidifier. In winter, hang the clothes overnight in the bathroom (door closed) with the dehumidifier and they’re dry in the morning.

Absolutely spot on with this video, inclueding keeping the furniture off external walls all of your points were well made and correct. Thankyou

We have ventilated and insulated the house fully, have short showers, leave the windows open, have a de-humidifier, have fans in the bathroom and the oven, dry hair after wash, dry clothes outdoors or use tumble dryer and yet... still get re-ocurring black mould

As a landlord with a live-in tenants, i despair when the tenants dry clothes indoors. I provide a free tumble dryer, outside clothes line and yet those guys (laziness?) still insist on their way.

Well said. Been waiting a long time for someone to set the record straight.

Another great vid Roger. We had a problem with chronic damp and mould upstairs in our 200 year old stone cottage. A dehumidifier reduced it a bit but didn’t eradicate the problem. I fitted a PIV system last year and it’s completely stopped the mould and damp. Easy to install to.

Great informative and factual video, thanks. I'm a chippy. I had mould toxicity from exposure to toxic mould while renovating a property. Ironically I was re-installing a shoddily built stud wall in our house, in order to provide adequate support for a MVHR unit at the time. It floored me for six months. When I removed the stud wall I discovered the previous owner had "installed" foil roof insulation between the studs which had sagged, touched the gable end wall and caused condensation. The wall was literally covered in black mould. I can absolutely qualify everything you've just said in this vid. I'd just like to add though that toxic mould exposure can also cause inflammatory responses in joints, extreme fatigue and lethargy, and cognitive issues. In other words it messes with your head too! Really messes with your head in some cases. It also doesn't matter what colour the mould is, they can all be toxic to humans and animals, especially when they release spores. It's a very serious issue and should be dealt with immediately to avoid illness. Outlay for a MVHR system can be pricey but since fitting the MVHR in our place, our heating bills have dropped massively. It will have paid for itself in five years. If you've no option but to dry washing at home, get a dehumidifier and keep it clean. And re-decorate with mould resistant paint as soon as you see mould. Best thing for cleaning mould off surfaces prior to cleaning or painting is white vinegar.

I've recently seen adverts to spray foam insulate your conventional rafter/felt/batten/tile roof straight up against the back of the felt. There will be a few rotten roofs in several years' time.

A small 5L dehumidifier is the best purchase we ever made. Saves us opening the windows in the winter and running it a few hours over night picks up plenty of water and stops any condensation on the windows.

Brilliantly informative and presented!

We recently got an air dehumidifier, and it's a game changer. I have already extracted a lot of liters out of the house with it. We have hygrometers as well to keep an eye on the moisture in the air.

We had bad problems in our bedroom window reveals and the wall above the window. Actually wet with condensation. Turned out the lintel was full width concrete. Also the slope of the roof rafters meant the wall above the lintel was single skin. All this behind the fascia boards. With great difficulty I stuck 25mm kingspan on the outside of the wall and lintol (from inside the roof!) Then chased all the plaster out in the reveal and fitted marmox board and had it skimmed. Problem cured. I would say have extractor fans in the kitchen and bathroom. Use a compressor type of dehumidifier (cheaper to run than the dessicant disk types) in the room you dry the washing.

This is so absolutely correct 💯. It's a lifestyle problem. It's a little bit exacerbated by the quality of the insulation installed in the building, but it's LARGELY a lifestyle problem.

Condensation and mould is almost entirely caused by the lifestyle of the occupants not usually by the building. Inadequate use of heating, ventilation, drying clothes indoors, constant mopping of floors, not venting tumble driers correctly and over occupancy are usually the causes. In one case where I was inspecting a brand new property where it was built to the latest standards of heating. insulation etc. The lifestyle of the occupants had caused black mould to grow on every wall and ceiling in the property within months of them moving in! Discussions revealed that they had the same problem in their previous property, so in addition to inadequate use of heating we concluded that they had also brought over mould contaminated possessions which helped spread mould spores in the new house.

Superb video and succinctly put, thank you. We have a rental property which the tenant was getting black mould on an internal partition wall. I explained maybe not a well as you have what was causing the issue. We provided a dehumidifier with the house and gave instructions why it needed to be used. As you say it’s a lifestyle issue not an insulation problem. Thanks again

You are right to bring this up Roger. I think when you get exposed to mould it can get in your lungs and specific types of immune cells will attack it. Sadly I think it also attacks the lung tissue a bit and that can produce pain/tenderness when coughing etc. Also a symptom of infection can be itching on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet, perhaps even with small lumps or pustules. Defnitely something to take seriously and avoid.

This was really interesting. I'm not rich, but never had black mould. My mam knew the risk and told us put on more clothes and open the windows to stop damp/mould. Sound advice. 🍄

Happy new year Roger and all of your team & fans

I noticed a few damp patches so i bought a 20L/day dehumidifier and after 6 hours, the patches were gone. It goes on when the clothes are on the airer and they dry quicker. Plus since the humidity is lower, its cheaper to heat and quicker.

Great video Roger, I do love your rants! I used to live in an small 1st floor 1 bed flat in a purpose built 1980s block. Not the best design, no window vents, no air bricks and it had an internal bathroom. It did have working extractor fans though. To cut a long story short, I went through quite a bad period in my life and I let the flat go to sh*t. Over a period of 4 years I don't think I opened the windows at all. The bedroom wall and ceiling was the worst, black and other colour mould all over it, as well as mould on my mattress and furniture. I eventually sorted myself out and redecorated the flat. After that, I opened the windows for at least 30 minutes every day and the mould never came back. It makes a huge difference and proves that you can control it even in property which is not of the best quality.

I see similar comments here but I lived in a house for 5 years, then rented it out for a further 5 years without issue….then the last tenants moved in and within months were complaining about mould. I went to inspect and they had clothes drying all over the house. I advised them to pack that in and open windows more often but it continued. The estate agents managing the house for me were piling the pressure on for me to fix it as it was a heath hazard to the tenants. Ended up paying for a specialist company to survey the house and the outcome was as you said in the video, the lifestyle of the tenants and nothing to do with the building. I ended up selling the place to get rid of them and the hassle. Will never be a landlord again!

As a property inspector I’ve found black mould can be caused at high level by blocked gutters pushing water under the lowest roof ridge and if the mould is only on the window frames or the coving above and to the sides it’s usually either failed external mastic seal or failed render where the window was never mastic sealed

Spot on vid mate. Everyone needs to see this so we all understand what causes damp and mould.

I absolutely love your channel. I think my husband is getting fed up of me telling him about all the tips I get😂. It's true about opening windows, I'm always flinging them open first thing in the morning no matter what the temperature..even if it's only for 30 mins. I also have a dehumidifier which I sometimes have overnight( cheap to run too) in the bedroom or in a room where my washing is drying. If I do find any mould in the bathroom it gets wiped with hydrogen peroxide. Fresh air is a life saver so opening a window and putting on a jumper is easy. We are not a rich couple either👍 Sorry for long waffling😂

100% right. This season you have two choices: be on breadline all winter and not have a mouldy house; be slightly ABOVE breadline and when spring rolls de-mould your house which goes in thousands of pounds... We are barely making ends meet but we will heat the house 3 times a day above 19degrees (and ventilate) just to prevent mould.

Great video and explanation, thanks

Great video, every word vital to understand, for both occupiers as well as legislators!

We had really bad mould in our 1800's cottage,so we had the internal walls sprayed with cork and then skimmed before decorating.What a fantastic product it has turned out to be and it has reduced our energy consumption because the cold bridging has gone. You should do a video on Cork spray as it really is a wonderful material.

Hi Roger I’m a joiner and was lucky enough to be taught by tradesman like yourself many years ago , Another great Video . I’m qualified in structural waterproofing and I explain it to people with example of the droplets on a glass of coke or beer , even on a hot day moisture will cool and turn back to droplets on the cool glass and what is known as “dew point “ If the surface is cold enough and in property this is normally external walls in winter dew point occurs then mould grows

Well explained and superbly reasoned. Thank you.

I've lived in houses that never got mouldy and I've lived in houses that have terable mould, same life style different houses!

Great video and what most of us have known for years. Sadly with energy costs as they are trying to get people to ventilate their home is a tough sell, especially during proper cold snaps like we're having now. My front room was 10 degrees when I came home the other day, it barely reached a comfortable temperature before the heating went off before bed, with windows open it would have been like sitting in a barn. The bathroom is permanently vented because of an open extract fan, plus I open the window when having a shower and drying washing in there, so far no problems.

Double glazing rules changed from june 2022, all must be fitted with trickle vents, but exactly what you said, with heating costs through the roof people just shut them. I totally agree most of black mold problem is lifestyle problem, amount of times I have to explain to customers that windows do not make condensation. You can get condensation on the outside of windows at certain times of the year, I then have to try to explain to certain customers this is a good thing because it shows the heat is not escaping through the glass. Go back to the old public information films to explain basic things to the general public, seems like they need it. Nice video, love the rants.

Cheers Roger thanks for your good information in simple terms

Good video and fair comments. I found some mould on clothes etc I had stored in built in wardrobes in our bedroom. One wardrobe was bad enough that the walls and floor felt damp just from the condensation. I put some insulation behind the cupboards to stop the surfaces getting as cold, but I think the main thing is that I stopped drying clothes in the room. Now it's either the tumble dryer or they're hung up in a bathroom with the window left open a little bit. No more mould in the wardrobes! I'd also recommend a window vac so sucking moisture off of windows and walls. Helps get rid of some of the moisture.

I spent over 13 years inspecting social housing for upgrades & refurbishments in 6 London Boroughs and lost count how many home I visited. I can count on my hands the amount of genuine damp problems I ever came across in properties and no one or no argument will ever change what I saw when it come to black mould. The " Lifestyle " term used = Lazy people , Ignorance , absolute lack of any air flow leading to condensation issues going on for years the tenant rarely addressed themselves that a bucket of hot bleachy water would have solved in minutes. I actually went into a Somali home on a Peabody estate and all the wallpaper had fell off the wall due to mould and the home being kept like a sauna, they even had some illegal copper heating elements around the bath to increase the temperature of the bath water, the list is endless at what I witnessed people doing to cause mould, yet they put more energy into complaining about it than actually cleaning it.

Absolutely great video and hopefully this may stop people trying to solve the problem with mould paint! It is just a fact of our lives.

You are totally right. People who come from hot country to work and save money never put the heating on and never open windows in the winter. This has caused me more money to repair the damage than I ever make. May we should start to build flats with a centralised heating system like they do in Switzerland.

As a Polish guy I'm surprised how poorly new houses are insulated . Just few cm of Rockwool between 2 walls. External insulation doesn't exist here in UK where on East of Europe 20cm of styrofoam is standard for ages.

Absolutely spot on except for some other causes of damp, I once rented a bungalow where a doorstep trader had laid tarmac on the drive and bridged the damp proof course. That was a very damp house and the chipboard bathroom floor even developed a hole!

Great video Roger. Sadly the young boy died because of mold, also disappointing that the other side of the story isn't told by the media, i.e. that ventilation is key.

Totally agree with everything you said Roger. I have been saying the exact same thing for ages, I also am a part time handy man for a housing association and have seen so much of this for such a long time, and I too am one of the ones who also shouts at the telly when such news articles come on. I have witnessed two buildings the same and are next door to each other yet one has a massive mould problem, Tennant have had it explained to them so many times and have cleaned and painted so many times, we have advised that if any comes back - Just clean it off, better to clean it than leave it as will only get worse for them if they leave it. yet the attitude that comes back is that it is not their problem and that it is beneath them to take the advise of venting and cleaning etc and that it is down to us or the council to sort it for them. They are in complete denial that the problem has anything to do with them. So its not just a living style now, but a dad attitude or just plain disrespect.

Skill Builder You my man Are so down to earth. I regard your information videos as some of the best quality advice on heating and plumbing. Keep them coming my man. My own circumstances are - My home was built in the fifties. There is still a chimney running from a fireplace in the iving room. My fireplace is closed off except for a vented plate. The house is completey double glazed, but the front door is purposely not draught-proofed. The result is that the chimney draws air up it due to wind. The air that replaces that chimney draft is sucked in via the front door and by the time it gets into the living room the cold air has been warmed up a good bit. The hallway is bloody feezing in winter but who lives in the hallway. The only room that suffered from any mould was the bathroom. That had an extractor fan fitted some years ago. The fan comes on with the light switch and keeps going for twenty minutes after the light is switched off. Mould gone. Upstairs is never a problem At bedtime, the heating is off and the windows are opened to get circulation going. Folk I have encountered who have the black mould issues all have the same problem. Not much air moving around the rooms. In all of them I find they keep all their windows shut - even at night. Why? If the windows are opened - what is the point of having double glazing and draft proof windows !!!!

Great rant Roger. Our bungalow had major issues with mould and poor air quality in our first winter. After installing a whole house ventilation and heat recovery system the problems went, air quality good. Yes it does require investment but we no long live in the 1950's where I remember frozen condensation. Botom line life style is a major contributor to mould.

I am from Germany and I grew up airing rooms several times a day, especially in the morning after getting up. I am shocked to see that people in England don't seem to be doing this. By the way, I never had mould in my German home :) After airing we always had a room temperature of at least 19 degrees Celsius. Washing is put in a washing cellar or hung up outside whatever the weather.

Well said, Roger, thank you. It’s a big problem in Canada too…where I live all new houses must be equipped with an HRV or ERV. I lived in an older house that had been tightened up by the previous owner with no ventilation. I installed an HRV that helped a lot, but the finished basement was still very damp and I had to run a 70 pint dehumidifier during the summer.

Good sound advice thanks!

As a retired housing association surveyor I agree with everything you say. It is very hard to convince occupants that much of the problem is of their own making. People cannot afford to heat properties adequately and are unwilling to ventilate. Your video should be compulsory viewing for all tenants & journalists. Well done.

Brilliant summary as always Roger. I've found my dehumidifier is rubbish when the house temp drops to 16-17°c, ventilation is key.

Awesome video, informative and concise.

Great video! Some houses _are_ problem houses though. I recall many years back, staying at my Ma's house for a while - lovely little cottage, but it had one wall which was forever getting mould. No matter what they did. During that time, I ended up with terrible bronchitis, because the room I slept in ... was _that_ room. All the moisture in the house clearly found its way upstairs and onto that externally facing wall. They eventually solved the problem - it had nothing to do with drying clothes inside in this instance, my Ma was always super house proud and everything was always spic and span. It turned out to be a combination of rising damp and issues with the insulation in the room. They got some experts in who sorted it for them - it wasn't cheap, it was inconvenient for a while with big industrial dehumidifiers running for a week or so - but far better than getting sick! Many years later, me and my wife stayed in a rental whilst we saved for a house. It was simply geared up for mould no matter what. The roof was so low, I could touch the ceiling. The bathroom area backed onto a tiny enclosed outside area full of pipes, open to the rain and moisture, but never seeing any sun. It was a horrible house - almost beyond fixing short of spending many thousands. In our new house we saved up for, we've never had any problems with mould, but apparently a previous owner (the one before the couple we bought the house off), had a terrible problem with mould - and he was doing exactly what you have said in this video. All the doors and windows always shut, washing drying in the house, just a messy horrible environment, according to our neighbours - they never wanted to set foot in there. Before we moved in, the entire house was gutted and internal plasterboards and insulation were added throughout - it's now a toasty and lovely dry place. The double glazing needs replacing here and there - but you know what, that's where the moisture escapes out - that actually allows _some_ moisture to escape and air to circulate. We often open the windows a bit, even when cold, just to let some fresh air in. It's not rocket science, but some houses are indeed problems - and of course, the energy crisis is having a terrible impact. I do wonder how many people are coping in this cold spell - I can't imagine how awful it is. We're counting the pennies, but can still afford to put the heat on - imagine if you can't? Millions are in that position right now.

Finally a common sense video that backs up what I’m trying to tell my wife, I’m currently in the process of insulating the house, started replacing windows that make the issue ‘worse’ and exactly what you say is backing up everything that I say. We’ve fitted the PIV after the recommendation from one of your other videos where you was having a chat with an installer, I’m doing all the bedrooms first because everyone spends more time breathing in there. Thanks for another great to the point rant Roger 👌🏻

It seems very difficult to convince people that drying clothes on radiators or other devices that are not venting to outside is the worst thing they can do. Seen the problem of black mould caused solely by excessive humidity and insufficient ventilation many times but persuading occupants to rethink their way of living in the house is a difficult bridge to cross.

Love your telling it like it is there, absolutely spot on and needed to be said 🙂

Thank you. Excellent Advice.

When I was a landlord I found that the tenants never want to except responsibility for anything and expect someone else to sort it out and pay. When you see the news showing houses with loads of black mould, the first thing that pops into my head is why the hell have you not cleaned it sooner before it gets into that state, after all it usually starts out as a small patch and you can get very affective cleaners for literally a couple of pounds!

My 1910 house had a horrendous mold problem until I removed the gas central heating and re-established the coal fires. It's the ventilation. Now nice and warm even with all the windows open in winter.

So right. How hardly anyone understands this simple problem is mind blowing

Well explain Roger it helps me to understand the problem

This guy is amazing! He responds and advises. Underrated channel. Should have more. Roger you have a loyal follower!

First video of yours I've seen. What a relateable and friendly gentleman! Great video. I've never suffered mould myself but this makes perfect sense and was well explained.

It is also an issue of education, many people are not aware of the need to ventilate your home and the importance of monitoring air moisture levels, with a hygrometer.

Agree with everything you say, come across this problem many times with tenants not opening the bathroom window when showering and black mould forming across the ceiling, even had the problem at home but a terracotta air brick and a couple of trickle vents soon solved the problem.

Great video. Hadn't really crossed my mind that improving insulation can often transfer the problem to a cold spot! I will keep this in mind!

Excellent video Roger and my thoughts exactly. I actually had an argument with my wife about this last week when I pointed out that the majority of times the cause of indoor mould is lifestyle choices. She is one of those who takes the news reports as gospel, so it therefore must be the local authorities' fault. I reminded her that in some of the first homes we lived in together, we had exactly the same problem through ignorance. In our first home we used to use our tumble dryer unvented and wonder why there was black mould forming around it. We learned the hard way how not to do it. I honestly think they should be teaching stuff like this in schools. God knows what it must be like for immigrants settling here from hot countries with no experience of the British climate whatsoever.

This is one of your best Roger, Well done!

Great stuff. Thanks