Does anyone know the best way to dry out plasterboard? I had an unknown leak under my stairs for about 3 weeks and it’s not good to say the least. The plasterboard soaked up the majority of the water, and I’ve now got mould that I have scrubbed off, but until the plasterboard is completely dried out, I have no chance of getting rid of it completely! Help me…help me please…
I'd say try a fan heater, a humidity absorber and a lot of patience. However, to be completely safe, I'd say ask someone who knows, like a builder or a diy shop sales person. And don't let them sell you anything too extravagant !
I'd say put in new plasterboard but this may not be any help and impractical... Instead of buying a dehumidifier which are expensive you can get moisture removers for about $5 which use pellety type things to absorb water from the air and used in conjunction with a fan heater may solve your problem... I'd follow this up with exit mould and keeping the moisture remover in the area for as long as possible. Damp is one of these things that linger and rise and continuously go mouldy.
The first thing is to make sure the leak is fixed - where is it coming from? I have leaks that I need to bully my landlord into fixing (especially as I want to buy the apartment in good condition) but there is no point in fixing leaks from the inside if the source is outside - all you end up with is a sudden flood. But once the leaks are properly fixed, then go for new plasterboard - it may cost a bit more, but once-damp plasterboard is always going to smell.
Another reason to go with new plasterboard is that some of the moulds that it can arbor may cause some very serious illnesses.
The leak is fixed thanks to one of the girls in work. Her fiancé is an apprentice plumber and he came out as soon as he heard (or rather, when she told him to get his butt out to my house, he came). It was a 40 year old tap that had decided to give up on me. I never go into the cubby hole under the stairs but I was getting a strange musty smell so I decided to investigate. I'm glad I did, because if I hadn't...I shudder to think. I lost a lot of hats, scarves, gloves and shoes that I had stored under there though, along with a couple of suede jackets. Very depressed about that. They were lovely! About the only salvageable things were a bag full of lego and a box of tools. I'm going to see if I can get my hands on a dehumidifier. With any luck, I can dry it out a lot more and I've been told that there is some kind of paint out there that should stop the mould from coming back. I'm cleaning the mould off wearing a respirator my dad gave me a loan of, rubber gloves up to my elbows and one of those white paper suits that people use when they are painting...or looking at dead bodies Funnily enough, the housing estate I'm living in is the same one that my parents lived in when they moved here. They had a bad mould problem in their house which led to my second eldest brother developing asthma, so I'm being very careful with it. It's just that the finances aren't stretching to completely replacing the plasterboard right now. Hopefully, I won't have to.
I do think it's possible to rent a strong dehumidifyer at some DIY-shops or shops that sell building equipment. By the sound of it, you'll want a strong one. A few flats back I was living in an old house with thick walls, that was being renovated, and while they were changing the roof, a huge long storm came in and got the outside wall soaked through and through. We had a rented dehumidifyer for about two months before it got it all dry, but it did gather a few litres of water a day at first. I can only recommend it. Oh, and some paints are mixed with stuff against moulds, but I'm not too sure about using such strong stuff. In Slovenia one of the manufacturers is using a paint that has citric acids added (supposedly it'l all natural), and my dad had to use it in his bedroom (again, rain during a changing of the roof), and it worked without any huge side effects. Good luck with the fixing, mazekin.
