Mould Inspection in Larnaca

Two sources of damp in one town

Larnaca sits between the sea and its salt lake, and homes on both sides of the town take on moisture from outside as well as from cooking, washing and sleeping. The housing ranges from low older houses around the centre to seafront apartment blocks and newer estates spreading out towards the villages. A damp patch can mean very different things in each, so a Larnaca inspection starts by working out which kind of building you live in and how the moisture is reaching the wall.

Causes that are easy to mix up in Larnaca

• Salt bloom or mould? In coastal masonry, salts carried up by damp leave a white, crusty powder on plaster. It looks a lot like white mould, but the remedy is not the same. Our guide to telling the colours and textures of mould apart helps, and the readings settle it.
• Rising damp or condensation at skirting height? Both leave marks low on a ground-floor wall. One comes from the ground; the other forms when warm room air meets a cold wall in winter.
• Roof water or a cold ceiling? Dark patches on a top-floor ceiling can be rain getting through the roof or simply the coldest surface in the flat attracting condensation.
• A smell with nothing to see. Flats that are closed between visits often smell musty long before anything shows; what that musty smell usually points to explains where to look.

Readings before any recommendation

Each of those pairs needs a different fix, and guessing wrong is how a Larnaca wall gets cleaned and painted only to stain again next winter. We find the cause before we touch the mould, so the fix lasts. If you want to understand the difference yourself first, we explain the three kinds of damp and how each behaves in plain terms.

What the inspection gives you

An inspection costs from €75. It takes moisture readings in every affected room and ends with a room-by-room moisture map sent to your phone, followed by a written report with the quote. Typical fixes in a report include upgrading the extractor, insulating the cold spot or finishing in an anti-mould coating, and where the cause is structural the report says so. If the air needs measuring too, air testing is available from €175; thermal imaging from €275 helps where the wet area sits behind tiles or fresh paint. Should you go ahead with the work, the inspection fee comes off the price.