RedSquirrel

We've been in Singapore for 2 and a half years now, and never had mould in the old apartment which was between the sea and the river. We moved to the city centre 2 months ago and our apartment is full of mould! I cleaned away some when we moved in, then we left it empty for 2 separate trips of a week each, and it was green and fluffy when I got back.

We had someone in to check it out and they said it was a ventilation problem, but I've got the doors and windows open during the day and the dehumidifier running at night and I'm still cleaning mould off the doors every few days. We've already spent out on one dehumidifier and the landlord won't buy another one . Mildew products available here are only suitable for kitchen and bathroom surfaces, not for wood. :curse::curse::curse:

Any ideas anyone?

Kooky.

Was just googling around myself for how to get mould off outdoor teak furniture. As suspected, bleach is the answer.

Not sure if you can use that on whatever internal wood you have a problem with, but here's a useful link:

http://www.tomsoutdoorfurniture.com/...aintenance.php

You'll be needing one of those scourers, too

RedSquirrel

They're far too precious!

Thanks! I think most mould remedies seem to include bleach, and it's hard to hose bleach off doors outside when you're on the 19th floor of a rented condo. (Petty, petty!)

At the moment I'm using detergent and water, drying everything carefully, and running a dehumidifier 24/7. I'm cleaning mould off the edges of open doors about every 3 days. Our hygrometer (sp?) is showing about 50-60% relative humidity and I can't get it any lower than that.

Gl with your teak furniture

penguinsix

You can use bleach, but heavily diluted with water (like 5:1).

Here is a good primer on the different steps you can take:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2002474_remove-mold-wood.html

Yorkieabroad

Theres your problem - wrong floor!! I used to live on the 19th floor over in Telok Blangah, and had terrible mould problems, though fortunately it was limited to spare rooms and wardrobes that weren't used that often...I used to leave the front and back windows open and not run a/c as the breeze was lovely, but it did cause the mould problem...when I got a new girlfriend that wasn't so keen on the 'fresh' air, we started keeping the windows closed and the problem gradually went away. And our a/c bills went thru the roof!

We later lived on 50th floor and rarely ran a/c but never had mould problems - maybe its scared of heights.....

RedSquirrel

Thx Yorkieabroad - I really do think that's the problem!

Our old place on the East Coast (15th floor up in the roof) was so blinking hot that we had to run the air-con if we actually wanted to get anything done. Here it's lovely and breezy and several degrees cooler, and we have ceiling fans, but I think the air that's coming in is damp. The mould problem is actually not inside the wardrobes, it's on the outside!

Also the old air-con units were Daikin and had a "dry" facility on them. These are Sanyo and only cool, although they do dry the air a little.

Thx penguinsix - I hate using bleach but I'll try the 5:1 solution if it comes back. Right now I'm on a strict regime of fresh air during the day, air-con in the evenings and dehumidifier at night, and that seems to be doing the trick.

Thanks everyone!

WayTech

Hi RedSquirrel,

I saw your post. I am personally in the humidity control industry and I would like to share some information with you and I have nothing to sell here.

You need not do any bleaching on your teak furniture. Try to get a good wood work professional to remove the mould and do a proper finishing.

Secondly the humdity guy who viewed your residential and blame that there is no ventilation, this is utter rubbish. Sorry for my strong expression. If you have the dehumidifier turn on and trying to dry the air, with ventilation, we are allowing wet air into your resident. Therefore with ventilation is positive for moulding to take place.

Thirdly, air condtioning relative does some dehumidifying however during the night it does not.

Why ?

In the day, it the temperature is hot, so the compressor cuts in often to cool the coil and air goes thru the cold condensing coil and became cool, following by throwing into the environment to cool the room. In this process, when the air touches the cold coil, there is actually water removal, therefore air thrown out from the air conditioning is relatively lower in humidity. This is in the context of direct expansion air conditioning system.

However in the night, the outdoor temperature is cooler and humidity level is higher compared to the day for outdoor. Therefore, due to the cool environment, cool temperature set can be easily maintain and do not require the compressor to cut in often and the function of water removal do not take place. That is why in your regime you turn on the dehumidifier in the night.

If during the day, where your regime states that you have fresh air and mould comes back, I suggest that you turn on the dehumidifier and shut all your windows and doors to dehumidify the rooms. If you have a problem with sizing the correct dehumidifier you are free to approach me or PM me. ..

Hope that this benefit you.

jaykayhk

Agree with the above. This can be a real problem in Hong Kong as well, but we combat it using a mixture of both dehumidifiers and air-con.

Trick is to keep as much of the humidity out of the house that you can, this means shutting all windows and doors. We use the main air con during the day and use the dehumidifier if we are not at home to keep the humidity down. In the summer months it stays hot at night in HK so air con still dehumidifies here. But we sometimes use dehumidifier as well if required. So keeps place dryer and keeps mosquitoes well out!

WayTech

Hope this benefit you guys, if anything that is below 50 % relative humidity or 55% humidity, the air con might not be able to do it, so by then you will really need a dehumidifier.

Sof.T

I agree with the problem in Hong Kong I remember when the air con packed up for a couple of weeks the mould went mad ( and so did I when I left the window open all night for cooling and let all the mosquitoes in. I have never itched so much

RedSquirrel

Thanks everyone for your replies!

WayTech - I have no teak furniture. That was a different poster. It's mainly our internal wooden doors which get mouldy - strange huh?

I agree with your opinion on the ventilation diagnosis. We never got a report back from the guy so I think he was trying to take us for a ride. Our apartment is 1700 sqft and our dehumidifier has a 4 litre capacity, is running 24/7 and I empty it twice a day. Do you need any more info re: sizing?

We're now running the lounge a/c for maybe an hour or two a day and the master bedroom for an hour at night, which does lower the humidity. The dehumidifer runs in our study room off the lounge area. The bathroom windows don't close but we keep the internal doors shut, to encourage the evaporation outside rather than inside.

Under these conditions the mould is pretty much under control although I keep coming across little patches in surprising places. I found some yesterday on a pair of boots inside a wardrobe for the first time.

Our bigger problem is when we're away for a couple of weeks. We haven't managed to get the dehumidifier plumbed into a hose reliably yet - the water doesn't always drain down the hose.

I think we'll have to set the a/c to run for an hour in each room at different times throughout the day.

Kooky.

RedSquirrel, if you don't have a maid or a cleaner, it's really worth asking a friend or paying somebody to come in a couple of times a week whilst you are away, just to air the place through.

We have a catsitter come in every day anyway, and ours is no worse when we get back from travelling.

_Vera_

Hi! Saw this thread ... I know it's a couple of months old and I do hope you have been able to solve your problem. I can only say that mould is a great hazard for a person's health and if you can't fix it I would try to move out of there immediately. Anyway.. the landlord should show himself responsible for this problem.
I have had 2 sinus surgeries in the past 6 months and I do blame the S'pore mould problem partially for it. I am now out to buy a dehumidifier as well as a air purifier to help clean up the air that I have to breathe.

I wanted to contact WayTech as he/she seems like an expert. But as I am only allowed to do PMs after 3 posts I hope perhaps you read this and can reply to me

Thanks!

katongkaren

Vera, do you think mould causes sinus problems? Is it common? Just wondered - and, if you reply twice, you'll be up to your 3 postings

Kooky.

Sinusitis or allergic rhinitis, for sure. Very common in Sg, I believe, and I had it more often than not. A combination of aircon and mould as our shophouse leaked like a sieve; my Doc wanted me to move into a new highrise!

We tried not to use aircon at all at home as I think it's evil. 2 months out of Sg and with no aircon (and no need for it - brrrr) my sinuses are better than they've been in years.