8 Steps To Fixing Damp, Mould, Condensation & Humidity In Our Home

about three years ago we moved into this 1930s Bungalow and it was very dated and we've gradually been renovating it and making it into the home that we always wanted it to be but there was one problem that's been a bit more challenging to overcome and that problem is humidity moisture in the air and with moisture in the air comes condensation on cold surfaces and with condensation often comes mold and mildew unfortunately Bungalows are particularly prone to high humidity and that's because it's difficult to get air to circulate around a home that is laid out on a single floor especially when it's a large Bungalow like this one which over the years has seen lots of different extensions and bits added onto it so in this video I'll be sharing with you eight ways in which we have vastly reduced the humidity levels in our home making the air inside feel much fresher healthier and also easier to heat the first thing I did was to invest in some of these humidity sensors these are really cheap especially if you buy them in bulk which is what I did because I wanted one for each room which allowed me to monitor the readings and determine where within the bun Glo we had issues with high humidity levels I'll leave a link to these in the description box below they're really handy to have around and they also have a temperature reading on them too and when we first moved in here I took readings over the winter months when humidity levels tend to be more of a problem at different times of day over the course of a few weeks and the readings back then were averaging between 77 and 91 which is extremely high far higher than it should be the recommended humidity levels indoors in the UK are between 30 and 60 percent and readings above 70 are likely to result in mold growth now those ideal readings of between 30 and 60 might be achievable in modern homes built to Modern standards with modern building materials but in a 1930s Bungalow with lots of extensions it isn't so easy and I'll talk more about that later when I reveal what humidity levels we are seeing more recently after making several changes some of our rooms were worse than others for example in my office and in our kitchen the humidity levels weren't as high as elsewhere but there was one room which we had major problems with and that was our bedroom the biggest problem in this room was with our fitted wardrobes the walls at the back of the Wardrobe were covered in mold and mildew when we moved in definitely not the sort of place you want to be storing your clean clothes the problem with areas like this that are behind closed doors is a lack of ventilation and airflow because good airflow allows the humid air to be displaced by fresh air which keeps things dry so this brings me on to the second thing I did which was to install a couple of air bricks in the walls to allow fresh air into the Wardrobe it wasn't a difficult job I just used an SDS drill to drill out the mortar around a brick on the outer skin of the wall and then installed the air brick with some fresh mortar around it and then on the inner skin of the wall I drilled a series of holes to allow the air to flow in and covered it up with a plastic hit and miss vent on the inside wall I also drilled a series of holes with a spade bit through the top and bottom rails that hold the sliding wardrobe doors and inserted some metal eyelets into the holes again these are just allowing more airflow into and out of the Wardrobe obviously we spent a great deal of time thoroughly cleaning all the mold off the walls using a mold and mildew remover spray and then repainted all the inside walls with a mold resistant paint and I'll leave links to all of the products that we used in the description Box by the way then eventually we were able to store all our clothes in here and now three years on is still looking as clean and dry as when we first dealt with the problem the other major problem we had in our bedroom was that these wooden window frames were thick with black mold when we moved in we had to clean them thoroughly about three times actually and to be honest we still couldn't get them as clean as we'd have like to and that's why we're ultimately looking to replace the windows entirely just as soon as we can afford to and that's a job I'll be looking to do myself so stay tuned to the channel for that and yet again the problem with these window frames is a lack of airflow we know for a fact that the previous occupants of this Bungalow never opened up the windows to allow fresh air in most of the windows were jammed shut and we had to force them open which then showed all of the usual signs of years of neglect and no maintenance inside the window frames cobwebs spider nests dead flies bugs and insects you name it it was inside these windows so the third thing we did which is a bit of an obvious one is to open up the windows to allow fresh air to exchange with humid air particularly in the winter even if it's just for 20 minutes a couple of times a day even though you won't want to let heat out of your home in the winter it is important to let a good amount of fresh air in the fourth thing I did which also relates to Windows was to install these trickle vents to each and every window in the Bungalow they only cost a few pounds each and they're easy to fit basically you just drill a few holes through the window frame and then screw them on and they'll allow a constant gentle supply of fresh air into the house white probably wasn't the best color choice I know but we weren't really bothered about the color seeing as we're going to be getting rid of these windows anyway the fifth thing we did and probably the most significant overall was to install this this a positive input ventilation system into our Loft this gently sucks in fresh air from The Loft space through these filters and then pumps that fresh supply of air into the Bungalow and over the course of a few weeks the humidity levels in our home dropped significantly once this was installed from averaging around 84 to averaging around 63 if you're not familiar with these devices and have a home that has similar problems with high humidity these are well worth looking at these devices are not as expensive as you might expect they're easy to fit and this has had such a dramatic effect to how the air inside our Bungalow feels it just feels so much more fresh and healthy than it did before plus drier air is easier to heat so it helps to lower your heating bills too honestly we wouldn't be without it it has three power settings and we tend to set it to medium in the winter and low in the summer but if we see the humidity levels increase higher than normal then we occasionally put it up to the high setting the one downside is that the air that it pumps in can have quite a chill to it but you can get newer models with a heater built into them ours doesn't have that unfortunately the sixth thing we did was to get a dehumidifier to help with drying our washing in the winter it could be really difficult to get washing dry if you put washing on a radiator to dry all of that moisture from the washing evaporates into the air increasing the humidity level substantially we were reluctant to get a dehumidifier initially because they can be quite expensive to run but now we have one we actually use it all throughout the winter to help dry out the washing the seventh thing we did was to install a good quality bathroom extractor when you have a hot shower or bath again all that moisture goes into the air a good quality extractor will pull all the moisture out of the room very quickly in our bathroom unfortunately we have no exterior walls so we had to put ours up through the Loft and out through the roof but it works really well and clears that moist air very quickly and finally the eighth thing that we did was to install a good quality extractor into the kitchen too because because once again cooking and boiling the kettle and all of that stuff puts loads of moisture into the air this extraction unit that we had installed is really powerful and it's a little bit noisy I'll show you what I mean it's ducted through the ceiling to the outside to get rid of that moisture as quickly as possible so as I mentioned earlier now three years after moving in we're averaging around 63 humidity levels Across The Bungalow which means that despite going to all of the effort that I spoke about in this video we still are not within the 30 to 60 percent range recommended for UK homes and to be honest I don't think there's much else we could be doing to get the humidity levels lower other than running several dehumidifiers around the house for several days which let's face it isn't practical or affordable the good news is though that we've had no issues with mold or mildew no condensation on the windows and like I said earlier in the video the air in the house Feels So Fresh since we had that PIV system installed so I don't really have any concerns and I'm starting to wonder if that idealistic 30 to 60 figure is even realistic in a home like this one in the UK during the winter months and that's why I'd like to ask you about your experiences with humidity levels and what type of home you are in it'd be great for us to have something to compare our experiences with so please let me know in the comments thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Rag 'n' Bone Brown

Views: 433,013

Keywords: woodworking, uk, british, youtuber, keith, salvaged, reclaimed, make, making, how, to, ragnbonebrown, diy, rag n bone brown, rag & bone brown, damp, mould, mildew, condensation, cold weather, winter, high humidity, how to reduce humidity, how to lower humidity, how to remove mould, how to remove mold, mold, how to remove mildew, how to prevent condensation, condensation on windows, mould on windows, mould growth on windows, mould on walls, how to stop mould, how to prevent damp, stop condensation

Id: HCo8nWzfFVc

Length: 8min 30sec (510 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 06 2023