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The 2-Year Apartment Rule

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Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#101

Post by virgilp »

adhoc_slime wrote: post #78
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…

Roaches are notoriously hard to get rid for a reason. If you don't call an exterminator with the proper poison almost any effort you make will be moot. I can tell you from firsthand experience that roaches will move with you. My partner's old apartment had roaches and even though we took great care to clean and separate everything, keep all of her kitchen stuff in tubs and slowly sort through it they still managed to…

> If you don't call an exterminator with the proper poison almost any effort you make will be moot.

Nah, not true. I lived in a student housing that was positively _infested_ with cockroaches (and had stuff like wood paneling on the walls, just to get an idea - i.e. lots of places for roaches to hide). We managed to largely get rid of cockroaches in our room (you still get the occasional one, because well, you had to open the door, and hallways were infested as I mentioned).

It's not _that_ hard, there are a lot of solutions. You need to do 3 things:

a. seal all holes/cracks/niches (e.g. with silicone). cover ventilation holes with nets. Install sponge/rubber bands to make sure doors/windows close well.

b. kill them once when you move in (after doing the work at point a) using copious amounts of insecticides; then install roach traps (sticky ones are good) to catch the occasional one that makes it through your defenses. Keep occasional spraying in the corners/ behind the fridge/ near the pipes/ in places where they are likely to gather.

c. Keep it clean/ don't offer a lot of incentives for roaches to come over to you (no breadcrumbs all over the place, food in closed containers etc)

Do these well and you should be largely roach-free, regardless of the building. But yeah, it's an annoying fight if the building itself is infested.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#102

Post by qup »

throwawayffffas wrote: post #94
adhoc_slime wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roaches are notoriously hard to get rid for a reason. If you don't call an exterminator with the proper poison almost any effort you make will be moot. I can tell you from firsthand experience that roaches will move with you. My partner's old apartment had roaches and even though we took great care to clean and separate everything, keep all of her kitchen stuff in tubs and slowly sort through it they still managed to…

I lived in an old but thoroughly maintained building, every 6 months and at the beginning of summer, there was a thorough extermination routine applied through out the whole building, you could see a ring of dead roaches around the building the next day, 2 to 4 weeks later you would start spotting them in the apartment again. They leave and die and new ones move in. In old buildings they are just a fact of life, keep…

I have a business where it's important we don't have roaches.

So we spray more often.

It costs me $83 per three months. I haven't seen a roach in sixteen years.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#103

Post by Natfan »

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…

consider Japan's housing market for ideas

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#104

Post by Kurandur »

Holy self report here. How can somebody write this and then post it without realizing that they are the problems?

"Why are roaches in your kitchen?"... "Because the landlord didnt bring the trash out"

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#105

Post by Natfan »

account42 wrote: post #77
esperent wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely but one thing about living in rented accommodation - you rarely get to choose the paint. I agree that a dehumidifier helps but you basically need one in every room. Where I live you can easily take out 10 liters a day from every room during the humid season (which is the maximum capacity of the machine I rented).

Might be different but repainting your apartment is expected from renters here to the point that contracts often state you need to do it every X years and before moving out.

i've always assumed that the letting's agency will _definitely_ take my deposit if i fsck with the walls

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#107

Post by teekert »

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…

Same here. Especially that 2 year window... That was about when mold took over my bathroom. Then I wiped it all with Chlorine based cleaner, installed a duct with fan which works for up to 2 hours after detecting motion, made a grill in the door and there has been little to no mold since (in year 4 now).

But there may also be an element of insufficient building codes? Mold comes with poor (and inhomogeneous) heating, insufficient ventilation, bad moisture shielding (hot moist air should never enter and cool down in a building's structure), cold-bridges (not sure what the English term is for parts of a house significantly colder that other so moisture settles there). Ventilation holes should be well defined, and not via cracks that also let creatures in... Etc.

So it may not be all OP's fault. But it sure sounds like it.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#108

Post by fg137 »

itake wrote: post #17
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…

> roaches in the kitchen roaches need to come from somewhere. Even if your apartment is spotless, someone else in the building might not be...

Can confirm. Used to live in an apartment where I did everything I could to keep the place clean. Cockroaches kept coming back.

The solution? Moving to a different place. Never seen a roach ever again. Even moving to a different apartment inside the building didn't help.

Hint: it's the neighbors.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#109

Post by mikeocool »

justbees wrote: post #80
c0l0 wrote: post #27

Living in a city in Europe in a very decent apartment in a building that was erected in the 1880s (sic), this article made me chuckle - but also feel bad about how the throwaway society of the 21st century has extended even to things that are supposed to last.

I lived in an apt in Brooklyn for 5 years, a brownstone built in 1931, and I never saw a single roach (they also never raised the rent). 1. we kept it very clean 2. the owners/landlords lived in the building with their children Thank you "Monika landlord"! (that's how she signed the Christmas cards she would give us - yes, I know how lucky we got)

I don’t think you go lucky — renting from small landlords who live in/near building is the way to avoid this. In my experience, say the word “leak” they’ll be there in 10 minutes. And good tenants have value to them.

At two years with a corporate landlord, they’ve done the math and see they can cheaply renovate your apartment, jack up the rent, and make more money than they can by renewing you.

Small landlords also haven’t built software to collude with each other to raise prices.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#110

Post by fg137 »

W3zzy wrote: post #39
itake wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> roaches in the kitchen roaches need to come from somewhere. Even if your apartment is spotless, someone else in the building might not be...

But is it the landlord's issue?

Good luck with that. I have seen landlords that flat out deny there is a roach issue.
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