Showing posts with label Mold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mold. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Mold: buckles the floors and warps the doors

I wrote earlier how it is not uncommon for houses to have mold problems here. At a break during a meeting, I was talking to a colleague who had some horrible mold problems in her brand new house that she had rented (again, I don't understand why Germans don't come up with updated building techniques that help mitigate mold). She had a horrible episode with mold: she took a trip back to the States for three weeks and wasn't home to air out the home daily as recommended. She had informed her landlord of the trip and wanted to take tenancy of the house after the trip, but he really wanted her in there (and her rent money) before she left and said the house should be fine.

Imagine her horror when she came home from the trip and found the floors and wood trim buckled from humidity and covered in mold! It was absolutely horrible. If I remember correctly, this didn't even happen during the summer; I believe that she said it was in November.

Another person has also had continued mold problems that even required extensive renovations of the bathroom. She hasn't been feeling well on and off and has developed allergies; she believes it could be because of the mold. I cautioned her about it because I personally know one person who almost died from exposure to black mold. It's a very serious matter, for sure, and it's very hard to get rid of it.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Ich verstehe nicht

I do not understand the following:

there is a big problem with mold in houses here. There are handouts and directives on how to properly air out one's home to prevent mold. Literature about mold prevention notes that the mold occurs because of the way the houses are constructed. One has to open windows in a succession and it's advised to even air out one's comforter daily.

I can understand that this would happen in old houses. After all, there are houses here that are older than the country from which I hail.

I believe that the mold can happen in new houses, too. Here is the part that I do not understand: the Germans are great at engineering things. With new houses, why on earth wouldn't they change building techniques to minimize or avoid mold?! Why keep doing the same thing that doesn't work? I wonder what I am missing here.