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The 2-Year Apartment Rule

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Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#121

Post by ubermonkey »

I haven't lived in an apartment in nearly 30 years, but the last one I moved into, in 1996, was brand new and relatively fancy. I'd been renting a house with friends, but it was Houston and I wanted access to a pool and onsite fitness center, so I signed up at a new complex in a convenient area.

I split a two bedroom two bath place with a friend, and we moved in.

The place was made of tissuepaper. The brand new carpet was threadbare within 6 or 8 months. The walls were insanely thin (I still feel bad for traumatic breakup my neighbor apparently suffered, but it was rough to be woken up by sobs for weeks on end).

I moved out when the lease was up and rented a house again. And then, a shockingly low number of years later, the whole building was razed. I'd be surprised if it was more than 6 or 7 years old.

The complex is still there, but they build a high-rise on that part of the property.

It was the NEWEST building I'd ever lived in, and it ended up also being the very first building I lived in to be demolished. My ex-roomie and I are still pals, and when still laugh about how insanely shabby that place was.

All of this is a long way of saying: Yeah, I get it.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#122

Post by cannonpr »

Is his experience really that peculiar? He obviously picks an apartment that meets his comfort level, but apartments go through cycles of deterioration and repair, and staying at a static level of quality is economically very difficult at most market segments, given the industry’s engineering choices. So he selects an acceptable starting point and then watches it deteriorate below that. Eventually the apartment drops too low for its market segment and undergoes partial remanufacture; the cycle then repeats until something not easily repairable wears out, at which point it shifts market segment entirely. This loop usually continues until the whole building is remanufactured, unless it’s of historical significance.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#123

Post by JackFr »

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…

My building is 15 stories, built in 1916. I’m on the 2nd floor. Every apartment can sign up for the monthly exterminator when he comes to do common areas. Are there roaches? You bet. Not a ton but you’ll see one or two a few times a month.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#124

Post by esperent »

mrngld wrote: post #89
esperent wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've unfortunately lived in too many houses where mold becomes a problem. It's never my fault, it's always been because the house is old/doesn't have proper damp proofing/cheap paint was used, or no damp proofing applied on exterior walls. I clean it, of course, so I'm not literally living in a house with moldy walls, and I keep the house as dry and ventilated as possible. But in certain climates it's nearly inevitab…

Do you have HVAC? Maybe some of my difficultly understanding is being American I'm in a hotter, much more humid climate, so we've got central HVAC. A key feature of heat pumps isn't just that it lowers the temperature of the air, it also reduces humidity. I've got a lot of exposure to new home construction here and can tell you I don't even know what "damp proofing" is, and our bathrooms don't need special paint. The…

No, I've never seen a residential house with HVAC, even in big apartments. It's all split wall mounted AC units here, or if you're fancy a ceiling version that's basically the same. I think Americans call these heat pumps?

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#125

Post by esperent »

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.

Definitely not normal here although in my current house I did repaint with good paint, but I had to ask the owner permission first.

I think that the owner needing to repaint between tenants is considered normal wear and tear here.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#126

Post by bob1029 »

CarRamrod wrote: post #26

The best thing I've found after dealing with mold is a simple 3% hydrogen peroxide solution that is sold in any drugstore. Put it in a spray bottle and soak the area deeply enough and it should kill it down to the roots. And a plus is that when it breaks down the only fumes it gives off is pure oxygen, unlike other cleaners like bleach. It did such a good job that I use peroxide as a general purpose cleaner now. I wi…

I recommend dehumidification over chemicals. It's much simpler and way more thorough. It also suppresses pests like silverfish. Allergies probably much better too.

If you can keep your home under 45% RH, mold simply cannot grow. You'll never have to think about it. The longer and more persistent the dehumidification, the better the outcome. It can take weeks for the moisture to get pulled completely out of your drywall, interior framing, insulation, etc.

I recommend getting one of those units that has the integral pump. Run it 24/7. But don't use the pump for the first day. Dump that water out manually so you get a visceral understanding of how bad it was. That water was in all your stuff. In your walls, in your sheets, furniture and clean clothes.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#127

Post by skyberrys »

zrail wrote: post #90
GJim wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> most mould is caused by buildings. An honourable mention to fitting Cavity Wall Insulation , heavily sold and encouraged by UK government energy saving schemes thorough the 1990's and 2000's. Except by stuffing the wall cavity, you provide a nice moisture bridge to outside whilst simultaneously stopping air circulating in the cavity and whipping away moisture; thus an explosion of mould. The policy was a disaster,…

I think this depends on the construction of the rest of the house. A typical stack built house in the US will have extensive insulation in the exterior walls, but it's paired with a number of different layers intended to expel moisture. As a retrofit without those things I guess I can see it being problematic.

Maybe everyone here can help me. I bought a house with an accessory addon already built, but it's walls and roof are very cheap aluminum. It's a constant source of mold. I'm at the point where I want to demolish it and rebuild properly. Some contractors I've spoken with instead encourage me to just frame out inside the existing aluminum box and get double pane windows instead. I don't think that will solve the problem though, these cheap aluminum panels are so full of mold now how would putting fresh wood over the panels solve anything, in 4 years I'll just have more mold growing over the interior frame out if I don't demolish and rebuild the whole thing with proper moisture barriers on the exterior and underside of the accessory room.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#128

Post by Hnrobert42 »

cam_l wrote: post #18
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…

Fwiw, most mould is caused by buildings. Poor ventilation, leaks, no waterproofing, substandard building materials. Yes, you can avoid mould in older buildings by carefully airing out rooms and keeping things dry and away from walls. But not if the previous three tenants had a mould issue and the landlord just painted over it.

Yeah. The last two apartments I've been in have had leaks. I begged the landlord to open up the walls and dry them out. They just painted over it, so I moved out. Sadly, that means two other people now in apartments can never figure out why their place smells musty and they feel a bit congested all the time.

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#129

Post by sidewndr46 »

skyberrys wrote: post #127
zrail wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this depends on the construction of the rest of the house. A typical stack built house in the US will have extensive insulation in the exterior walls, but it's paired with a number of different layers intended to expel moisture. As a retrofit without those things I guess I can see it being problematic.

Maybe everyone here can help me. I bought a house with an accessory addon already built, but it's walls and roof are very cheap aluminum. It's a constant source of mold. I'm at the point where I want to demolish it and rebuild properly. Some contractors I've spoken with instead encourage me to just frame out inside the existing aluminum box and get double pane windows instead. I don't think that will solve the proble…

The walls are aluminum? Where do you live?

Re: The 2-Year Apartment Rule

#130

Post by gib444 »

bob1029 wrote: post #126
CarRamrod wrote: post #26

The best thing I've found after dealing with mold is a simple 3% hydrogen peroxide solution that is sold in any drugstore. Put it in a spray bottle and soak the area deeply enough and it should kill it down to the roots. And a plus is that when it breaks down the only fumes it gives off is pure oxygen, unlike other cleaners like bleach. It did such a good job that I use peroxide as a general purpose cleaner now. I wi…

I recommend dehumidification over chemicals. It's much simpler and way more thorough. It also suppresses pests like silverfish. Allergies probably much better too. If you can keep your home under 45% RH, mold simply cannot grow. You'll never have to think about it. The longer and more persistent the dehumidification, the better the outcome. It can take weeks for the moisture to get pulled completely out of your drywa…

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?

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