Should all houses have air bricks? Mould problem?

We have damp on the bedroom wall, the wall with the window. It's only on 1 wall.





Someone said that the airbrick may be blocked, but there's no airbrick from what I can see. Also none of the houses down our lane have airbricks either. The houses were all built 1850-1900 and have stone cladding on the front.





Could it just be a ventilation problem or something worse? Are there any signs if it's a bad damp problem? I don't want to call someone who then says it's really bad and will cost thousands etc and rip us off.





The mould is white, fluffy stuff. We've stripped off the wall paper and washed it but it comes back unless the window is open all day.



i'm no expert but have had experience of mould on walls. the windows put in now don't 'breath' and everything is shut in. Is the room heated adequately because if your walls are cold the moisture from you, your shower, cooking etc will hit the cold wall & turn to mould,if its not vented well enough. One of my houses had faulty gutters & so the rain seeped in. That's when I learned how important gutters are.Good Luck with this problem. I'm sure you'll find a reputable builder to help. they're not all out to con you. We only here of the bad ones.




Check the window is pointed and all gaps sealed around the window ( inside and outside ) and check the pointing on the stone cladding and point where necessary and check gutters are not overflowing so water is not penetrating the back of the stone cladding . a stitch in time saves nine . good luck . Overnight leave the window open to see if it builds up due to moisture from yourselves whilst sleepiomg i have forgotten the amount of water we breath out during sleep but it is quite high then consider vents in the window .




You only have air bricks in houses that have wooden floors,and they should be in the front and back of house.


If you cant see any air bricks then your problem is DPC( damp proof course).Which means that you don`t have any means to stop dampness coming from the outside through your walls.




you have all most answered your own question...its not there when you leave window open...you need to leave it open or get an air brick put in ..all so you need to wipe wall with dettol to kill the spores ..it helps if you leave bedroom door open...as your house was built over 100 years ago you have no cavity ..its just 9"solid ...air only goes round in circles ..it dont do corners ..thats why the corners suffer most




For me the answer lays in a clue you gave, its on a window wall. Have a look under the window cil, about an inch in there should be a V shape cut in the cil, this prevent the rain from running across and down on the bricks, which in turn causes dampness. Quite often this breaks away and must be replaced. Also look for a small crack in any covering for the bricks, like pebble dash.


On your comment relating to air bricks most house these days have cavity walls and they in turn have been filled which would have sealed off any air bricks so what value they are I don't know