over the cold months i have been getting mould (black) in the bedroom on the wall is there any thing i can do????

cheers steve

buy a dehumidifier?

open your windows more often to circulate the air...

Looked into this... There's essentially nothing you can do really.. I mean you could give it a scrub and paint over it, and it might be good for years but it'll come back

Is it in one particular area?

What is the construction / type of house?

As above posts it's a case of curing the source of the moisture and /or increasing airflow.

If it's in one particular area then you need to identify why, looking for such things as leaking roof, gutters leaking on to wall, cracked / damaged render. Also check whether all the wall vents are clear and same for roof vents. Also check that if the loft has been recently insulated that the insulation does not go all the way to the eaves. This presumes it's up high.

If the source cannot be easily sorted such as it's a room which is below ground level and it's too expensive / not possible to tank the outside of the wall then the interior can be strapped and lined to leave a bigger air gap between interior / exterior walls to allow more air flow and isolate them from each other better.

Cheers
Davie

Trickle vents in the window frame will help improve airflow and can be closed when it's really cold.

Leaving the bedroom door open at night also helps improve airflow around the house (you breathe out a lot of moisture when sleeping).

Proper extraction in the bathroom will really help reduce the general moisture level in the house.

Dehumidifiers work, but they're £££ to run and don't address the source issue.

All good stuff above...
But it is worth getting it cleaned off asap with some mould killer, that stuff is not very good for you
If you want full advice on how to deal with it, you need to post more details about the house construction, heating, ventilation and insulation. And anything else that may be relevant.

On a similar note, one of my Dads tenants got the council involved when mould appeared in their kitchen. The council inspected, contacted my Dad about it with the recommendation that the tenants should open the window when cooking. Ventilation is seriously under-rated.

I had loads of builder types tell me that it was down to circulation, and to increase ventilation.

When I got the outside walls repointed (did it my self as none of the builders wanted to do it and that was what they came round for, to give me a quote for pointing to get rid of the damp) the internal damp dissappeared.

IF you've suddenly got damp then usually, there is a cause for it, especially after the house has been around for a few years and nobody had it before.

Re-cleaning, spray with a solution of baking soada or mild bleach stain remover powder to kill the mould.



[Edited on 2/4/12 by britishtrident]

if you want a simple solution, buy some anti-mould paint!
I had the same problem all round the windows and one of the walls, literally scrubbed it all off and then repainted with the anti-mould paint and haven't seen a single bit come back!

Once you've found the cause and got that addressed (ventilation is the key, assuming no leaky guttering/pipes/etc) then kill off the mould using a proprietary product. Polycell do one, a pal has just brought me some over from England. Failing that, use bleach. It's cheap and it works.

When re-painting, clean off any flaky paint and loose plaster with a wire brush and ensure the surface is dry. If necessary, re-skim. I apply a neat coat of 'Unibond' to the area to be re-painted and allow it to dry thoroughly, then over-paint.

The 'icing on the cake' to prevent reoccurrence is to fit an airbrick or two to allow circulation. (Don't know what it is with teenagers, but our two don't seem to like open bedroom windows).

thanks for all the advice, the damp is coming from inside the room the external wall is cold and the room is hot causing water to form on the wall. have just strip all the plaster on the wall, so next move is to fit a vent in the wall, then plaster using insulated plaster boards and then move the radiator to that wall under the window. all the plaster i removed today was dry and fine so nothing coming from outside in.

cheers

Had the same problem, fitted a extractor fan in the bathroom and has solved the problem ever since.