It’s at this time of the year that condensation appears around the home as a result of the combination of warm heating indoors and the cold damp weather outside and lack of ventilation. Let’s face it, who wants to open their windows to let the chilly air in during the winter? This is often the cause of condensation in the home and ultimately, damp walls. Especially prevalent in the bathrooms and often results in mouldy bathroom walls.

Yes, damp can get under the paint in the bathroom and cause chunks of paint to flake off the walls. Couple this with spots of mould all over the walls and your bathroom starts to look pretty bad. No one wants shabby walls spoiling the look of their new bathroom suite, so here are some tips for clearing dampness and flaking paint when the mould has taken hold:

Prepare the Wall

Scrape off the flaky paint using a cheap strip knife or a triangular shave-hook. Be sure to scrape all the crumbs away, brush down the walls, then vacuum them so that they don’t stick to the paint. It will look a lot worse to start with but it will be worth it in the end.

Apply Solution

Mix up a solution of 2 parts bleach with 10 parts water in a spray bottle  (an empty cleaning spray bottle will do) and spritz the bleach water onto the walls to kill the mould. This is exactly the solution you’ll find inside pricey mould-killer products so just mix up your own, but be very careful when spraying because any splashes back on your clothes will bleach them – you might want to wear something old that you don’t mind ruining.

Repaint 

Allow this to dry thoroughly (probably overnight while you have a good rest after all that scraping) and all the mould will have been killed off. Then paint the walls with two coats of satin soft sheen paint as a diamond eggshell – never use a matte paint – which will resist the condensation in the future and any moisture will simply run off the walls or can be easily wiped down with a cloth or old towel. Maker sure you are careful when painting that you don’t splash onto the existing pieces in your bathroom such as your bath or toilet.

Simple right? Not only have you killed the mould and stopped it from coming back, you have also got a nice newly painted bathroom for the New Year!