Dealing with Black Mould in Your Home

Keeping on top of cleaning in your home involves a lot of jobs. Some are regular, and others need to be done only now and again.

If black mould appears around or on windows, it can fall into either of these categories, depending on how you deal with it. Most people’s first idea is to add a ‘Black Mould remover’ cleaning spray to the weekly shopping list, get a couple of bottles of the stuff, and then go to work with it. Instructions are generally to spray the affected areas fully and leave for ten minutes before wiping down. So, we spray happily away and leave for ten, or maybe twenty minutes (you know to be really sure!) and leave it at that. The mould is gone, so the problem is solved.

You accept it as a regular job, and the cleaning spray makers see a spike in their sales. But a few weeks later – the mould re-appears. The process is repeated again and again and again. You don’t enjoy where you’re living as much and worry about the damage threatening your rental deposit. It doesn’t have to be this way, though.

The main cause of black mould on windows is the build-up of damp air. This is usually caused by a number of lifestyle choices and is not a fault in the way a property is built. Cook a lot at home? Have a poorly ventilated shower or bathroom? Need to do plenty of laundry and put it to dry on radiators? All of this will create warm, humid, damp air, which builds up in rooms leading to black mould on windows. So, either make changes in the way you create the humidity or think about how it can be released from your home.

This can be as simple as opening the windows and ventilating rooms on a regular basis. This might sound a crazy thing to do during winter or when it’s cold, of course. But remember – insulating and reducing drafts is also reducing healthy insulation in your home. Get into the habit of letting fresh air in – and damp air out – when you don’t want the heating on.

Choices you make about your daily habits and the ventilation in certain rooms can affect the build-up of black mould, whether it’s something that will happen again or on a regular basis.

About Uazen

Thanks to the team at Uazen Cleaning for their expert opinion on this piece! Fronted is collaborating with local cleaning company Uazen to produce a series of useful written guides full of tips and tricks to help renters keep their homes clean.