A Ground Floor and Ten Weeks of Rain

A ground-floor flat backing onto the marsh, where the family had pulled a wardrobe away from the wall during a clean and found black mould across the full height behind it. The building has a damp problem that a fit-out cannot fix. What the fit-out had been doing was sealing it in.

Everything heavy now stands off the wall on legs with a ventilated gap behind, so air moves across the surfaces that get damp instead of trapping moisture against them. No skirting detail that creates a sealed pocket at floor level, anti-fungal paint on the two worst walls, and cross-ventilation openings that actually line up so the flat dries between spells. The damp has not gone. It no longer turns into mould.