Get rid of mould?

[the.fee.fairy]

So....these apartments are on the first floor, and the air is humid...the whole place is damp.

There's nothing we can do about the building, we only rent it.

Our apartment's not too bad, i do clean a lot and have the aircon on and the windows open (at separate times...). However, one of the other apartments is awful, all of their clothing and shoes are going mouldy.

I've got dehumidifying boxes in my room which has helped save my stuff, and the other apartment have them in their rooms too, but they say that they make no difference.

So does anyone have any magic remedies that might help the situation?

Ta

[Green Aura]

If you've got black mould growing on your walls I'd use a bit of bleach in hot water - I don't usually advocate bleach but for this it's brilliant - washes it right off. Then go over the area with some tea tree oil in water (assuming you can get it in China).

The problem is, unless you can reduce the humidity it will keep coming back.

As for clothes I'm not sure there's much you can do to get rid of marks left from mould, but again adding a few drops of tea tree to a final rinse will help to deter it for a while.

[the.fee.fairy]

Ta very muchly

I will pass on the advice. I have a bottle of tea tree that i brought here, so i'll see if i can give it all a wash in here tomorrow.

Thanks again!

[Thomzo]

The humidity won't be helped if they are drying clothes or taking showers in the apartment. If they are, then they need to use some method of extracting the wet air, perhaps a fan and an open window if there's no extractor.

Zoe

[shiela_robins]

Vinegar and Lemon juice can do wonders for your mold problem. You can combine both in equal parts and apply directly. Good news is that your apartment will smell lemony fresh!

[Kezz]

I also have black mould/damp in the bedrooms here. I found that the bleach in water helped a little (with much elbow grease) but I found that the Cif cream cleaner got it off much quicker and easier, probably not very -ishy I know, but it worked.

[pelmetman]

I think the secret is keeping a good air flow around the house, make sure that air bricks are clear, chimneys are not blocked off and opening windows occasionally. Do not use bottled gas heaters as they pump out more vapour than anything.

If you have plastic windows make sure that the vents are open, better still have wooden windows.

[the.fee.fairy]

Thankyou!

I can't get cif cream here, but i'll definitely try lemon and vinegar.

We have double glazing, but i do open the doors when the weather allows it. I also try to leave the kitchen window open too. There's not much we can do about ventilation and air bricks because they're not our buildings. There seems to be a general attitude among the people that deal with us is 'we can paint over the mould its not a problem', the same as cockroaches are treated like general insects and not the vile creatures that they are!

[battybird]

Am I imagining it or can you get some sort of crystals which absorb some of the excess moisture in the air?? Maybe in small areas it might help?? Poor you...hate cockroaches with a veangance and they seem to be accepted in other parts of the world!! My sons live in Thailand and we often see roaches around their homes, their wives just shrug!! They have humidy problems there too and for that reason dont use wardrobes, just rails to hang everything on and leave the rails near the open window. They are lucky in that they both have balconies so can wheel the rails onto there during the day which seems to keep things dry and mouldfree.
Good luck with vinegar and lemon!

[the.fee.fairy]

I've got dehumidifying boxes (the crystal things) and they seem to be filling with water. I have one on the windowsill, where the most water is, one in my wardrobe and one in my shoe cupboard!

My apartment's not too bad, its the other apartment. However, i do thingk you're right Thomzo, its because they dry all their clothes inside the apartment. Other people here seem to have a big problem with dryign their clothes outside, they have issues with chinese people seeing their underwear drying...it doesn't bother me, my undies are the same as chinese undies, just a bit bigger!!

I'll pass on all the advice given.

I can't put clothes on a rail because there's just not enough room.

Argh...the cockroaches!! The other day i thoroughtly cleaned the bathroom, and then as if to spite me, i walked in the next day and there was a cockroach arse hanging out from under the mirror! It wa like they'd gone for the only bit of the bathroom that wasn't clean! So i poured toilet cleaner behind the mirror. I came back later on and it was dead...haven't seen any since so hopefully that did the trick and we now have a clean bathroom that they won't like!

[corymbia]

Bundles of chalk sticks can soak the moisture from the air. You just put them out to dry and keep using.
To kill the mould spores, use 1/4 tsp oil of cloves to 1 litre of water (no stronger, it doesn't work then) in a spray bottle. Mist over surfaces, including clothes, leave 24 hours. Then clean hard surfaces with bicarb soda and vinegar; old pantihose are a great 'microfibre' cloth.
To get any mould stains out of clothes you soak them in 1kg un-iodised salt in a 9litre bucket of water overnight and then hang to dry (no rinsing). The salt crystals will draw out the stain which you then brush off.
The oil of cloves misting can be done every 3 months as a preventive too.

Good luck!

[Green Aura]

I'm going to have a go at the stain removing bit - never heard of that before. Sounds excellent. Thanks.