How long can you live with mould before it affects you?
There's no safe deadline
No one can give you a number of weeks or months. How mould affects a person depends on how much of it there is, which room it's in, how long you spend near it and how sensitive you are. A healthy adult with a small patch on a storeroom wall may never notice a thing. Someone with asthma who sleeps beside a mouldy wall may feel it much sooner. So the more useful question isn't how long you can put it off, but what putting it off is likely to cost.
What changes the longer you leave it
Time works against you in three ways. First, the patch keeps growing for as long as the moisture behind it is there, and our guide to how quickly mould spreads explains how a dark corner becomes a stained wall. Second, the building and your belongings suffer: paint lifts, plaster softens, and clothes, mattresses and furniture near the wall pick up spots and a smell. Third, exposure adds up, so people who are sensitive become more likely to notice symptoms the longer they spend in that air.
None of that makes a small patch an emergency. It does mean the cheapest moment to deal with mould is usually the moment you find it.
Who should act sooner
Some people are more likely to be affected: babies and young children, older people, anyone with asthma or allergies, and anyone whose immune system is weakened by illness or treatment. If one of them lives in the house, and especially if the mould is in a room where they sleep, put it at the top of the list rather than leaving it for a quieter month.
Signs it may be affecting you
Look for patterns rather than single symptoms. A cough or blocked nose that hangs on, itchy eyes, or headaches that are worse at home and ease when you're away for a few days are worth noting. They are common complaints with many possible causes, so they don't prove anything about the mould. Our page on symptoms people link to damp homes goes into more detail.
We assess the building, not your health. If you have symptoms that worry you, talk to your GP and mention the damp at home. In an emergency, call 112.
Living with it safely while you sort it out
If you can't deal with it fully straight away, you can still reduce the impact in the meantime:
- Use the affected room less, and don't sleep in it if there's another dry room available.
- Open the windows wide for a few minutes several times a day instead of leaving one slightly open.
- Pull furniture, beds and stored boxes a little away from damp walls so air can move behind them.
- In winter, go easy on portable gas heaters in closed rooms, as they add water vapour to the air.
- Clean small patches on paint or tiles with gloves, a mask, a damp cloth and a mould cleaner. Never brush it off dry, and never mix products.
One thing not to do is cover it up. Painting over a patch hides it for a while, but mould comes back through fresh paint as long as the wall stays damp.
When waiting stops being an option
If the mould returns after cleaning, covers a large area, sits in plaster that feels soft or damp, or appeared after a leak, it needs more than a cloth. That's when a moisture check that shows how far the damp has gone is worth it: moisture readings in every affected room and a written report with the quote, and the inspection fee comes off the price if you go ahead. Where growth has got into the plaster, taking out the affected material and repairing what caused it deals with it for good: the growth is removed, the cause repaired and the surface finished in an anti-mould system.
Been putting it off? book an inspection from €75 and know where you stand, or call +357 99 759144.