Topspin

Have you tried Febreeze to remove the odor? It usually works on any odor, even on new musty leather smell unless the leather has been attacked by mold from the inside. Could the fish smell you described be mistaken for mold smell? Look closely at all your wooden/laminate surfaces. Do you see white mold spots on them? If yes, then they would give out a distinctive and disgusting smell. The smell grows stronger when the air is damp like after a rain. The smell "moving" could be because the mold smell is strongest in a room with poor ventilation. Open the window, the smell goes away for a while until it accumulates again a few days later. Another source of "fishy" smell is the laundry basket

To stop further mold growth, must stop the source of moisture. It is most certainly due to water condensation due to the cold from the aircon. I presume that affected wall is not getting much sun because most mold could not thrrive in very bright areas. Try to set your temperature setting higher and keep the fan speed low (if it is blowing towards the affected wall) I am having a rather similar problem as you but it is my floor and not the walls. The tennant below my unit is a foreigner who love to switch on the aircon the whole day at very low temperature. It is causing condensation on my parquet floor. It has damaged my parquet and recently mold has begun to grow on the joints between the timber strips due to the moisture. I am not in the habit to switch on aircon in my rooms unless the weather is very warm. Of course if I switch on my aircon as well, it would prevent condensation on my floor. Mold can be killed by normal vinegar or some bleach soluation. It only kills the existing colony but if the cause of dampness is not removed, it will return. I am having mold problems all over my house as well (mostly the white powdery variety) maybe because the condo swimming pool is very near my unit. I am so fed up of enduring the moldy smell when I enter my house and having to clean all wooden surfaces with vinegar every few weeks to stop the spread. I am thinking of getting the ultimate (desperate) solution...Ozone generator. Still waiting for some addtional quotes from local suppliers before buying. Do a search on Ozone Generator on the Internet and a whole bunch of info will appear.

You will get quite a lot of direct afternoon sun entering the north-west facing windows during the months when the northern hemisphere is experiencing summer, i.e. around May to Aug. The deepest sun penetration into the house will occur during summer solstice, which I think is 21 June (if I remember correctly) The opposite will occur for south-west facing windows. More afternoon sun when the southern hemisphere is experiencing summer, i.e. around Nov to Feb. Deepest penetration during winter solstice, i.e. the time to eat tang yuan. A window facing North or South will get a bit of both but the afternoon sun would not enter very deep into the house thru the 12 months cycle. Hope this simple refresher on solar season helps

I suppose you meant the silicone sealant/acrylic sealant in the bathroom...if the black mold is on the surface, a simple scrub with an unused toothbrush will do the trick but if it could not be removed, it means that the mold is growing inside the sealant. No easy solution but I have personally tried undiluted bleach solution and it worked sometimes. If the silicone affected is at the horizontal edge of your basin, bathtub, etc, try dripping bleach directly on it and let it stay overnight. On vertical surfaces, the bleach will just flow down so it needs constant application using a cotton ball. Do it repeatedly for a few times. I read that someone stick tissue paper on the vertical surface so the bleach will stay in place longer. Remember, bleach vapour is not good for health. Minimise the inhalation. If bleach does not work, only sure solution is to remove old sealant and re-apply.

Can try the tension bar if do not want to drill onto bathroom wall. Have been using them for as long as I remember. They work well and will stay in place. Can get them at NTUC, various lengths available.

I have used ant bait as well. Wiped out one colony nest but the future one seems to know how to avoid it. Must just keep changing the brand of ant bait. I suppose different brand smells different. Just be careful about using loose powder (poison) placed on the floor in case a pet or young child may ingest it accidentally. A quick but temporary solution is to use Baygon green can. Have been using this method since I was young. The crystaline residue left after spraying will stop certain ants, all cockroaches and lizard from wanting to crawl that spot. I say "certain" ants because there are some species that are less affected by Baygon residue, maybe they have thicker shell??

The formula is: Power in watts / 1000 * hours it is operated * 30.45 cents/kwH example of a bulb that consumes steady 40W and switch on for 10 hours 40 /1000 * 10 * 30.54 = 12.2 cents For devices like Iron, fridge, aircon, electric stove, microwave oven can be more tricky to calculate. Although an iron has a rated power of 2000 watt, the thermostat will make it power on and off many times depending on your temperature setting. Even if you operate a fridge 24 hrs day, power is consumed for only about 1 or 2 hours a day only depending on your temperature setting as well as how often you open the door.

Sounds like something similar to what is happening to my floor. Thanks for confirming. I will now need to have a friendly chat with my downstair neighbour.

When I moved in to my unit a year ago, the unit directly below me is still vacant. Someone just moved in a few weeks ago. Since then I have noticed damp floor in my bedroom especially where the aircon blower is located in the unit below. It is especially wet in the morning and sometime in the afternoon. It is not dripping wet but just wet enough to see and touch a layer of moist. It has now caused my timber strips to expand due the dampness and cause the adhesive to be pushed out from the joints. It is ugly and feels rough on the feet. I rarely switch on the aircon in my room myself. Contacted the condo management office about it a week back. Will ask them to witness the wetness the next time. Has anyone experienced this? Could the person below me set the temperature of his room so cold that it makes their ceiling (my floor) cold enough to cause water vapour condensation? The ceilings in my unit are very thick actually, can barely hear footsteps in the unit above me. Therefore this wet floor phenomenon surprises me. I doubt I could get them to reduce the temperature of their room when they sleep, it is their right actually.

For normal stains from food, bleach method works best (above post). Tried it many times always works. For electric kettle which is black, heat (no need to boil) a pot of water with about 20% vinegar. Leave it for 10 minutes. You will be surprised how new it looks after that. I have personally tried this myself. Almost threw away my old electric kettle earlier and have even bought a replacement but now it looks like new.

It is now 1.5 years since I moved. Honestly the road noise still annoy me but I try to live with it. There is a construction next door and I am hopping the new block when up will further shield any remaining sound. But in the mean time, the construction noise is driving me nuts, more than the road noise but the consolation is that the construction noise is mostly in daytime when no one is at home anyway. As one poster asked...why move from my quieter home in the first place...there wasn't a day I didn't wished I had not moved.

Enjoy reading all the postings here but touched by the posting about departed loved ones and animals trying to make contact. It is 5.30am in the morning alone in my room so the spook factor is multiplied many times. For those who experience someone holding them back during sleep, there is a scientific explanation. When the person sleeps, the mind induces a "paralysis" of the limbs even though the mind can be active. If it wasn't for this, we would start sleep walking each time we have a dream. The natural "paralysis" is often mistaken for someone holding you down.

For electrical appliances, no need to wait for sales. HDB shop prices are already significantly lower than the 3 major appliances retailer. I bought my fridge and washer from Kong Tai. Unbeatable price. The free items given by the dealer can even be exchanged for further price reduction.

What type of floor are you having? Marble, parquet, timber strips are more easily scratched by certain vacuum head design. Don't ignore this in your purchasing consideration.

I emphatise with your frustration. I experienced this before in other shops...especially Sim Lim Sq. Nevertheless have not experienced this on any of the lighting shops along Ballestier or Jln Besar thus far. If a ceiling fluroscent light fail within a few days, before you call your lighthing shop, pause to confirm it is not due to the installation fault first. Often time a simple loose connection or even a green earth wire not touching the metal body can cause the light to go off. In such case, swapping the bulb on another light is the only sure way to confirm that you were not given defective bulbs. Yet there are other times the lighting shop warned me about buying cheaper PLC bulb to save cost. I went ahead to buy a cheaper PLC bulb brand (Akira) anyway and true enough, about 10% of them failed within a month. I did not complain as I was warned!

buyer can sue which is typically the difference in price of the next unit the buyer is forced to buy at a higher price. Not sure what happens if the unit the buyer bought is lower? need to check with lawyer. In such case the buyer should be glad anyway he did not proceed with the sale.

Not all that is written on flyes are untrue, some are really written by an individual if that particular block is what a buyer is looking for. I know because I have done that!! I did cleary state in my flyer that I am NOT an agent. Due to the popularity of that block, unfortunately, I did not get much response. (by the way it is no fun pushing papers into hundreds of letter box with eyes starring at you thinking that you are paid to do so) Some units are being sold without having it advertised in the paper. A personal flyer would reach out to such sellers and fence sitters I suppose.

Should not be a problem and there will still be energy savings. One other alternative is to remove one 13 W bulb if you already have bought a double downlight and 13W PLC bulbs. Some of my 2x13W downlights have been operating with just one bulb since I moved 1.5 years ago. The other bulb is still going strong. I understand that the ballast for 13 w or 10 w is the same.

Shell LPG is having a promotion, pay for five 12.7 kg cylinder in advance, you get $7 discount per cylinder, $20 cold storage voucher and free regulator/hose. If you do not have an existing cylinder, need to pay $20 as deposit. Deposit can be refunded later but only $15. The catch is need to consume the five cylinders within 2 years, means it may not be suitable for everyone. I was just comparing this with other another supplier, $100 first time package for one cylinder + regulator + hose. Refundable deposit of $20. If you do the sums and assume the regulator + hose cost $70 for both Shell and the other supplier, the cost of each LPG tank for Shell promotion is only $12 whereas for the other supplier, it is still at market rate of about $36. Would it not be quite obvious the Shell LPG promotion is very good? Anyone shares the same view? Am I missing something?

I believe you are refering to the air-con/heater combo unit which is only used in cold countries. In summer it is like a regular aircon, but during winter, the refrigerant moves in the opposite direction and blows hot air into the room instead of outdoor. I think all aircon sold in Singapore is the single air con type only. If you set at 28 degC and the room is already colder than 28 degC, the air con compressor will remain off. Only the fan is recirculating the room air. If feels warm eventually because the room windows are closed. A single human produces a lot of heat actually.

There is a common perception that energy saving bulbs is only those compact fluorescent twisted type bulbs. If you are currently using a normal incandescent bulb (filament type bulb costing about $1), replacing them with one of those compact fluorescent bulbs will achieve significant energy savings...but you need to factor in the higher upfront cost of the energy saving bulbs. One the other hand, if you buying a ceiling light for your new home, installing a standard circular 22W or 32 W fluorescent bulb (or even the long tube type used in offices) is by definition a energy saving light already. The standard circular fluorescent bulb is relatively cheap, costing about $4 but it needs to be replaced once the brightness diminish after about a thousand hours of operation...which is itself more durable than a normal incandescent bulb or halogen bulb. From my own experience, the higher cost of a energy savings bulb (those Philips or Osram costing about $7 each) cannot justify its high cost compared to a normal $1 incandescent bulb if you do not need to switch it on for long periods like in your bathroom or store room. But from an environmental view point, yes, pay more upfront to save the world's resource if you can afford it.

All the best in your kitchen renovation. We will know for sure if this cost saving method is truly cost effective in a few years time.. hehehe. (if the plaster drops out of the existing tile, means need to re-do again and cost more money) As discussed with my contractor, I will insist that he do very thorough acid wash of the wall tiles to remove the grease, stains, gunk etc before he applies the bonding compound over it. I will insist on wanting to witness this cleaning myself. I don't like the idea of having a 10 year old unidentified gunk sticking on my wall although it is buried unseen by a layer of plaster.

Thanks all for the comments. Unfortunately the condition of the present tile is very bad, gouting very black, tiles discoloured with age, etc, no way it can be easily disguised with stickers. It has an ugly bamboo image on each tile yeucks!! It would feel "dirtly" showering in that bathroom. I am still keeping my options open for the time being but noted the shortcomings listed above. Hope some one else has a positive experience with this in addition to the cost savings.

A family member used slates in the bathroom floor. As it is dark, it does not look dirtly easily. You should apply a layer of laquer (or whatever they call it) to keep it water proof, on the slate as well as the grouting.

Anyone at all have done this? Would very much like to hear from you.