Topspin

Using a high quality anti-mould paint helps. Do you know what type of paint was used on that wall currently? If it is already using a good anti-mould paint and you still suffer from the issue, then it is likely related to excessive moisture. Solving the issue of moisture on wall is a litte more complex.

Every wash basin has a water trap in the piping below to keep out the sewage pipe smell. The stagnant water of the water trap can smell really bad over night. The first person to use the basin will flush the foul smelling water out into a bigger vertical drain pipe and the smell sometimes linger in the kitchen or bathroom. The only remedy is to close the floor drain. Most of the house already has that simple seal in the floor drain hole but if it is missing, just go buy one from NTUC or any hardware shop.

If you have a spare thick bedsheet, just roll it up and cover the base of the window should help a bit. May be unsightly though.

There is higher level of moisture in that ceiling of that room compared to other rooms. If the person staying above is the type who switches on their aircon in that bedroom at the coldest setting and the whole day, the coldness will be felt on the ceiling of your bedroom. Condensation can occur and the wetness will surely cause mold to grow. You need to remove the mold before you move in as they can be harmful if inhaled. You need to repaint it over with a good quality anti mold white paint made specially for bathroom ceilings. ICI Dulux has such a paint. To prevent recurrence, the only mitigation is to also switch on the aircon in your own room to equalise the temperature with the one above. If this is not a solution, then maybe a friendly feed back to the person above could be helpful.

Is it the same one that advertised their services quite aggresively in this forum?

Get rid of the mold and the bugs that feed on them will go.

Yes, 20 Mule is just one of the brands.

Never tried baking soda, actually never heard anyone using it to control mold. Vinegar, yes, including a commercial preparation called Voltrex which is vinegar based. They don't really work. The vinegar exaporates away therefore the mold comes back. Borax is a type of boron salt therefore, once the water evaporated, it still leaves behind some salt residue on the surface. That residue keeps mold from growing on that treated surface. Be careful with using vinegar though, one drop on your marble floor and it dissolves the surface leaving a horrible blur spot. (acid + calcium carbonate = carbon dioxide + salt solution) The marble is just calcium carbonate.

I have just ordered two more boxes of Twenty Mule Team borax from a US website. I got it from a website called www.Soap.com. I paid USD15 for it to be delivered to the Vpost clearing centre in Portland, Oregon. Vpost will then deliver it to my home once they receive the order from soap.com. I expect the transport charges from Oregon to Singapore to be about S$35 as they charge by the weight. In case you are not aware, Vpost is a courier service provided by Singpost. In the past I have bought it from a different vendor. Just select the cheapest I can find at the time of order. I also use Borax for my laundry. Use about 1 tablespoon in the last washing machine rinse, it keeps the laundry free from mold growth and any musty smells. At this quantity a box should last me a year. My previous order got through customs without any issue but I strongly advice not to order to many boxes in one go otherwise the authorities may withhold it thinking that you are an importer. It is not permited to sell borax in Singapore for fear of people using them as food additive.

About a year back I emailed ICI paint to ask them if I can dissolve some Borax crystal into the paint directly before I use the paint on my wall/ceiling. They replied (rather tentatively) that the pH of the paint will be affected and hence not recommended. I have not done any painting since I repainted my moldy ceiling 2 years back but I think I would like to add some borax into my paint to test it out during my next painting. For the time being, my walls and ceiling are kept mold free by just wet wiping it with borax regularly.

Those tiny bugs seem quite harmless to me although in large numbers, they are a disgusting sight to have on your walls and ceilings...BUT!!! the mold can be extremely harmful to humans. Depending on the type of mold and sensitivity of an individual, one can get various long term effects on the health by just inhaling the spores from the mold. Your priority is to remove the mold for your health sake, shortly the bugs will also dissapear when their food source is gone. Please refer to my earlier reply in this same thread. The key is to keep mold away long term. Just wiping with a wet cloth or vacuuming it away may give one the false sense that it is gone but it is actually not gone. They will continue to grow. You will need chemical warfare and the least toxic anti mold (to humans and environment) is Borax. The effect of borax is also the longest compared to other household mold cleaners such as bleach, vinegar, Ozone gas, Lysol spray. I have tried all them including some I did not list here, but found nothing beats borax and yet it is the cheapest of them all. This is for your info only.

That is a little too drastic especially if it is expensive or has sentimental value. My electronic organ wooden panels and its bench were attacked by mold. Can't imagine that I have to discard my $$$$ organ because of mold. It is now mold free. Wipe it down with borax solution, let it soak inside the surface a little and it should stay mold free for a few weeks or months. Just be careful with surfaces that uses thin plywood. It may warp the plywood if too wet. Test on a spot first before doing the entire surface. Many commercial timber treatment liquid are just borax (boron) based salts.

It is usually caused by kids not aiming properly. Just a few drips on to the floor can cause a very bad smell if left for a few hours. I usually just rinse the floor around the toilet bowl with water in between toilet washes or when I noticed drips of urine on the floor.

It is mold. Be very careful with it as it could damage your health very badly by just sleeping in that room. Without risk of sounding like a scripted reply, if you have read my other posts, I think you know what I will recommend already without further delay. If the mold is only appearing on your ceiling and not your walls, I suspect your neighbours above loves to swtich on the aircon the whole day/night until it cause your ceiling to be cold enough to create condensation. Very soon, you will find little wingless bugs crawing all over your ceiling feasting on the mold. It seems that mold is becoming a major problem EVERYWHERE in Singapore, dunno why. Even my 2 month old spanking new office with aircon switched on the whole day is having mold problem. Seldom heard of such problems indoor 5 years ago, never had it in all my previous homes as well. Maybe bad new apartment design. Too congested and lack natural wind flowing through the apartments.

I just used Vpost for my borax last year. No more issue about not delivering outside of USA or not accepting non USA credit cards. Nevertheless, I found some merchants who do delivery overseas. Compare the prices before deciding. Don't buy too many boxes otherwise custom may deem that you are an importer. Importing borax needs a permit but small quantity for personal use I suppose they close one eye.

Coming from me, you guessed it...I used borax solution on my wooden furniture as well. It stays mold free for a few weeks if not months before I have to wipe it over with borax solution again. Too bad, it is quite difficult to get hold of borax these days. I used to have disgusting mold growing on my parquet skirting, doors, door frames, wooden dinning chair, leather sofa, my electronic organ, wardrobe, bed frame, dressing table, etc before I started wiping them regularly with borax solution.

There are some online merchants who do deliver their 20 Mule team borax to Singapore and do accept Singapore issued credit cards but I just used Vpost so I can just pick and choose the cheapest online. With Vpost, the delivery address is in USA and Vpost will pay on behalf of you first. As for mold in clothing, I try to keep my wardrobe dry by placing Calcium chloride dessicant (e.g. Thirsty Hippo) but it can be a quite costly to replce. I recycle the dessicant once a while. I had a post with instructions on how to recylce the dessicant but somehow those early post have all been removed from this forum. Another method is to put half tablespoon of borax into your last rinse (in the same compartment where you place your conditioner). Then dry your clothes as per normal. There will be some borax residue on your clothes and that would help prevent mold from growing hence stays fresh smelling. I really hate the smell of mold on my clothes. Anyway, 20 Mule borax is sold as a laundry aid so it is safe to use it for this purpose.

I didn't realise that you attached a link. From the description, it says Borax. On the same page, there is another small image. The other image shows 20 Mule Team brand of Borax. I bought that brand. Just buy the cheapest one you can find after factoring in delivery charges.

Agree, everything is toxic if used in excess, or are misused. Our parents and their parents routinely add borax into their delicious meat dumplings. Don't confuse boric acid with borax. They are different. It is really choosing between a rock and a hard place. Some borax residue on my wall or mold on my wall. My health was badly affected by mold 2 years back so I rather not have the later. Of course if new finding shows that borax is really bad, then I will reconsider. First, the authorities in USA need to remove Borax as laundy aid from all their supermarkets shelves in USA and then ban borax to use as dish washing cleaners (I believe the dish washing machine powder Somat found in NTUC is borax based but not was shown on the ingredient) Borax is also used in science experiments by pre-school and primary school children in USA. You read about it everywhere on the Internet. They use it to make a springy dough and to experiment with crystal formation. Were the school teacher not warned about the toxicity of borax if they are indeed toxic? Quite a contradictory article actually. The decision lies with the individual but good that you share the wikipedia article so that everyone is well informed.

From my personal experience, those anti mold properties in the paint don't last very long. If the environment is condusive, mold will grow on it again. I personally prefer regularly "maintaining" the surface with borax. It doesn't cost anything really, compared to having to repaint the ceiling/wall.

I would just spray Baygon directly into the drain hole to kill the larvae and eggs. I usually igonore the adult drain flies as they will die out after a few days. Need to spray the drain hole at least once a week otherwise the adult fly that flew in from dunno where will start the cycle all over again with a hundred baby flies hatching from the drain hole in days.

I have written about mold and these bugs quite a bit last year and earlier this year but not sure why most of the old post is not viewable anymore unless you type out the exact address. Anyway, I cut and paste an earlier reply to another posting about these bugs: The tiny wingless insects feed on the mold growing on the wall. I have written quite a bit about my experience with mold and insects in previous replies to others. I suggest the use of Borax solution (mix 2 tablespoon in one liter of warm water). Wet mop the entire wall to clean off any mold first. Change the solution often during the cleaning phase as the water will get very dirty. Once the wall is clean, you may wipe over one last time with clean borax solution and leave it to air dry. The borax residue will prevent mold from growing and thus wipe out the food source for the insect. Repeat the wet wipe once a month at least or until the problem goes away. As the ceiling is very hard to reach, I would use a paint roller moisten with borax solution to roll over the ceiling to maintain a layer of borax crystals on the ceiling surface. You can do this to the upper part of the wall also. You cannot buy borax powder in Singapore as they are controlled to prevent food manufacturers adding it to the food like noddles and dumpling illegally. I buy them from US websites instead. Don't cost much. Don't vacuum the mold unless you have a true HEPA vacuum cleaner as they will just blow spores out of the exhaust to other parts of your house. The mold can cause a bad allergic reaction if they are inhaled, such as itch or asthma. Control the mold early as once they become widespread in the house, it is very very hard to control. The spores find its way into your clothes, curtains, books, furniture, false ceiling, leather, wall paper or anything that the mold can feed on. If your neighbour beside you or above you is in the habit of switching on their air con full blast for the whole day, it will make your side of your wall/ceiling cool. The coolness will cause moisture to condense on it and promote mold growth. Of course if you also switch on air con on your side of the wall, the condensation problem goes away. If you cannot keep up with your neighbour's air con hours, there is only one solution...go talk to them about your condensation problem on your wall/ceiling. This post has been edited by Topspin: 14 February 2011 - 10:30 PM

Ok let me try my best to describe...I use those tiny unwanted medicine measurement cups (volume of about 2 tablespoon) as the container and leave them in places where ants is seen. I would use about a quarter tea spoon of honey and mix with about one pinch (between thumb and fore finger) of borax and stir it until dissolved. I know this is not too scientific measurement but it did manage to attract the ants to eat without killing them on the spot. The ants would then bring it back to their colony and probably feed it to the queen ant. Within a week, I do not see any more ants in my kitchen.

It became a controlled item in Singapore a few years ago to prevent food manufacturers illegally adding borax into food items. In all developed countries like USA, Australia, UK, etc, it is still readily available in the supermarket as laundry aid and for cleaning kitchen utensils made of glass. It remains a permited food additive in some countries, surprising as it may seem. The older generation folks will tell you that dumpling (chang) will never have the same springy texture without a little borax added into the boiling water or rice. But agree, anyone who intend to buy borax for the purpose of controlling mold and ants, please do your research first to avoid injury...and never use it in food. Most ant/cockroach bait that you buy from the supermaket is also made of borax. I found out that mixing honey with a little borax is an excellent ant bait and will lead to the total destruction of the ant colony inside our house. The secret is the right ratio between honey and borax.

Thanks for contributing and advising but I think you need to at least inform the readers here that you have a commercial product to sell. We can then make our own judgement on the pros and cons of any advice given i.e advice given by you, by me or anyone else.