I discovered mold on the walls. Definitely my fault because I did not use any heating/dehumidifying over this entire winter (first time living in this type of climate) and the walls were completely clean when I moved in. I was able to bleach most of it off but some spots were too high to reach. Could the landlord deduct the damage from my deposit?
There is also some in the bathroom I haven’t cleaned yet because I’m not sure what it is. It looks like mold, but I don’t imagine condensation mold would grow in perfectly perpendicular lines. Is this more like pipes from upstairs?
I never used them, never got mold like that. Weird pattern, there’s probably a leak upstairs. Landlord might not be happy though, you should always let them know right away if there’s a problem like this.
The placement of the window looks like it’s a basement apartment. Basement apartments having virtually no natural airflow. The mold problem is definitely not your fault.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too - not a leak from upstairs as such, but rather something structural or physical in the dropped ceiling. Besides beams, it might also be the duct supplying the AC/ventilation thing in the ceiling, either because of condensation or it being a bit warmer than the surrounding areas.
The wooden beams holding a little more warmth, I had a similar thing years ago in the UK with a bathroom dropped ceiling and crap ventilation. Used a black mould cleaning bleach to sort it out.
Bleach is made up of about 90 percent water. Moreover, since molds thrive with moisture, spraying bleach on mold can contribute to further mold growth, especially on porous (permeable) surfaces.
The problem ( I am guessing here) that your window collect water when raining because it did not have awnings.
Had a place like this once. Mold goes crazy and causing allergy/breathing problem for me.
Try clean it using Clorox.
There is a stronger local brand but it could be double edge knife if you are allergic.
Just kills the fruiting bodies. The organism lives on, and as the chlorine evaporates, as you mentioned, things are now more wet. It’s only good for contact sterilizing, won’t do crap for deeper mycelium. Plus, you breath in bleach fumes and mold spores now.
Get a big bottle of white vinegar from Costco, stick it in a spray bottle and dilute 50% with water for “normal” mold, go up to 100% for the heavy areas. Leave it on for a couple of hours then hose/wipe off. Try to keep the area you’re working in well ventilated, if not possible hold your breath and duck in and out! Vinegar is an acid so not great for lungs but very effective at killing mold.
This is quite amusing to me—the idea that there would actually be central AC or any form of ventilation in that kind of unit. Based on my limited experience here, I would say: not a chance.
@Fondant3880 : if you stick around Taiwan, do get a dehumidifier. Some people will tell you such devices are not needed. As you can plainly see, they are needed.
Well, you might want to pause your amusement for a moment, take a look at the photo, and see if you can spot the ventilation outlet in the middle of the ceiling. Here, I’ll make it easier for you:
We’re all just speculating of course, but I don’t think my speculation is unreasonable from the information given. If you have some alternative theories or useful insights as to why the mold is growing in straight lines based on your extensive knowledge of everything, maybe you can stop chuckling for a moment and provide it.
It’s probably the bathroom, which does get wet like all the time if it’s anything like a Taiwanese bathroom. That tiny window tells me it’s bathroom as you generally see those kind of windows in bathrooms (with some exception). The vent is just there to suck moisture out when the light is turned on.
If it’s a bathroom, then the room is poorly constructed because we expect it to be wet all the time.
It is the bathroom - they said that in their first post:
I thought it looked like a standard extractor fan/intake when I wrote my first comment and should probably have written that instead, but I also missed the bathroom part originally and don’t live in the apartment so just went with the more general “AC/ventilation thing” to cover everything. The point is the same irrespective of exactly what the duct is doing and the direction of the airflow - that besides structural beams there’s presumably some kind of duct in the dropped ceiling that leads to the thing in the photo and that might be warmer or allow moisture to collect around it and fall onto the dropped ceiling.
It’s basically bad design. Likely poorly ventilated too if it’s a basement bathroom.
There’s a reason why tiles are used everywhere, because the construction pictured is guaranteed to mold up. The ceiling does not look waterproof at all. I can’t tell from the picture but it looks like standard drywall with drywall paint. Such a construction is not rated for bathroom use at all.
This is a fair point. I did notice that ceiling detail, but thought it was simply some dust clogged vent and not actually something functional. I suppose we could ask @Fondant3880 for clarification.
