Mould problem, possible water damage.

We haven't had our offer accepted yet as the vendor is investigating a 'mould' issue in one of the units. That is fine by me because I am not willing to proceed without knowing what I am getting myself in for - he is investigating this at his expense, although if we do proceed I will also be getting my own building inspection report do to verify. All is pretty much hinged on this issue.

Now the Vendor and the REA keep on referring to this as a 'mould' problem, and beleive just adding sufficient ventilation should fix this (the area the units are in does have a climate conducive to mould growing). There is ALOT of mould on the ceiling in all the rooms in the first unit (which is actually a 50yr old house - the other two units are 18yrs old). My concern is not the 'mould', but rather why it is there in the first place.

We are unable to veiw the property ourselves (living 12hrs drive away), But we have friends there who have inspected on our behalf and taken many photos for us (as well as filling in an inspection report for us). Having looked at the photos, I have concerns that there may have been some water damage - I know the roof was replaced after bad storms in the last 12 months. In the photos there appear to be what look like watermarks on the ceiling along with the mould.

So I guess my question is does anyone have any experience with this kind of thing?

Any idea of a ballpark figure for fixing it up - either just adding vents? or what kind of work we may be looking at if it has been caused by water damage?

I know this is a very broad question(?) but any advice or tips would be helpful. I don't want to purchase a place that I have to sink too much time and money into, and am still really new to the IP game.

Any chance of posting a few pics so we can see mould pattern / suspected leak etc?

Sorry I seem to be having problems up loading the photos at the moment, but I will put some up when I can.

Here are two photo's. The mould mostly appears around the edges of the ceiling where the walls meet it.

OK - Pic #1 indicates that the room needs better ventilation. Maybe as simple as opening a window? Or maybe they have a non-flued gas heater at the other end of the house that makes moisture collect here - and it grows mould. Or they cook nearby and steam collects there.

Fix #1 by washing down with a bleach solution (or exit-mould) and painting with celining paint that has anti-mould additive. Keep room ventilated.

Pic # 2 - flaking paint. This has had some water damage in the past. The water has also dissolved the skim coat where the sheets meet (the line on the ceiling)
2 real solutions:
1. Re-gyprock the ceiling and start again
2. Peel off the first paper layer (under the paint) off the ceiling gyprock. Put on a layer of skim coat. Seal with prep-coat + finish with 2 coats of ceiling white.

Other short term fixes are to scape off peeling paint and repaint with ceiling paint that has had bondcrete added. Works for a couple of months only - OK to sell but not OK to keep long term as the problem will come back using this method.

Been there - done it before.

Cheers.

Thanks for that. Photo one is typical of most of the mould in the house. That particular photo is actually from the master bedroom, But all three bedrooms and the main living areas are like this. Interestingly I have just looked through all the photo's again and the only areas where here isn't significant mould is in the wet areas (bathroom, laundry) - so maybe it is a ventilation issue, I know the bathroom has an exhaust fan.

rugrat said:

So I guess my question is does anyone have any experience with this kind of thing?

Click to expand...

Yes, we had tenants in a house with 4 huge heated fish tanks, complaining of mould. How to fix? remove tenants and fish tanks, clean with exit mould, repaint, install new tenants that are allergic to fish.

rugrat said:

That particular photo is actually from the master bedroom, But all three bedrooms and the main living areas are like this.

Click to expand...

That indicates that the mould is likely to come from the moisture in the exhaled air as ppl sleep in their beds. Then they get up and go to work with the place all shut up (for security reasons) and repeat. We had (still have) an older house with same mould pattern on same style of gyprock. It is also likely that their is no insulation in the ceiling behind the gyprock - so warm exhaled air hits cold ceiling and moisture condenses out. Gets worse in winter months.

But the flaking paint is definitely old water damage - had a place like that too

rugrat said:

Interestingly I have just looked through all the photo's again and the only areas where here isn't significant mould is in the wet areas (bathroom, laundry) - so maybe it is a ventilation issue, I know the bathroom has an exhaust fan.

Click to expand...

It is likely that the wet areas were painted with anti-mould paint too

Can I ask where this place is? Norther or Souther of Canbra?

It is in the Northern Tablelands - very cold damp climate.

cold house , cause of mould is condensation , from temp differences beetween surfaces, inside, outside. install ducted gas heatin and this should go away, !