Mold Removal 101

So last weekend we discovered that our apartment was growing a disturbing amount of black mold. We have a clothes closet and a bookshelf, both of which are placed almost against the exterior walls of our small apartment. Behind each of these pieces of furniture we discovered mold. Previously we had seen very small amounts on a couple places of our walls, but when we saw this we felt as though action needed to be taken...fast. Even though it is below zero here we started sleeping with the window open to ensure we were breathing in fresh air.

So we told our school about it on Monday and they called the owner of our building but as of the end of the week we had heard nothing. So we decided to take matters into our own hands and remove it ourselves. We went to the store and bought all the necessities--an exacto knife, face masks, rubber gloves, scrubbing brushes and bleach. We spent an hour and a half on Thursday taking care of the mold behind the bookcase and maybe 2ish hours Saturday/Sunday removing the mold behind our closet.

This seems to be a common problem among houses in Korea. Maybe it's due to poor ventilation in houses, or the extreme humidity in the summer, or simply over occupying a small living space. The presence of black mold definitely concerned and disturbed us more than it did any Koreans.

During our time here, we have endured long-lasting colds, congestion, sore throats and unexplainable rashes. We don't know how long the mold had been there, but it is a little scary to think we had been living with it for potentially over five months. There is a chance we will be moving to a bigger apartment within the next month or so, so we are excited about that thought. 

This was the worst section. It was fuzzy.



Behind the bookcase.

Hard at work.

Taking care of business