Your Homes Newcastle (YHN), the ALMO (Arms Length Management Company) of Newcastle City Council, has invested in Positive Input Ventilation (PIV) from EnviroVent for 150 properties in the last 12 months as a way of reducing mould and damp in its tenants’ homes.
During the winter months, condensation and mould growth was becoming an issue for some tenants, which resulted in ongoing callouts and reactive maintenance by YHN’s repairs and maintenance team. This was costing the social housing management company a significant amount every year in temporary treatments.
YHN required a permanent solution for the worse affected properties and called in EnviroVent to help.
With around 30% of Your Home Newcastle’s 26,000 properties being built in 1920s and 1930s, these are of a brick cavity wall construction which originally had single glazing and no insulation.
Between 2008 and 2014, many of the homes were upgraded with new doors and windows and cavity wall and top up loft insulation. Although this has made the homes more energy efficient, it has resulted in bad ventilation and poor indoor air quality (IAQ), leading to issues with the properties experiencing condensation and mould growth.
One of the recent properties to be affected was typical of the problem. A two bedroom, two storey house, it had black mould in one of the bedrooms. Your Homes’ maintenance team found that the main cause of the problem was a vaulted ceiling near the external walls of the property that had not been insulated, which was alongside a roof with 300mm of loft insulation fitted. This caused a major problem with cold bringing, which was made even worse by the bathroom extract fan not working in the property.
EnviroVent recommended a Positive Input Ventilation system for this property and a number of others which were also experiencing issues. An insulated plasterboard was installed to the section of vaulted ceiling to link the cavity wall and loft insulation. The whole house PIV and condensation control unit gently circulates air around the home from a central position on the landing in a house or the central hallway to transform a stagnant and stale atmosphere into a fresh, healthy and condensation free environment.
The system provides a healthy living environment by supplying fresh, filtered air into a property at a continuous rate, which eliminates surface condensation, prevents mould growth and reduces house dust mite populations. EnviroVent’s PIV systems are ideal for fitting into existing homes and offer low energy consumption, so are very affordable to run.
Brendan Ryan, Technical Surveyor for Your Homes Newcastle, explains: “We have commissioned a number of whole house ventilation systems to be fitted in the last 12 months. As a result of this, we are already seeing a reduction in the number of call-outs to deal with issues with mould growth and we are very pleased with the results. One very badly affected property I have been involved with has now had a PIV unit installed through one full heating season, with the tenant having no further mould problems.”
EnviroVent, which has its headquarters in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of ventilation systems. The company has over 25 years’ experience in delivering sustainable products that are built to last the life cycle of a building.
As a UK manufacturer, EnviroVent has a network of approved installers throughout the country. The company offers a complete service from survey, design and manufacture, project design, supply, installation and commissioning.
EnviroVent has almost 20 years’ experience in supplying social housing providers with ventilation solutions. The company also offers a CPD course which looks at condensation and mould problems in the UK social housing stock and discusses the causes, the social, health and economic effects and what can be done to control the problem.
