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Tips to avoid Hong Kong Tenant Complaints About Mold
John Herbert
Director
Hong Kong properties often suffering from water ingress, damp,
and mold causing your tenant to complain about damp or mold
in the property escalating your workload and stress.
Both high humidity and water ingress can cause damage to the building
fabric, the interior finishes of the apartment, plus a whole range of
tenant health issues caused by the toxicity of mold and mold spores.
click for larger image
Tips to avoid Hong Kong Tenant complaints about Mold
To reduce the risk, and the stress, some simple prevention measures
can help avoid water and moisture, and that prevents mould growth. So
we have prepared a list of tips for property owners:
1. Wall Coverings & Coatings
Do not allow the contractor(s) to paint or cover the internal side
of any external wall with any type of vapour barrier, the walls must be
allowed breathe and vapour barriers trap moisture. Some typical
vapour barriers including vinyl wallpaper, vinyl coverings or
plastic / polymer based paints.
Particularly in air conditioned rooms, instruct the contractor building
furniture and the tenant to alway maintain clear space, to allow air
circulation over the whole external wall.
Good ventilation will dry out any moisture in the external wall,
otherwise the result is shown in the photo below.
2. Furniture Materials
Essentially, the advise is the same as wall coverings above. If
the contractor builds furniture covering the external wall, with
materials finished with plastic laminate, moisture, and then mold
is guaranteed.
Design furniture and fixtures with an air gap for plenty of
ventilation, don't cover up external walls or your
property will look like Norm Yip's flat (refer to the SCMP photo
below).
Above: Norm Yip's moldly Wall | Credit SCMP click for large image
3. Good Ventilation
We can't prevent the ingress of moisture, therefore good ventilation
using air to transport and remove the moisture from the property and
mositure acculmated in the external walls is the solution.
Exhaust fans can be effective to discharge moist air providing
adequate replacement air is available!
Often the bathroom exhaust fan or kitchen fan is operated with the adjacent
window open, creating shirt circuit, moist air is endlessly recirculated
through the room, causing moisture, damp and mold problems.
Avoid permanently enclosed void spaces is key, these can be created by
partitions, void, curtains or blinds, these areas trap air, preventing
free circulation and ventilation neccessary to transport the moisture
away from the property.
If mounting a vapour barrier, for example a mirror, whiteboard, or
simular on the external wall is unavoidable, fit spacers behind, to
allow air circulation across the external wall.
Cross ventilation is most effective, that means the air inlet grille
and exhaust air grille are located on the opposite side of the room
with undercut door or door grille to provide open a path for circulation.
Operating the bathroom exhaust fan near an open window is useless, the
air will follow the path of least resistance (i.e. from the open window)
it is called short circuiting, and increases the risk of moisture
inside the room.
Inspection Prevention
Identifying the problems before the tenant complains is less stressful,
we identify construction, moisture, hidden damp, and potential
mold problems in Hong Kong properties, we use infrared thermal
imaging to detect hidden defects.
Cleaning surface mold is not the solution, it is a waste of time and money if
the underlying root cause is not identified so to prevent further infestation.
Call +852 2335 9830 to order a rapid mold inspection today!
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