The 2-Year Apartment Rule • Hacker News Board

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#161

Post by zrail » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 3:46 PM UTC

skyberrys wrote: post #139

sidewndr46 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The walls are aluminum? Where do you live?

Trailer park in California. It's a prefab kit built accessory room. The main part of the trailer is normal, just this accessory room is built out of aluminum panels (about 3' x 9' per panel) and then plenty of single pane windows.

Mold growth is a moisture problem which can either be because of condensation or because of leaks. I agree with the contractors, properly framing out and insulating the interior would probably help a lot with condensation on the inside of the aluminum, as would double pane windows. Ventilation is also important for stopping mold growth.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#162

Post by GL26 » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 3:59 PM UTC

Feel like that varies according to your room mates, and social dynamics (if you notably have a dwarf that spawn camps their bedroom, never do house chores etc...

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#163

Post by gib444 » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 4:12 PM UTC

bob1029 wrote: post #160

gib444 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how they don't end up just drying the fresh air? The average home has a certain amount of fresh air coming in. Outside is often 50-80% here in the UK. Am I just spending 150 watts to constantly dehumidify fresh air? Is it really dehumidifying the walls, furniture etc or just the new fresh air?

> Am I just spending 150 watts to constantly dehumidify fresh air? Yes. And it's probably closer to 800-1000 watts if you have a reasonably large living space. Someone living in the UK is likely to find this extremely offensive, but it's quite common in Texas and Florida.

I had a feeling. The dehumidifier manufacturers (and their paid partner bloggers etc) insisting it takes weeks and weeks to start taking effect always struck me as odd - probably because even at full whack you're probably drying out the furniture etc at a very very very slow rate, because you're mostly in a losing battle drying out the fresh air.

I wouldn't be surprised if energy companies were behind their popularity.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#164

Post by redwood » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 4:19 PM UTC

tartoran wrote: post #131

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it depends on where you live. Baltimore is a tough town. The roaches have a reputation to maintain.

Do you actually believe roaches in Baltimore have evolved in a different way or is it the locale?

The point is in a high density urban environment it's the neighborhood not just your specific building and in some places it's not realistic to imagine the entire neighborhood to be thoroughly clean.

New York City is certainly a good case in point with the city's massive amount of garbage placed on the sidewalk once a week

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#165

Post by redwood » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 4:20 PM UTC

I wonder how old the author is and how many 2-year move cycles they've actually been through in their probably very short life...

Also wonder if some people just have a higher level of agency to communicate with landlord to ensure improvements happen

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#166

Post by Pragmata » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 4:28 PM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #64

stefan_ wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It infuriates me to no end that we are expected to put up with building design and technology from 1900 as a consequence of the obsession with "property values must go up" (notwithstanding the property ) and a healthy helping of "regulations are only ever added to, everything old is forever grandfathered". Like, central ventilation is not magical unobtainable technology. Simple heat recovery even vastly improves heat…

What’s the alternative? Governments pass regulations and all buildings must be adapted within 12 months? 36 months? What of the buildings that don’t comply in time? Or can’t find trades to do it in time? Or we notice to our eternal shock that projects to ensure code tracking are priced at a serious premium? Or, how many improvements to code would we decide weren’t desirable because of the costs of retrofitting, so no…

Government removes regulations and let property owners make whichever decisions they feel is best for them individually.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#167

Post by flextheruler » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC

Hendrikto wrote: post #100

> I've noticed this myself with every apartment I've ever lived in. Things start off fine, but then mold starts growing in the bathroom, and a recurring leak springs up in the living room, and then roaches start appearing in the kitchen. Once the lease is up for renewal, I'm dying to leave. I then move into a sparkly, new apartment where I repeat the process all over again. Sounds like it takes her about 2 years to t…

Yeah not sure how mold infestation in every bathroom of every apartment you've lived at for longer than 2 years can be anything besides a user error.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#168

Post by structural » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 4:49 PM UTC

onaclov2000 wrote: post #148

This may be slightly off topic :). But I think I see this happen in other places beyond just housing, and maybe the timeline varies, but at the end of the day, company X puts a bunch of money into building an attractive place to attract consumers Y, however on top of that, they are also looking to make money, so once the initial investment goes in, the hope is that you don't have to invest (as much) to maintain, but…

There's a lot of maintenance that is much easier/cheaper to do when the apartment is unoccupied, so the default is "do nothing, then when the tenant moves out in a year or two, do a couple years of maintenance much more affordably."

With your gym, for example, when it's new, you can do all the work you want. Once people are using it every day (especially if it's a 24/7 facility!) how exactly do you get in to do major work without making a bunch of people annoyed that half the gym is out of service for three weeks? You don't, until it gets to the point that people would prefer the downtime ... and this takes a surprising amount of grime.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#169

Post by 542354234235 » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 4:51 PM UTC

collabs wrote: post #60

sn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a relatively easy technological solution to mold: buy a dehumidifier. We bought two after moving to Ireland. Both have drainage hoses. One has a pump and empties into the kitchen sink, the other has no pump and the drainage hose empties into the shower. No more mold problems.

Thank you for sharing. Do your dehumidifiers run all the time? Do they have some kind of auto on / auto off feature? Do you run them on some schedule? As necessary? I am thinking it would be very easy for me to forget unless it is a set it and forget it kind of thing.

I used to be in a house that needed a dehumidifier. I bought one with a built-in pump to empty the water tank, which can be tapped into an AC drain line, sink drain, or directly outdoors, depending on your situation. You can set many of them to run constantly or when humidity is above a certain level.

If you live in a hot/humid location your HVAC is much better at dehumidification than a dehumidifier, since a dehumidifier outputs a ton of heat to operate. But in a cool/humid location, you can definitely rig up one to be decently set and forget. You still need to perform maintenance (cleaning the grill, adding a bit of white vinegar to the water tank to kill growth buildup, etc).

I actually put mine into the HVAC cabinet and used a smart plug and smart thermostat to turn on the dehumidifier and the HVAC fan to dehumidify the house. But that’s way more than you need to do for a small apartment.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#170

Post by Slow_Hand » Thu, Jun 18, 2026, 5:08 PM UTC

lwhi wrote: post #66

tasuki wrote: post #9

> Things start off fine, but then mold starts growing in the bathroom, and a recurring leak springs up in the living room, and then roaches start appearing in the kitchen. When I started reading the article, I thought the whole point was gonna be that the author doesn't take care of the apartment. The recurring leak might not be the author's fault, but the mold in the bathroom and roaches in the kitchen definitely ar…

You need to tell the landlord. I think a lot of people are worried about informing the landlord (especially after two years) as market rates will have risen, and getting stuff fixed might prompt a rise on their own apartment.

This has been my experience as well. Many owners want to know about issues before they fester.

I'm fortunate to have an attentive property manager and a landlord who is interested in doing the preventative maintenance to keep the units from degrading.

I inherited a mold and moisture problem under the kitchen sink when I moved in, one that I neglected for a while. As soon as I told my landlord they sent a crew out to tear down the wall, fix the plumbing, and rebuild it in a more robust manner.

I don't even have a particularly nice apartment. My apartment just turned 100 years old, but it's maintained well enough. I've been here seven years now. I keep my house clean, don't leave food out, and still see the occasional cockroach in the kitchen. Probably once every 1-2 months. Fine.