Arrived at my caravan today that is held in storage and there is mold on the carpet, the door, the cooker, the bathroom, in fact most places and even on a bottle of glass cleaner where the stuff must have dripped.
Its wiping off quite easy so will have to spend a day there preparing it for the season.
My question is though, how on earth do I avoid it for next winter?
Plenty of ventilation, try using catlitter trays full of common salt to help absorb the condensation, and make sure you get rid of all the mould spores, diluted milton works well on most hard surfaces, but not on polished wood, and make sure you rinse well before drying off with a soft cloth. It may also pay you to have your soft furnishings cleaned with a machine that uses an antibac type of shampoo, and dry well out in the sunshine one day. Use Bio washpowder to do curtains if you can, otherwise dry clean them, and never block the vents which alow fresh air to flow through when the van isnt in use.
good luck,
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
Celebrating 37 years of Caravanning in 2019, Recently Considered Retiring, but Totally Addicted for Life!
we have never had mould in ours (touch wood) do you clean it down well before leaving it ?? do you sleepp with the windows on the latch to cut the condensation down ?
Main thing is to ensure the permanent ventilation is not covered. If you have underfloor vents in cupboards, leave them open. imho all any dehumidifier does is take the water out of the air circulating around it & store it in the caravan.
All this of course assumes the caravan does not have a leak in the structure.
Our van is in storage and we take all carpets and furniture out over winter so that they cannot be damaged. Then we leave a couple of these in. Regular checks of the van over the winter period helps to keep a check on possible problems
Phil
------------- If you're not on a fell your wasting your feet and for 2014 it's.......Feb Castleton Mar North Yors Moors; Apr Sutton on Sea; May Thirsk; Jun Clapham/Riverside (Lakes); July Wharfedale; August Crakehall; Sept Knaresborough; Oct Wirral Park/Clitheroe
we use the same idea as phil only the cheaper versions that you get from asda for a pound we bought loads and put them everywhere they did collect a lot of water over the winter also used a cover on the van which we feel helped ,regular checks over the bad winter days and luckily only mould we found was in the cutlery drawer where obviously something had been left not quite dry or clean so had to do a whole milton clearout and complete sterile of the cutlery,,its best to wash van down when your closing up for the season it does help
going to be hearing more and more of this in the next few weeks. and please dont go buying dehumidifiers as all they will do is take air thru the air vents and its the moisture from this that folk see and think its from the van. I use dehumidifiers for work and they are no good unless the room is sealed from the outside air. esp at this time of year.
as prev said ensure there is good air flow and wipe any spore with diluted bleach or milton (same effect) also fabreeze helps on the cloth items. cat litter is good also but in the end it needs fresh air and warmth. if near a power point put a fan heater on very low and it will cure in no time. its the still dark moist air that the spore growth thrives on. its allways been here parents and granparents never let it worry them but then they did not live with such sterile homes and work places. double glazing central heating and air conn has made us poor for the better part.
we are designed to live with dirt and germs, and yet we live and eat sterile food and then spend money on mouldy milk (yonkin) to eat. cant see the reason myself.
i am looking after a bungalow across the road and the furniture and carpets started to go mouldy quite badly,after cleaning i introduced a dehumidifier and permission was given to leave the heating on the lowest setting 24 hours a day,from this time no more mould/mold has been seen for months.i use a dehumidifier each and every day in the caravan and do not have any problems,it is set on a timer.this timer also charges the battery.its a matter of opinion really some like them some don't.i know it works for me.
------------- the only silly question is the one you do not ask.
Dettol Mold and Mildew remover will do the job. (read the label as to what you can use it on.)
I'm allergic to mold spores, it brings on COPD with me. I never suffered from this until I lived for two years in a damp house - really damp - my leather shoes and handbags rotted in the wardrobes it was that bad.
So make sure you remove every last bit of the mould and get it out into the sunshine with the doors open, and hoover the soft furnishings to within an inch of their lives!
At the end of the season, wipe down again with the above and rinse off, then spores can't grow on the surfaces. Leave the fridge door open, and get some air through.
Would a couple of visits during the lay up not cure it, open the door and windows and get the stale air out, maybe fire up the heating for a while and get some heat in it.
I'm no expert only had a caravan a few months but we have been using it in the winter, plan to do the above if unable to get away next winter.
I owned and I kept a folding camper on the drive with only the transit cover on it, and had no mould what so ever, but it was opened about once a month for an airing.
Leave all the windows on the catches over the winter so that air can get into the 'van. I'm not sure if you want to do that when it is in storage though. We used to leave all our windows on the catch all the time apart from when cleaning or towing and never had a damp problem :) Though we were lucky enough to be able to store our van at home and were always popping into it for one reason or another lol.
We don't get damp in the house either because we always have good ventilation i.e opening windows during the day even if only for an hour in the winter. Though neighbours swear their identical house's are damp riddled :( I've never seen the need for dehumidifiers if you get good ventilation
Though neighbours swear their identical house's are damp riddled :( I've never seen the need for dehumidifiers if you get good ventilation
our bungalow's were built on a kind of mash land in the 1950s and most if not all suffer from a damp subterranean and a high moisture content.we need to use dehumidifiers on a regular occasions,about every two days.a problem common to bungalows,if you have an upstairs you will not get this problem unless caused by other things.it is not possible to ventilate too much without releasing all the heat from the central heating.if you do not dehumidify your cloths in the wardrobe and your carpets will be mouldy.
------------- the only silly question is the one you do not ask.
Can't understand why peopel waste money buying salt etc to dry out the atmosphere in the caravan. Surey it is just easier to sprinkle it over top of the caravan? Basiclaly you are trying to dry out the outside atmosphere as the dry air inside is replaced with more damp air. As suggested in an earlier post, circulation of air is the answer
We normally take our last trip around the end of October, and our first in Feb so that van isnt left standing for long. We generally hear up the van to a good temperature to dry in out about once a month during that period, but this is going to be much harder if the van is in storage.
We've not had a problem with mould so far. What are the conditions like where the storage is Helen, is this in full light, shade or under cover?
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Topic: Mold, Mold and More Mold!
