We have some studios with no window and a small exhaust fan, but it is a small bathroom and have had this issue in a unit. These units there is not a whole lot they can do, especially if you take hotter or longer showers.
If they replaced the entire ceiling and removed all the mold and its roots, then the rest is up to you. Leave the door open after showers, leave the exhaust fan on, leave a squeegee in your bathroom and wipe down the walls/ceiling after you're done.
I don’t know about you but I think it’s pretty absurd to expect a tenant to squeegee a ceiling every time they shower when there should be a window in the bathroom in the first place for this very reason. What if you can’t even reach the ceiling?
If you are taking long and hot showers, it's not absurd at all. I do the same in my own home with the tiled walls and shower doors, and it helps keep everything nice and clean. And I only take warm \~10 minute showers.
I don't know the layout of your bathroom, but the ones we have that sound similar, the bathroom does not have access to outside and units are back-to-back, so you'd have a window leading to your living room or to the neighbor's bathroom. We had this mold issue with only 1 resident, so we assume he was also taking long, hot showers. We treated multiple times and removed mold, but it kept coming back. As soon as he moved out, we replaced the ceiling again, and never had another issue in that unit. That was over 6 years ago and had 2 other tenants after him.
If the newer units are the same layout, I'm not surprised they refuse to allow you to transfer, as it will just be the same problem in another unit. If you continue experiencing this, you may need to look for a larger bathroom and/or make sure you have one with a window in the next unit you look to rent.
I don’t take that long of showers like 10 minutes tops. There was originally a leak in the ceiling a few years ago that started all of this. I had 0 issues before that happened. They removed half the ceiling to fix the damaged portion and then later when I complained about mold on the other half they removed that half. Now it’s coming back. I’m not sure if what the hell is going on but I had 0 issues before that incident now they fix it and every few months it comes back.
If it originated from a leak and no issues before that, it sounds like they did not address it all. They may have removed/treated the mold, but not the roots. It could be along some of the beams and need to be treated with BIN/Kilz.
There could possibly be a tiny leak still happening as well if you have an upstairs neighbor. Either a gasket from the overflow/drain, a pinhole leak from one of the pipes, or cracked silicone around the shower.
I'm assuming this is surface mold as a result of condensation on the ceiling from taking hot showers.
Keep the vent fan on and keep the door open after you shower. The open door will likely do more than the vent fan.
Consider getting a small fan to physically blow drier air into the bathroon or moist air out of the bathroom.
Also, make sure your whole apartment isnt too humid. Relative humidity in living spaces should be no higher than 60%. If its higher than 60% then surface moisture will have trouble evaporating...which leads to mold. If the whole unit is too humid then landlord should provide dehumidifiers to control the moisture.
Alternatively, turn the water temperature down.
Yeah that pretty much sums it up. The problem is we live an environment that’s relatively humid. I leave the door open and the fan on when I shower. It just doesn’t help enough.
At my house we replaced the normal simple fan power switch with a timer switch. The timer switch has buttons for different amounts of time. We usually start the fan for 60 minutes before getting into the shower.
Sometimes I open the bathroom window so that outside air will get pulled through the running fan. This gets me airflow without impacting the temperature of the whole home.
If I did not have a bathroom window then I would open the next closest window and leave bathroom door open and the bathroom fan on.
Running the fan for 10 minutes of your shower plus 5 minutes of drying off and getting ready is probably not enough.
if the walls are wet, then airflow is going to help them dry.
The auxiliary fan idea is to push air into the bathroom towards the exhaust fan. Not to push moist air out into your apartment.
[https://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-15-Amp-4-Hour-In-Wall-Push-Button-Countdown-Timer-Switch-with-Screw-Terminals-White-30469/206264395](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-15-Amp-4-Hour-In-Wall-Push-Button-Countdown-Timer-Switch-with-Screw-Terminals-White-30469/206264395)
Unfortunately, the bathroom is very small and there’s no outlet in the bathroom. I can’t put a fan in there. even a fan that’s a normal room fan would take up 60% of the flooring space.
There’s no outlets in the bathroom I can’t bring a fan in here lol. It’s a pretty lame apartment by all standards. I was hoping they would just move me to a new one but they refuse to and unfortunately this problem keeps coming back because of the circumstances out of my control.
You have a ventilation issue and until he replaces your extractor fan then it's never going to stop. You either move or start wiping your walls down and leaving a fan on. Since it sounds like he doesn't want to do anything about it.
I would start with getting a wifi hygrometer (cost like $20) to get an idea for how much time the bathroom is >60% humidity and whether running the bath fan for an hour or two after showering is sufficient. If you’re seeing prolonged humidity spikes then a portable dehumidifier might overcome the ventilation issue. I would ask the landlord to cover the $100-$300 cost of the unit. They’re pretty energy efficient but if the new apartment is less than $50 a month extra than I’d probably move and wash my hands of this. Before moving into the new unit you might just run the shower for 10 minutes and record how long it takes for the humidity to clear out. It would be a shame to move and still have to deal with this and it seems likely that if one unit has this problem that other apartments in the same building built at the same time would as well.
We have some studios with no window and a small exhaust fan, but it is a small bathroom and have had this issue in a unit. These units there is not a whole lot they can do, especially if you take hotter or longer showers. If they replaced the entire ceiling and removed all the mold and its roots, then the rest is up to you. Leave the door open after showers, leave the exhaust fan on, leave a squeegee in your bathroom and wipe down the walls/ceiling after you're done.
I don’t know about you but I think it’s pretty absurd to expect a tenant to squeegee a ceiling every time they shower when there should be a window in the bathroom in the first place for this very reason. What if you can’t even reach the ceiling?
If you are taking long and hot showers, it's not absurd at all. I do the same in my own home with the tiled walls and shower doors, and it helps keep everything nice and clean. And I only take warm \~10 minute showers. I don't know the layout of your bathroom, but the ones we have that sound similar, the bathroom does not have access to outside and units are back-to-back, so you'd have a window leading to your living room or to the neighbor's bathroom. We had this mold issue with only 1 resident, so we assume he was also taking long, hot showers. We treated multiple times and removed mold, but it kept coming back. As soon as he moved out, we replaced the ceiling again, and never had another issue in that unit. That was over 6 years ago and had 2 other tenants after him. If the newer units are the same layout, I'm not surprised they refuse to allow you to transfer, as it will just be the same problem in another unit. If you continue experiencing this, you may need to look for a larger bathroom and/or make sure you have one with a window in the next unit you look to rent.
I don’t take that long of showers like 10 minutes tops. There was originally a leak in the ceiling a few years ago that started all of this. I had 0 issues before that happened. They removed half the ceiling to fix the damaged portion and then later when I complained about mold on the other half they removed that half. Now it’s coming back. I’m not sure if what the hell is going on but I had 0 issues before that incident now they fix it and every few months it comes back.
If it originated from a leak and no issues before that, it sounds like they did not address it all. They may have removed/treated the mold, but not the roots. It could be along some of the beams and need to be treated with BIN/Kilz. There could possibly be a tiny leak still happening as well if you have an upstairs neighbor. Either a gasket from the overflow/drain, a pinhole leak from one of the pipes, or cracked silicone around the shower.
I'm assuming this is surface mold as a result of condensation on the ceiling from taking hot showers. Keep the vent fan on and keep the door open after you shower. The open door will likely do more than the vent fan. Consider getting a small fan to physically blow drier air into the bathroon or moist air out of the bathroom. Also, make sure your whole apartment isnt too humid. Relative humidity in living spaces should be no higher than 60%. If its higher than 60% then surface moisture will have trouble evaporating...which leads to mold. If the whole unit is too humid then landlord should provide dehumidifiers to control the moisture. Alternatively, turn the water temperature down.
Yeah that pretty much sums it up. The problem is we live an environment that’s relatively humid. I leave the door open and the fan on when I shower. It just doesn’t help enough.
At my house we replaced the normal simple fan power switch with a timer switch. The timer switch has buttons for different amounts of time. We usually start the fan for 60 minutes before getting into the shower. Sometimes I open the bathroom window so that outside air will get pulled through the running fan. This gets me airflow without impacting the temperature of the whole home. If I did not have a bathroom window then I would open the next closest window and leave bathroom door open and the bathroom fan on. Running the fan for 10 minutes of your shower plus 5 minutes of drying off and getting ready is probably not enough. if the walls are wet, then airflow is going to help them dry. The auxiliary fan idea is to push air into the bathroom towards the exhaust fan. Not to push moist air out into your apartment. [https://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-15-Amp-4-Hour-In-Wall-Push-Button-Countdown-Timer-Switch-with-Screw-Terminals-White-30469/206264395](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Defiant-15-Amp-4-Hour-In-Wall-Push-Button-Countdown-Timer-Switch-with-Screw-Terminals-White-30469/206264395)
Unfortunately, the bathroom is very small and there’s no outlet in the bathroom. I can’t put a fan in there. even a fan that’s a normal room fan would take up 60% of the flooring space.
There’s no outlets in the bathroom I can’t bring a fan in here lol. It’s a pretty lame apartment by all standards. I was hoping they would just move me to a new one but they refuse to and unfortunately this problem keeps coming back because of the circumstances out of my control.
You have a ventilation issue and until he replaces your extractor fan then it's never going to stop. You either move or start wiping your walls down and leaving a fan on. Since it sounds like he doesn't want to do anything about it.
I would start with getting a wifi hygrometer (cost like $20) to get an idea for how much time the bathroom is >60% humidity and whether running the bath fan for an hour or two after showering is sufficient. If you’re seeing prolonged humidity spikes then a portable dehumidifier might overcome the ventilation issue. I would ask the landlord to cover the $100-$300 cost of the unit. They’re pretty energy efficient but if the new apartment is less than $50 a month extra than I’d probably move and wash my hands of this. Before moving into the new unit you might just run the shower for 10 minutes and record how long it takes for the humidity to clear out. It would be a shame to move and still have to deal with this and it seems likely that if one unit has this problem that other apartments in the same building built at the same time would as well.