Singapore Expats

I guess the best secret is Sun Shine. Letting in sun into your room will definitely keep any fungal growth away. Infact on sunny days i ensure to leave the cupboards open with all the curtains drawn apart to let the sun light in. Ive however noticed some very mild formation in my CDs and recently i left them also out in the sunlight and things improved. However theres one REAL problem i have and thats the corrosion or rusting im not sure how you call it, all my metal connectors in my amplifier, and from my keyboard etc have developed a gray dry coating on top. Recently i discovered that it was difficult to remove them and plug them back in as well, so now ive removed all of the connectors cleaned them with alcohol based cleaners, and covered them with a plastic tape on top. I guess its the proximity to the sea thats causing this issue.

Well, not really sunshine, but more on keeping the areas dry,
in Singapore, if you stay below the tree line, normally 6 floors and below, it is not advised to keep the windows open, as the strong wind will blow the molds from the trees in to your home.
And once they get in, they will remain dormant till the conditions are right, (conditions such as dampness / high moisture) to reproduce.

Alcohol / Heavy Acids / Radiation will not be able to break the mold spore, it will be able to take away the top layers, until they are not visible, but the spores will remain, waiting for the conditions to be right.

Near the sea / beside a forest / below the treeline will be able to invite these molds in.

My second issue of corrosion has nothing to do with Mold.
And yes i stay below the tree level - 02.
Since my apartment has ample sunlight, i will still stand by the fact that sun light has kept ANY mould away from my apartment, i keep my windows open most of the time.

I must admin I have never had any trouble with mold in Singapore. I do use aircon quite frequently and I also have single-use dehumidifiers placed in various areas, including wardrobes.

Never had a hint of mold anywhere. My apartment was above the treeline though (10th floor).

My most recent bad experience was living on the 6th floor. My previous one was living in a ground floor unit.

singasian wrote:I have very serious mold problem in my condo. It suddenly starts to growing on furniture, sofa, dinning table, tea table, desk, chairs, even food due to high humidity in the unit. I even see the living room floor wet in the morning. Landload came 3 times to see it. But, it still there.

I am wondering if i can move out without paying any fees?. I have lived here only for 4 months in 2 years lease.

Is the condo block some sort of a for-lease-apartment?
If yes, ask the management to give you another similar type of unit.
And this time, check for the "molds".

At least, this wouldn't be break lease.
And its more diplomatic.

prkravi wrote:My second issue of corrosion has nothing to do with Mold.
And yes i stay below the tree level - 02.
Since my apartment has ample sunlight, i will still stand by the fact that sun light has kept ANY mould away from my apartment, i keep my windows open most of the time.

If you have good sunlight into your home, that is a huge plus. Most apartments here are build too close together, so most don't get much sun.

But as we are very humid (80%++) in Asia, there is a lot of moisture in the air, and because we have so much moisture, condensation occurs faster, which is a cause for mold growth, the second most common factor for indoor mold would be leaky pipes (mostly found in the false ceilings)

As for your corrosion, most electrical plugs especially for audio and visual cables will corrode in power foam, to counter this, switch off your main socket that the power cord is plug into.

jackdi wrote:

singasian wrote:I have very serious mold problem in my condo. It suddenly starts to growing on furniture, sofa, dinning table, tea table, desk, chairs, even food due to high humidity in the unit. I even see the living room floor wet in the morning. Landload came 3 times to see it. But, it still there.

I am wondering if i can move out without paying any fees?. I have lived here only for 4 months in 2 years lease.

Is the condo block some sort of a for-lease-apartment?
If yes, ask the management to give you another similar type of unit.
And this time, check for the "molds".

At least, this wouldn't be break lease.
And its more diplomatic.

Hi Jackdi, the problem with getting another unit is that, most owners / management will repaint the unit before showing or renting out, and most will paint over the molds.

ev-disinfection wrote:

prkravi wrote:My second issue of corrosion has nothing to do with Mold.
And yes i stay below the tree level - 02.
Since my apartment has ample sunlight, i will still stand by the fact that sun light has kept ANY mould away from my apartment, i keep my windows open most of the time.

If you have good sunlight into your home, that is a huge plus. Most apartments here are build too close together, so most don't get much sun.

But as we are very humid (80%++) in Asia, there is a lot of moisture in the air, and because we have so much moisture, condensation occurs faster, which is a cause for mold growth, the second most common factor for indoor mold would be leaky pipes (mostly found in the false ceilings)

As for your corrosion, most electrical plugs especially for audio and visual cables will corrode in power foam, to counter this, switch off your main socket that the power cord is plug into.

Yep. In the last unit we eventually (after c. 2 years) discovered that water was ingressing down inside the main internal structural wall of our bedroom. This was apparently coming from a fault in the air-con drain in the unit above us. But water leaks are notorious for traveling, and this water also spread horizontally and came in down inside one wall of the study opposite our bedroom. These were the two rooms most affected by mold.

The ground floor place I had, had little airflow, and it goes without saying I could not leave the windows open when I was not there...

JR8 wrote: Yep. In the last unit we eventually (after c. 2 years) discovered that water was ingressing down inside the main internal structural wall of our bedroom. This was apparently coming from a fault in the air-con drain in the unit above us. But water leaks are notorious for traveling, and this water also spread horizontally and came in down inside one wall of the study opposite our bedroom. These were the two rooms most affected by mold.

The ground floor place I had, had little airflow, and it goes without saying I could not leave the windows open when I was not there...

Yes, water uses gravity to find its way vertically and horizontally in concrete / brick walls... etc
As you can see in the picture, there is a mold infection in the living room ceiling, of this 6 year old ++ condominium...

You would not believe where the leak was from, that caused the mold infection,
We could not find where the water / moisture was coming from in that unit so we went upstairs to the unit directly above and the expat tenant living there, told us that his AC is on 24 hours a day and that the AC's were just replaced 4 months ago, (The Moldy Patch started showing / growing after one month after the AC was replaced upstairs)

Then we checked the AC condensation pipe, and followed it to the floor trap in the common bathroom (in photo)
we found that there was no condensation water coming out of the pipe even though the AC's were switched on for long periods,
then we figured that as these condensation pipes when they were first installed were embedded in the wall, and after checking with their AC guy,
they said that they just took out the old AC and installed the new ones and used the original embedded condensation pipes. And as the connection was not good, the water from the AC was going into the wall and appearing in the ceiling of the below unit.

Yep same same kinda problem, just it came down through several walls in a c. 5 metre radius. For us there were no ceiling stains for year+, just very subtle grey dappling on many walls. It was only when the ceiling mould broke out that we realised quite why all of out belongings were rotting

Thats minging that is. Makes you feel all dirty n sh!t.
I love people like ev-d.
I can imagine ev-d's home to be spotless.

longstebe wrote:Thats minging that is. Makes you feel all dirty n sh!t.
I love people like ev-d.
I can imagine ev-d's home to be spotless.

Well, firstly... my name is Terence.
Spotless.. hmmmmmm, always trying....

And i love everyone who loves me too..... lol

longstebe wrote:Thats minging that is. Makes you feel all dirty n sh!t.
I love people like ev-d.
I can imagine ev-d's home to be spotless.

Minging indeed. But also so terribly wasteful the amount of almost-new stuff that we had to simply bin.

Gutted for ya mate, especially when you have to throw away nice kit. A blow up matress and a black n white tele is on the cards for next time?