Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Shutterfly]

Well at first I thought I struck lucky because I landed a pretty nice apartment with my school. (newly renovated and clean). Definitly not like osme of the other apartments i have had in the past. Well, my joy is short-lasted....MOLD!!!!

I noticed the place smelling a little damp this past week, so i aired out the place and just took it as the changing weather. However i woke up the other day to apartment walls convered in mold!! I scrubbed it with bleach tried to dry it out with fans/hairdyers you name it i tried it..only to no avail So needless to say my lanlord has ripped the wall down to the wet cruddy cement and i have to wait until next week to have anything done about it

[Grotto]

question for you?

Do you leave all the windows and door shut all day? I have lived here for 2.5 years and I always try to leave a window open in my apartment, whether it is the bathroom one or whatever.

The key to keeping mold away is air circulation. With the dry air here in winter it should be fairly easy to keep mold growth down.

I also do pre-emptive strikes with a solution of bleach and water. 20% bleach. Seems to work for me.

Good luck because I hate that stuff too!

[Zed]

You know what does me in with the mold is that I cook a lot of pasta so that there is an almost daily dose of warm water being pumped into the air. This, of course, comes in contact with the thin uninsulated concrete walls where it condenses, soaks the wallpaper and takes too long to dry out. I'm having a major battle with it myself now. I hate cracking a window when I leave in December because I hate coming home to a cold house but something's got to be done I guess. the spores have gotten into some of my clothes in my closet. Bloody awful.

[captain kirk]

Sounds like you need Hippo Suckers. What's a Hippo Sucker?
In the humid Summer it's Hippo Sucker time. It's a plastic box a third the size of a shoebox. Inside is a shelf and some dessicant resting on that, over empty bottom. There's a paper 'membrane' through which the air travels, pulled in by the dessicant. The water then collects below the dessicant.
Nice psuedo-scientific explanation/description, huh?
One of the brands has a pink hippo 'charactuh' sucking on a straw. Thus 'Hippo Suckers'. Nobody but me calls them this. So don't ask for 'Hippo Suckers'.

[Shutterfly]

Haha hippo-suckers?? Yeah I have tried the bleach thing, and I always leave a window open becasue i hate the stuffiness in the house. It turns out that my apartment was renovated 3 months before i moved in. The renovators had decided to be ridiculously lazy and leave a 3 inch gap between my ceiling and the wall above the window I guess they thought it would be a clever idea just to cover it with wall paper. Thus for the past 5 months water has been steadily flowing down the wall behind the wallpaper. And Because I just recently turned on the heat it just festered like mad fire. We pulled off the wall paper on the one wall and it was a thick layer of mold. No wonder I have been Battling this never ending cold/sickness for months!!!! I have been lucky though, none of the spoeres have travelled into my clothes or bed or anything.

[Gollum]

You are in a death trap. Get out.

That crap will make you sick, sick, sick....

It is not a healthy place to live.

[Zed]

No, it certainly isn't. I was sick a solid month last fall due to the same problem in my last place I expect. I think I'll just try to survive the last 7 weeks of the contract by spending as much time as possible in the pub and hoping the weather's warm enough in January to leave the window open for a couple of hours a day. I've left the dehumidifier on all day today after washing the walls again today.

[jajdude]

[d503]

[Manner of Speaking]

Something I've found that helps with mold is white vinegar...although I'll be the first to admit I have no idea where to find it in Korea. Vinegar is just as good as bleach, but better for the environment (doesn't create organochlorines). Back home, I'd fill a small cereal bowl with it and just leave it on a shelf. It kills odors, but also seems to help with the headaches that I get if the indoor air is too moldy.

I used to use vinegar to clean out my coffee maker every month, but since I can't find it here in Korea, I use soju.

[jajdude]

[quote="d503"][quote="Zed"] Also when you go to remove the pasta instead of just dumping the water out and releasing large quantities of steam, scoop the pasta out and let the water stay in the pot covered until it cools down. quote]

Or just dump the water outside or in the bathroom or out the window...

[mithridates]

Do you have a mountain near your place, or an area to walk? I find a good thing to do before doing a winter cleanup is to go outside and walk around for about an hour, get your blood circulating and then when you come back you'll be all hot and won't care if the windows are open. That's when you clean up the place. You'll still be all pumped up from the walk and once the place is cleaned up you'll feel much better. Certainly better than opening the windows in the morning when you're all sluggish.

[Shutterfly]

Well they are currently fixing it right now. I am not sure how effective it will be as they are just plasterying foam sheets opn the wall, maybe it is effective but i just dont know!
The landlord said he was goign to hire and "expert" to handle the problem... ha ha ha i guess the guy who runds the laundromat down stairs is quite the expert! Oh well at least somethings being done! I think i might try the white vinigar thing if i can find some i heard that works too. thanks!

[Manner of Speaking]

Yeah if ANYBODY knows where white vinegar -- the kind you put on french fries -- can be had, PLEASE let us know...thanks!

[d503]

sort of sad little vinegar tale.. wandering through the baking aisle today and out of the corner of my eye spot a glass bottle that harkens up the memories of white vinegar. remembering dave's esl cafe i wander over to inspect thinking of all the things i could do with it. sigh it was only liquid sugar....why world why