How powerful is your bath/shower room extractor fan???

[what..the?]

We are having mould problems in our shower rooms opening the window for a few minutes before we have to lock up to go to work does not help so we also leave the extractor running while we driveaway to work they usually turn of after say 10-20 mins. But the mou;d seems to be bad and generally the shower rooms are both poorly ventilated and smell terrible. We also have the little air tabs open on the double glazed windows.

if I hold a toilet roll with a piece or two dangling near to our extracter fan I have to hold the paper as close as say 2-3 cms for it to show any sights of movement/air circlation.

How powerful our your extractor fans. What happens if you do the toilet roll test, does your paper blow from much further away from the extractor - more powerful??

Thanks in advance.

[laurence2]

Have you an ''open shower''?

Its possible to put a ''roof covering'' on top of open showers to retain the heat/steam in.

Failing that you can have an extractor above the shower unit if this is not the case at present.

Have you checked your extractor fan to see if there is any sort of blockage, they are no different to a condenser tumble dryer at times

[teash]

What the?
I`ve got exactly the same problem with my extractor van its bloomin useless. If I hold a piece of tissue paper up to it 9 times out of 10 it just falls off. I think mine does this because of where the house is situated and the wind outside stops the fan from doing its job. Think i`ll have to replace with one of them mahoosive extractor fans ;)

[annie0000]

is it not possible to lock your window on the latch? My windows can be opened slightly then the handle locked or even closed then you have air circulating all day. If you open your window and look at the bit where it would normally meet to close - you might find that it has more than one closing point. Shutting it on the one that means it is not actually closed does give you air, but doesn't leave it open enough to force it open from the outside. I think that this is fairly standard with double glazing - my last 3 houses have all been like that.

[annie0000]

Meant to say, we leave ourts like that all the time and have no mould problems whatsoever - I have never used the extractor.

[what..the?]

Thanks for all the answers

Laurence2-yes I have an open shower but suggesting putting a top on the shower or a extractor above I do not think will go down well with the landlord/letting agent, I think they want to do cheap solutions. Re: blockage -yes good idea I will check for blockages and use a vac to clean dust and fluff out of it.

teash-lol I am not alone then, sorry you are having the same problem but it is good to know I am not the only one. Yes I think a mega fan would be 'cool. I dream of' a huge one like they use in the movies to create windy conditions. I can see it now all I would need is some autumn leaves and it would look like a scene from Lord of the Rings.

annie-interesting what you say about the locks as a double glazing fitter was round today to fit a door and while he was here he looked to see if he could fit the locks some additional locks for the window to stay ajar. But unfortunately they do not fit to the style of windows we have. They are quite old windows installed in 1995 and therefore they do not have that 'ajar' lock fit as standard, I have had this type of lock before at another property so I know what you mean.

Thanks again for all you help guy. x

[WendyS]

Possibly another way of reducing the damp problem would be to buy a small fan heater, put it on a time switch, on a warm setting, so that it comes on automatically for a short time after you've left for work, directing the air blast towards the show area. The air movement you currently have is obviously not clearing or drying the condensation and if you can dry it by another method until you can resolve the long term problem, it might prevent things getting worse.