Evaluate cleanliness of a particular area or an item can be sometimes very difficult and daunting task. More so, if the items to be evaluated are complex and constructed from porous materials. There are virtually no guidelines on what is considered to be clean and what not, with the rare exception of industrial clean rooms, [...]
Mould clean verification after service leak
Under some unfortunate circumstances properties can suffer from a catastrophic failure of building services which can results in destruction of finishes and contents as well. I have recently completed a project where such catastrophic failure occurred. Relatively minor leak of a bathroom pipe has resulted in flooding of wall cavities with water. The significanly elevated [...]
Penetrating Damp – Mould Removal
Failures in building envelope often result in water penetration through the building construction. Water penetration into the indoor areas may not be always directly visible but can manifest itself through development of mould. In my recent investigation I have encounter such a case. Cracking of the external render has resulted in water penetration through the [...]
Un/resolved case
Indoor air quality investigation may not always produce the expected results and sometimes the results of such investigation are often inconclusive. This is particularly true in the air contamination is only one of the suspected causes of a particular problem or the airborne contaminants are present only sporadically, for short periods of time or sometimes [...]
Problematic carpet
Investigation of indoor air quality is a complex process involving often involving analysis of numerous components of air and often with no clear cut results. The problem with indoor air quality assessment is the fact that you can only realistically measure only small number of possible contaminants. The main hindering factor in any investigation is [...]
Feacal Bacteria in Soft Play Area
Last week a small but serious accident happened at one of the major furniture store outlets. A failure of the customer’s toilet has resulted into flooding of children soft play area with sewage water. The store has reacted promptly and closed and stripped the whole area to structural brickwork. The whole area has been cleaned [...]
Unusual problem – resolved
A while back I was contacted by a very nice lady living on the south coast of the country. She was very concerned about what appeared to be black mould covering approximately one third of the bedroom ceiling and extended onto one of the bedroom walls. We had a lengthy discussion about what it could [...]
Indoor Air Quality – Mobile Home
Last year I was invited to investigate an indoor air quality complain from a proud owner of a new mobile home in the Welsh countryside. The owner has purchased this brand new mobile home from a respectable manufacturer. After moving into the mobile home the owner and his family members have noticed a particularly pungent [...]
Poor Indoor Air Quality – Offices
Just before the start of winter I was invited by the management of large hospital in the north of the country to investigate a case of poor indoor air quality in a small office building. The office workers have been complaining from a poor indoor air quality for several months. They suffered from throat irritations [...]
Microbial Volatiles – Bedroom odour
In January I was invited once again to the north of the country to investigate long lasting and persistent indoor air quality and odour problem in newly build country house. The building was about two years old and very early after moving into the property one of the downstairs bedroom was suffering from persistent poor [...]