LESLIE: Don in Maryland is dealing with some mold in the bath. What can we do for you?
DON: I’ve got a recurring problem with mold and mildew – I think it’s basically mildew – on the ceiling in the bathroom. We’ve used KILZ brand paint to try and cover it up. It comes back through. We’ve used the heavy, metal additives in the paint. We’ve sanded off and repainted and we’re out of options. It comes back after about two weeks. We’ve bleached the ceiling and I just don’t know what else to do.
TOM: Alright, well let’s talk about the ventilation that’s in that bathroom space. Do you have a vent fan that’s venting it outside?
DON: No, it’s an outside bath with just a window.
TOM: With a window. OK, well this would be part of the problem. We need to manage the moisture, OK, and the best way to do that is if you could install a bathroom exhaust fan that’s on a timer so that when the light goes off the fan stays on for another …
LESLIE: Fifteen minutes, twenty minutes.
TOM: Well, no I wouldn’t say that long but at least another minute or two. So …
LESLIE: Really?
TOM: Yeah.
LESLIE: Because I’ve always heard 15 minutes after a shower you want to run that fan.
TOM: Nah, I don’t think you have to run it that long. But basically you do have to run it because you have to purge that area of the moisture and that’s the biggest issue you have going for you there; that you have a lot of moisture with no place to go. I mean obviously – there is an exception in the building code that says if you have a window you don’t have to have a bath fan but it’s a stupid exception because this is what happens.
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