Hi,

We have a 1926 Cal Bungalow. The last winter saw us continually cleaning mould from our interior walls. The walls are double brick with a 1inch cavity between.

Any suggestions/advice to stop the mould from continually appearing?

Thanks

T

First, the term is mold. Second, you may be seeing mildew and not mold. Frankly, you want to see mildew instead of mold as the latter is very, very bad stuff and expensive to get rid of--professional skills are needed. Also, mold can cause severe health issues and severely compromise the value of the property.

Mildew, on the other hand, is somewhat benign and fairly easy to get rid of. You definitely want to clear up the mildew problem before it becomes a mold problem. If you are at the mold stage (thick and hairy vs black and powdery), then you need a professional.

Mildew is easily remedied with Clorox or some other bleach. You first need to solve what caused it to develop in the first place, which is dampness. Then you dry the affected area and apply the bleach. After the mildew is dead and everything is dry you apply a sealer like Kilz or 1-2-3.

Thanks for the advice, Im actually Australian and we spell it Mould! its all backwards and twisted down under!

Will try some clorox, my guess is the moisture is a build up of water and transition of that water from the external brick wall. I was planning on removing say 12 inches of soil from against the external wall and installing (1) drainage (2) some sarking of some kind to create a layer between earth and brick.

Any feedback?

Thanks

T

Mea culpa, I didn't realize there were bungalows down under--of course, you are closer to India than we are

Indeed, getting the walls dried out will solve the problem. Most of the time it is either poor drainage or old roof leaks.

Good luck with the project.

Good point! the location where our mould/mildew is the worst is next to our corner downpipe.
Thanks again.
Cheers,
T