We live in a mid-80’s vintage 2 bedroom apartment (~850 SF) here in the pacific northwest. The windows throughout are double pane aluminum frame. Seals are compromised on most. The windows sweat/drip like crazy all fall and winter long as consequently we get a lot of problems with mold throughout the apartment. We try to stay on top of it by bleaching and scrubbing the windows, sills, and walls weekly but it is a huge pain. We leave the heat on to ~50 (baseboard electric) throughout the day which helps somewhat but the mold still comes.
Looking around, one option may be to get a humidifier. I’m looking for recommendations:
Will it help?
Do I need just one for the whole space?
Too loud to have in a living space?
Huge power bill?
The property management folks have repeatedly indicated they have no wish to make any improvements to the property and that the solution to our problems is to ‘leave the heat on’. I have tried (unsuccessfully) in the past to install window films, but never had any luck getting the tape to adhere to cold, damp, aluminium window frames… which will be cold and damp for the next 6 months.
Sounds similar to western NC mountains. So humid that shower towels don’t dry, and can get similar mold problems. A std dehumid from a big box store can work pretty well in your case of being in a smallish rental. Pain to have to empty it manually. Maybe you can rig up a drain line and that would make it easier. Key will be keeping indoors isolated so that you aren’t trying to dehumidify the whole environment. Drafty windows and doors are probably the biggest culprits. Realize that the running dehumidifier will cause the rooms to warm up, but that might not be bad for you since it’s winter. If running it in summer you’ll strike a balance between warmer air vs drier air. Also, it might be best to run it on a timer instead of the auto humidity sensing. They can be loud. Maybe set them to run right after you leave for work or after showers or something like that.
For a drain line you can also rig up a small condensate pump pretty cheaply if you need to drain to a higher elevation. I did that for a basement dehumidifier that had no floor drain.
Many years ago, think the beginning of the personal computer boom, we had to use individual room dehumidifiers to keep our computers running in Okinawa. These PC’s were used in a completely un-air conditioned environment. The dehumid’s were the size of small refrigerators and had to be manually emptied twice a day, the reservoirs were maybe 3 gallons. They worked, without the units our PC’s wouldn’t turn on in the morning. A secondary benefit was we noticed far less skin-to-paper sticking while doing paper work! I don’t recall the work areas having a mold problem to begin with.
mold is bad and you have no idea how much is growing on the other side of the walls(just had my remodeled basement demodelled due to mold. doesn’t smell musty now at least
Caulk the seam of the casing to the wall. Then tape the film to the casing. This should seal the window. It will eventually wreck the casing…but who cares.
I would get the hell out on the double. I know that may not be a practical answer, but it’s better then living in a moldy place.
I lived in a similar apartment, and I’m in the PNW (well, PSW of Canada). The windows were the least of the problem. Even when I cleaned the place top to bottom there was a slight musky smell in the place, and I didn’t really realize it, but I got sick a lot more often living there. The moldy windows were the least of my problems.
We have talked about it, but would prefer to have the next place we move be a place we buy. We and the market are not quite in good positions to do that just yet. The problems we are dealing with are par for the course in most apartments in the area. While units constructed in this century are available they typically command at least 30% higher rent.
If you don’t do this already, open all your windows for 15 minutes every day. We had the same problem with mold when living in an apartment and our landlord suggested this and it completely eliminated the problem. Doesn’t matter if it is cold out.
Our house started with single pane aluminum windows and they sweated like crazy. Before getting around to replacing the windows I built some simple wooden frames just smaller than the window recess and attached the window film to the frame. On the back outside edges of the frame I doubled over some painters plastic and stapled it to the frame to create a gasket. This gave us a sweat-free double pane window that also helped with the heating, but could also be removed if one wanted to open the window without ripping down the plastic.
And yes a dehumidifier should also help with conditions and provide heat. I have a 4 year old version of the frigidaire.