Mould and damp.
 

I've noticed a vast increase of mould and damp in my villa which is lived in all year around. Could be due to the last quarter of 2018 being very wet. Anyone else experiencing more mould/damp than previous years?

The damp has to come from somewhere. The usual causes are -
Using bottled gas for heating (one cylinder can produce up to 25 lts of water)
Showering
Cooking
The answer is usually ventilation (lots of it), buy a dehumidifier, and ditch the gas heater.

For some reason we had a bit of dampness in one of our rooms late 2017 even though we hadn't done anything different from the previous 11 years. It wiped down and everything is fine.

We generally leave bowls of salt around and keep doors and drawers ajar. Seems to do the trick.

Yes, we are experiencing a very bad year for damp. And of course our villa has no damp course - these seem to be a rarity - .... though I think mostly the problem has been caused by the intensity of the rain which has penetrated the roof underneath the tiles and caused damp to appear in places where we have never before seen it. We are going to try and weather-proof the roof to some extent this winter - hopefully next year will not see the terrific storms that we had in 2018. Think the Mallorcans take a more relaxed and accepting attitude to damp than we Brits do - I have been told more than once that 'this happens, just paint over the damp patches!'! Whenever we leave the villa empty for a while we leave the heating on low, open various windows and make sure not to close any of the kitchen cupboards or wardrobe doors. We still do get a little bit of damp no matter what we do, mostly confined to unventilated areas, but it's much better if we ventilate as much as possible. Really the whole villa needs dry-lining but that's a major undertaking (and a major cost!). Good tip about a dehumidifier - we have one of those at home as our kitchen/laundry room is in the basement and gets quite damp at times - the dehumidifier has pretty much solved the problem.

I wish I too had the same relaxed attitude as the locals with regards to this! The inside of our external walls, particularly the rear of the villa where it gets little sun at this time of year, seems to have suffered worse. I think that the saturated porous brick work doesn't have the opportunity to dry out. We do have a water reserve under the villa, but this is ventilated and the damp is not rising from floor level. However, along with waterproofing the external walls, I'm also considering injecting insulation into the walls. Locals may raise their eyebrows! Anyone had experience insulating out here? Thank you.

I'd not rush into doing anything radical BigSal.....or expensive! These house are completely different to the highly insulated houses we are building in the UK currently.

Really, you need to know the details of how the house was built and provide that info to a qualified Surveyor who will give you sound advice. There are some in the UK who only deal with damp issues and they will tell you what you need to know.

I was told that windows should always be kept open as an airflow was required to allow the house to breathe and as others have said not to close wooden doors, cupboards etc when away. A friend of mine has a solar powered device that dehumidifies. Something like this perhaps:

Although the SolarVenti might sound like a new solar-heated coffee from Starbucks, it’s actually a solar powered dehumidifier for your house. The device attaches to a south, southwest or southeast facing wall of your house, and once installed has no operational costs. The device draws cool dry air into the house during the morning, warms it up, and then releases it into the house where it replaces the damp air in the house. I’ve long been a proponent of passive heating and cooling for homes, the SolarVenti now provides the option for passively removing excess humidity as well.

Thank you Rockape, good and useful points to consider. Starting to feel reassured :)

Hi Sal, we bought our apartment in Jan last year and regularly leave it locked up for couple of months at a time. We quickly realised we were having issues with damp - fusty smelling clothes and bags of sugar going hard, this kind of thing. Over the summer we were leaving the windows open slightly with the shutters locked and it seemed to cure the situation and we've done the same when we locked the place up on our last visit in November but we've not been back since so I'll be interested to see how its behaved over the winter months!
Anyway it seems to me that poor ventilation can often be the problem and Rockape's suggestion of Solarventi system is really interesting because I've been researching a company called Nuaire who provide a similar ventilation system which might be worth a look.
I'd be interested to know if anyone's had one of these systems fitted or knows anyone who installs similar types of equipment in Mallorca as it seems this could be really helpful for lots of second home owners!

I'd be interested to know if anyone's had one of these systems fitted or knows anyone who installs similar types of equipment in Mallorca as it seems this could be really helpful for lots of second home owners!


I'll ask my friend who has a house in Nerja for details on his system and report back.

Thanks Rockape that would be great ;)

We have a 3 bedroom bungalow built early 1930.
Had a lot of damp mainly in the bedrooms .Tried a few dehumidifiers but the were not really up to the job. A builder told me about a company called Meaco who make a very good dehumidifier. purchased one and have had no trouble since.
The model we have is for a 4 bedroom house.It sits in the conservatory and drains itself via a tube through the wall..Look this company up on the net.
.

I only know of two brands of domestic dehumidifier that work well at cooler temperatures; Meaco and Ebac.

Are either actually available in Mallorca?

Bauhaus do a couple.... one is 185 euros but has a 12l tank and another is 299 euros, with a larger tank. No good really as you won't be there to empty it. There is another at 269 euros which more importantly can feed an outside tank or straight into a drain.

The only issue is that if you were away for months at a time, you'd normally put it on a timer switch to come on for a few hours a day, but most people would want the power off when they left their place.

All on their web site if you google it.

We have recently come across a good solution for cleaning the mould. It works by killing off the spores with no need to clean or scrub the walls, just spray on the area and is called Muffy Xid /Muffy cid.

Lollipop, Where did you buy that please ?.