Mould on the wall in your bedroom? Causes, risks and the definitive solution

The bedroom is the room in your home most prone to mould growth. There are therefore many different causes for this moisture problem cause in your bedroom.

• Night-time fluid production or condensation: You lose between 0.5 and 1 litre of moisture per person each night through breathing and sweating whilst you sleep. This moisture then condenses on the walls as soon as the air becomes saturated.
• Low room temperature: bedrooms are often heated less than the other living areas in your home. Cold air simply cannot hold as much moisture, which means that relative humidity rises more quickly and condenses on cold surfaces.
• Inadequate ventilation: sleeping with the windows closed, the vents shut or without them mechanical ventilation ensures that the moisture produced cannot escape anywhere during the night.
• Thermal bridges: poorly insulated walls, corners or concrete beams above the windows in your bedroom become extremely cold, which condensation attracts people to those specific places.
• Penetrating moisture: Rainwater seeps in from outside through a damaged, cracked or porous façade, penetrating deep into the interior wall, which can lead to mould forming on the wall of your bedroom.
• Rising damp: In the case of bedrooms on the ground floor, groundwater may rise due to the absence of a water barrier or the presence of a damaged water barrier.
• Stagnant air behind furniture: cupboards or beds placed right up against an external wall block air circulation in your bedroom. Stagnant, cold air creates an ideal breeding ground for the fungi.
• Leaks: hidden faults in the roof, the guttering, pipework or poor sealant work around the bedroom window cause water to seep in continuously.
• Drying laundry indoors: wet, damp clothes on a drying rack cause litres of water to evaporate, which immediately and, above all, drastically increases the humidity.
• Moisture from an adjoining bathroom: steam or moisture after showering seeps in if the door is left open or if there is a fault in the ventilation straight into the bedroom.
• Non-breathable wall finishes: synthetic paint or thick wallpaper trap moisture inside your bedroom wall, whilst the paste acts as a direct source of nourishment for mould.

Mould on the walls of your bedroom is not just an aesthetic problem; it also affects both your health if the condition of your home. As you spend an average of 7 to 8 hours a night in your bedroom and are constantly breathing in mould spores, the risks are particularly high.

• Respiratory problems and allergic reactions: the minute traces that the fungi emitted onto your bedroom wall, they irritate the airways. This leads to symptoms such as a persistent cough, a blocked nose, sneezing and wheezing.
• Exacerbation of asthma and allergies: people with an existing respiratory condition or a house dust mite allergy often find that their symptoms worsen at night and in the morning after sleeping.
• Increased risk for vulnerable groups: babies, children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are at greater risk of developing chronic respiratory infections due to the presence of fungal spores in your bedroom.
• Poor sleep quality and tiredness: stuffy, damp air, musty odours and physical stimuli disrupt the deep sleep phase. This means you wake up feeling chronically tired and with a headache.
• Damage to furniture and textiles: mould spores quickly attach themselves to nearby porous materials, such as the mattress, bed linen, curtains, your clothes and the backs of the wardrobes in your bedroom.
• Structural damage to the property: smould on the wall They work their way deep into the plaster, wallpaper and wooden structures of your home. This leads to peeling paint, crumbling plaster and, in the long run, costly repairs.

To mould on the wall To get rid of mould in your bedroom once and for all, you need a structured approach. This step-by-step guide will help you minimise mould spores straight away, clean your bedroom safely and choose the right professional damp-proofing solution to choose.

Step 1: Minimise immediate damage and prevent the spread of traces

Have you spotted mould behind your wardrobe or next to your bed? If so, never brush or sand it whilst it’s dry. Doing so will send the millions of invisible mould spores on the wall flying around your bedroom.

It is better to open the windows in your bedroom. Above all, ensure there is direct and cross-ventilation in the room. Then, lightly dampen the mouldy area with a cloth to stop the mould spores from spreading. Also, always leave a gap by placing your bed and wardrobes at least 5 to 10 centimetres away from the wall. Finally, be sure to wash any textiles in your bedroom, such as your bed linen and curtains, at a temperature of at least 60°C.

Step 2: Cleaning mould safely

Bleach only bleaches the mould on the surface of your bedroom wall; it does not tackle the roots of the mould spores in the porous plaster.

Of course, there are a number of other ways to safely remove the mould from your bedroom wall.

• Bicarbonate of soda solution: dissolve 6 grams of bicarbonate of soda in a litre of warm water and scrub the mouldy area clean.
• Cleaning vinegar: apply the cleaning vinegar to the mouldy area, leave it to work for an hour, then rinse it off with water.
• But never mix bleach with vinegar, as this can produce toxic chlorine gas.

Step 3: Control the humidity in your bedroom

A healthy level of relative humidity In the bedroom, it ranges between 40% and 60%. Does the humidity remain consistently too high due to daily condensation And doesn’t manual aeration help? If not, then a mechanical ventilation system AquaConsult has the solution.

It is a decentralised mechanical ventilation system, such as a continuously controlled Type D ventilation system with heat recovery. It automatically extracts the humid air from your bedroom and brings in fresh, dry outside air. This prevents permanent condensation moisture.

Step 4: Tackle the underlying cause of the damp

Does the mould keep reappearing in specific places on your bedroom wall? If so, this is a structural problem moisture problem which must be dealt with professionally by AquaConsult.

• Rising damp: Do you have a bedroom on the ground floor? If so, groundwater may well seep up through the bottom of your bedroom wall due to the lack of a water barrier. AquaConsult solves this by to inject the walls of your bedroom using a moisture-repellent gel. This gel forms an impenetrable chemical barrier against rising damp.
• Penetrating moisture: If rainwater is seeping through your damaged or porous façade, AquaConsult is the solution facade impregnation . This makes the façade water-repellent without compromising its breathability.
• Leaks: if you suspect there is a hidden leak in the walls of your bedroom, AquaConsult will a targeted moisture measurement to identify the source of the moisture problem to locate it without causing any damage.

Step 5: Repair and paint correctly

There’s no point in painting over a damp or untreated mouldy wall in your bedroom, because the mould it will grow through it again within a few weeks.

• Always wait until the bedroom wall has dried out completely: only after AquaConsult’s moisture solution Once this has been done and the wall is dry, you can start repairing your bedroom wall.
• Replacing damaged plaster: chip away the mould-affected or soft plaster from the wall and apply a new layer of plaster. Or let our experts the plastering decorate your bedroom wall.
• Primer and paint: apply a mould-resistant primer to your wall and finish it off with a high-quality, vapour-permeable wall paint.

Step 6: Request a free damp assessment from AquaConsult

Don’t just guess at the cause of the mould on the wall in your bedroom, because to measure is to know.

Our experts will be coming free of charge on site throughout Flanders using professional measuring equipment. The damp expert determines this using an objective moisture diagnosis exactly which moisture problem identify the cause of the mould on your bedroom wall and draw up a bespoke treatment plan with a guarantee of results.