Mouldy house for the foreseeable or dusty, messy house now?

Which would you choose?

Would you rather put up with damp and mould than face the mess of improving your home?  

What’s the cost of staying the same?

It’s hard to imagine from the outside, but it’s remarkably easy to stick with the status quo, even when it’s tough to manage.

Why would you live with damp and mould, I hear you cry. But when the alternative means borrowing money, paying out loads to people you don’t know and living with the strain and mess, it gets easier to understand.

BUT this isn’t a fair comparison

There are the implications of staying with the status quo:

• Living with mould is really unhealthy, especially for kids and the elderly

• A damp house is harder to heat, so not only is it wildly uncomfortable, but it’s costing loads more on your energy bills

• Your belongings get damaged and you have to replace them regularly or live without.

Not to mention that it is hard to invite friends into a mouldy home so we can easily get more isolated.

I can’t face it!

But still we moan about the alternative. I hear this all the time:

‘I can’t face it.’ ‘How could you bear it.’ ‘You lived in!!!’

And I totally agree – getting the builders in is horrible. I’ve always hated it. It’s driven me mad, I’ve had temper tantrums, bemoaned our fate and been an overall pain in the neck.

Any form of renovation or retrofit will:

·      Cost a lot of money

·      Create a huge mess in your home

·      Be stressful

But it will have loads of benefits if you do it right:

• You’ll be a lot more comfortable in your home

• Your property will be worth more – and since home is the biggest investment most of us make, that’s not to be sniffed at

• You’ll will have removed all the problems you’ve dealt with for years

Don’t discount it

Just don’t discount it out of hand. Take time to understand what will actually need to change for your living conditions to improve. It may not actually be a huge amount of work:

Improve your ventilation: this is one option that might make a huge difference. Condensation – the forerunner of mould – is caused by poor ventilation. Just adding a single room heat recovery unit, for example, might make a room a lot more healthy and comfortable.

Retrofit for energy efficiency: sounds like a huge job. And it is pretty significant, but you don’t have to do it all at once. You can easily do one room at a time, slowly building a warm home as your budget allows. A retrofit co-ordinator can help you work out how to do this.

Put in the best quality windows: getting rid of old double glazing or even original singles glazing will make a massive difference. Triple glazing if you need to stop the sun overheating a room. Double glazing if solar gain is helpful. Then you’ll only get condensation on the outside of your windows.

Above all, learn about your home.

Using modern synthetic materials on a house built before 1930 is a recipe for disaster. Use them in modern houses and you’ll also have problems - unless you have a really good ventilation system.

Wrapping any house in cheap synthetic insulation – the one the builder recommends - means:

·      Bedrooms will be too hot to sleep in during summer

·      Condensation will drip down the walls

·      Savings will only be short term – you’ll have more costs in the future

Check out natural materials before you do anything. They keep you warm in winter, cool in summer and dry all year round. Even if they cost a bit more, they will do the best job and save you loads of air con in the summer.

Don’t despair

 

You can shift from cold, damp and miserable to warm, cosy and loaded. It’s all doable.

Yes it costs. Yes it’s unpleasant. Yes, you’ll wish you’d never started.

BUT when condensation and mould are impacting your life, the costs are so much wider, long lasting and significantly more uncomfortable. SO keep it on the table and have a really good think. Just what are you willing to put up with.

If this makes you think, ‘I need to understand more about this before I make mistakes I’ll regret’, then go take a look at What the Builder Won’t Tell You. I’ve put loads in there about keeping your home warm, dry and cool- and all with minimal jargon!