A Little Vent

Over the past several months we've had a rapidly growing problem with damp in our flat. This is not uncommon with old tenement buildings, especially ones like ours with very thin windows, but our bathroom has borne the brunt of the problem.

There is no ventilation in our bathroom, with the two inch gap from the open window providing the sole means of escape for all steam and moisture. Inevitably the trapped steam has seeped into the walls, with mold and mildew developing in every crack and crevice. The paint and wallpaper has bubbled off the wall and started peeling, and the tiles in the shower have started falling off the wall, leading to grout clogging our tub drain and allowing water to seep further into the wall behind the shower.

As renters, we are at the mercy of our landlords for repairs and maintenance of the property, and we've been waiting for the landlords to respond to these problems since May. After weeks of waiting and dozens of phone calls to the letting agency to try to get an update, we got the good news that the landlords decided to redo the bathroom. They arranged for someone to view the damage and provide a quote for renovations. The quote was clearly more than they were willing to spend because it was another several weeks and dozens of phone calls before we found out that they had a new plan- replace the tiles and put in a ventilation system. We were disappointed that they were not going to bother cleaning up the mold or repainting/papering the walls, but at least they were doing something! With our whole flat smelling of mold, we were looking forward to having something to help pull the moisture out.

On Wednesday Ross was home waiting expectantly for the new ventilation system to go in. He called me at work to let me know that the workmen had come and gone. It turns out that the equipment installed was not so much a ventilation system as it is a hole in the window. In the hole they have placed a what I can only assume is a £1 piece of plastic. The plastic bit is fitted with gaps to let air into the bathroom. Ross asked the workmen if this was really going to help, to which they honestly replied that it is unlikely to make any significant difference to the sort of problem we have.

If you are like me, you are probably wondering what we are supposed to do in the winter to prevent heat from escaping through the open gaps in the plastic piece. Gas prices are going up every month and we aren't really interested in throwing money out the window (literally).

Thankfully the workmen provided detailed instructions on how to cover the plastic bit with cellophane during the winter months. Yes, you read that correctly- plastic wrap is the answer to all our insulation worries. (Apparently it also helps to keep the bathroom door closed.) Now some people may disagree, but I really feel that cling film adds something special to a bathroom window. Don't you?




And when it snows, just think how pretty that cling film will look on a backdrop of white. I can't wait.