Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Mar 04, 2014 12:39 am Hi, I'm new to this forum. I'm just after some advice at the moment, if anyone is able to offer some. We are currently rennovating our first house, a 1947 timber and green vinyl clad house (I'm sure the colour was trendy in it's day!). The strangest thing happened last year, ?during winter. We had not long finished our loungroom . We had patched up the old wall vents, after being told by a builder they were no longer functioning or needed (no open fires etc. Plus, they'd been clad over anyways). We prepared the walls and ceiling for painting - a light sand, patched what was needed, sugar soaped, and then repainted (with a good brand paint). During winter, I noticed a crack in the ceiling paint, like the painnt could be chipped off to expose the plaser, if you got your nail under it. It got bigger, and bigger, so we flicked it loose....and a small mushroom fell down! A perfect 'button mushroom' the size of a small finger nail! The patch of paint is now still missing, and there are strange, brownish, water-like marks that seem to spread out further every time you chip more paint away. My first thought was that there must be a water leak in the ceiling...but there is nothing that we can see, and sarking is intact. Being that it is plaster that is exposed, it seems odd that this mushroom (or spores) must have already been in the plaster, under the original layer of paint, as we only gave it a light sand...we never exposed pure plaster! *Any ideas on what may have caused this random mushroom, or what may still be causing these water like marks? *How do we fix it so it doesn't happen again?? (bleach and repaint? Or cut out the plaster and patch/paint). Could it be that the room is too warm in winter, with the heater on (which is only occasionally)? Any info would be great! Thanks! Re: Advice on ?mould problem 2Mar 04, 2014 6:25 am Is there decent insulation in the walls and ceiling ? Algae and fungus grow where condensation forms on inside surfaces as a result of the temperature difference between ( mostly ) the cold outside and the warm inside. The older painted surface probably had enough cracks and holes in it to let the room breathe somewhat and by a combination of the blocked vents and a new painted coating you have effectively sealed the moisture inside. Keeping windows open a bit will help a lot. Long term solutions would be to install insulation in the walls etc either by removing the external cladding or from the inside by removing the plaster. Do a search on this forum, there are numerous threads on this subject. Stewie This certainly doesn't look good. I would be engaging with an independent inspector to have a look at this. As for the unscheduled site visits, most builders are quite… 1 28290 2 5822 I don’t think so as the floor area over 300 square meters then it is class 3…. 12 17925 |