Is mould considered a "China" thing?

[whoamI?]

My bosses keep saying the structural integrity of the school is to Chinese standards. Please allow me to elaborate. My classroom and office has mould on the walls, and the school uses paint to cover the mould when investors, and cofounders are coming to the school. Is there mould in your school? Is mould a normal thing in China? My apartment doesnt have any, so I figured the school is just lying to me.

Thanks.

[PsyGuy]

Well they arent lying to you. Im sure the building is up to Chinese infrastructure standards, the problem is those standards mean nothing. Inspectors dont make very much and its cheaper to pay them off and use inferior techniques and materials. Mold isnt a Chinese thing, at least not in more modern and upscale Chinese expectations.

[whoamI?]

PsyGuy wrote:
> Well they arent lying to you. Im sure the building is up to Chinese
> infrastructure standards, the problem is those standards mean nothing.
> Inspectors dont make very much and its cheaper to pay them off and use
> inferior techniques and materials. Mold isnt a Chinese thing, at least not
> in more modern and upscale Chinese expectations.

Soo what are you saying? I don't think you answered my question. Is it common to see mould in international schools in China?

[PsyGuy]

@whoamI?

No its not common.

Schools that have a mold problem will typically buy a cheap fungicide and spray the infected area or have the cleaning service/custodial staff clean it after hours with soap and water (which doesnt fix the problem). Being in your office its location probably makes it difficult to treat, and the schools solution is simply to ignore it. If you want to treat it yourself, you can take a picture with your phone and go to Trust Mart or RenRenRu and ask for "Fungicide" and show the manager the picture, a can should cost about 20 RMB.

[PATeach]

I have the opposite problem--no mold in the school, TONS in my apartment. We treat it every month, hire folks to come in and take care of it, and still it persists! Then again, I'm in Shanghai and it's really humid and damp here throughout the year.

If I have mold in my home--school=provided or not==I figure it's at least partly my responsibility to take care of it. In the school, on the other hand, they'd better get on that. Chinese "standards" of construction, health, and safety seem to be flexible or non-existent, depending on where the owner has connections.

[happybuddha]

If you have mold/mould at home, have you tried running a dehumidifier? I lived in China (Tianjin and Guangzhou) for four years and Hong Kong for a bunch, and my experience was a dehumidifier is the best way to prevent clothes, leather goods, etc. from becoming moldy/mouldy. Tianjin is very dry, but Guangzhou and Hong Kong are very, very humid 10 months of the year.

As for mold at work, I don't recall it being much of a problem in Guangzhou (the most likely place I would have experienced it), and our offices (not a school) were very shoddily constructed. Tianjin was too dry and Hong Kong was high quality construction.

[toteach]

Lots of mold in my apartment an hour west of Shanghai, but there's none in the school. The husband kills it off with vinegar, but it comes back every couple of weeks in new and odd places. Heck, even unused clothes will mold after a couple weeks!

[mamava]

Mould has to do not only with the weather, but poor ventilation, poor construction, and poor management in terms of getting rid of it. When I lived in Beijing, which is very dry, we never had an issue with mold, but a high-end compound did all the time. A lot of my friends on high-end corporate contracts were plagued by mold--and it was just scraped and painted over repeatedly. Another family kept having respritory problems and found it growing all behind cabinets, etc. A health concern for sure! If you live in very humid areas like HK, Singapore, etc. you have to be aggressive with dehumidifiers and other devices to combat mould. Friend in S'pore hang some type of bags in their closets that absorb the moisture, use dehumidifiers, etc. to keep things as dry as possible. Some moulds are really toxic and exist despite repeated attempts to get rid of them.

[PsyGuy]

The activated charcoal closet dehumidifiers work well for clothes. The reason for the mold is that the drywall used in China is poorly made and untreated with antimicrobials, in addition it is poorly pressed meaning it absorbs moisture into its Interstitial spaces. Once mold gets in there you can not get it out except by replacing the drywall. The same thing would happen wherever you are, with the rate of growth being dependent on temperature and moisture.