Greetings all, I live on the ground floor of apartment complex. The bathroom has no vent and obviously holds the moisture in as well as the mold from it.
The bath room has cement slab ceiling and no real easy access to the outside without going through bricks / cement.
Any recommendations or ideas?
move upstairs? this will help you get out of the mold and any radon. i hate to recommend a dehumidifier since they are as expensive to run as an air conditioner with a bucket. and will heat up the bathroom too. depending on your climate and humidity needs for this season, it is probably temporarily easy to circulate the moisture out of the room into the next room with a portable fan. there may be another option if you have a forced air furnace for heat of changing the heat duct to an exhaust intake and using a louvered bathroom door but that's for a homeowner shortcut not for an apartment complex with a building inspector and a construction permit from forty years ago.
You may want to check with the local authorities about their requirements.
Since you are renting, it would be the owner's responsibility to meet any codes. You should not care if it is difficult to properly vent the bath, if it is required, then it must be done, but not by you. You can vent through brick and concrete.
Get a core drill and go through the bricks / cement. It isn't rocket science, you know. You can rent one for $50.
I'm sure the apartment complex owner/management would love to have all of the tenants making amateur modifications to their property.
R
He won't be required to bring anything up to code unless he is already renovating or the conditions are so bad as to have it condemned. (ever heard of grandfathering, we don't all rush out to upgrade our houses whenever the city adopts a new code) (well, occasionally folks are forced to upgrade septic systems)
If you do have black toxic mold (as opposed to ugly bathroom mold and mildew) the landloard MAY be required to remediate or you will have a means to break the lease and demand damages (moving expenses and lost time from work because you were sick). Otherwise, buy some Lysol and spray the walls weekly.
I assume there is no window either. You could install a passive louvered vent at the top of the bathroom door (or wall space above it). At least the shower steam can vent to the hallway or adjascent room with a window.
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