[quickthrower2]

Anecdotally, including us, anyone you talk to here is dealing with mold issues, and it is often a very expensive problem to fix. Having no let up period from I think Dec -> May where the property can dry out, in addition to rain bombs causing roof leaks.

Many roofers have automated messages saying "we're too busy, no point". There is backlog in getting mold tested. Also affects general trades who don't give dates, they just come when the whether is good enough.

[ace2358]

The mould issue are intense. I live in the Northern Rivers region. A lot of houses here are situated in forests. These forests are immensely powerful and are fuelled by massive fungal and lichen growths.

I got flooded out of my house and took 3 months to find a new rental.

I watched as the fungus invaded my house and started to eat everything. Mould on the walls, fabrics, paper, rubber, leather. Anything that had any sort of digestible organic matter on it went mouldy. Glass had a think layer of spores. Black loud coming down from the ceiling (this is a very bad sign, your property is seriously sick if you have black mould on your ceiling).

This whole area has been dealing with this stuff since they started building here, every house is affected. These wet periods just highlight the danger. Our country doesn’t have the resources to clean this issue up. That means millions of people are inhaling spores all day every day.

Spores won’t kill you, but they will ruin your life. They get into your lungs and cause health issues. I was sceptical about it until I moved to a dry area. My health shot way back up!

Good luck getting any tradies let alone building supplies.

I can get my lettuce local though for $3 a bunch from the farmers market! So there’s that :)

[doctor_eval]

Yes, I'm in the sunshine coast and have experienced all of the above. We were cut off from school by flooding for about a week, a drive that usually took 15 minutes was taking at least an hour because of the long detour. And our roof has leaked. At least we didn't need to put water in the pool ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But the mould ... that was the worst. I'm going to smell of vinegar and clove oil for the rest of my life.

[bogomipz]

>"But the mould ... that was the worst. I'm going to smell of vinegar and clove oil for the rest of my life."

Whats the connection between mold, vinegar and clove oil? Are those used to treat or prevent surface mold?

[paranoidrobot]

Vinegar is a a mild acid that's good for cleaning and carrying other things you might want to distribute.

Clove oil is quite effective at killing mold at very low doses. It's also got a number of other useful properties.

[JacobAldridge]

They are, and we've found them effective (thankfully my area in Brisbane has been mostly dry this past month, so we seem to have it under control). They've been so popular they were selling out of the supermarkets for a little while; when the rain was dogscatting down some wag on reddit asked what we rename 'The Sunshine State' and my suggestion of 'The Vinegar and Clove Oil State' was universally well received.

[quickthrower2]

Good old apple cider vinegar! Good for battling those annoying pantry moths, and good for salads.

[AlbertCory]

Pantry moths! See, Nextdoor really is good for something. Someone there put me on to these. I got some, and they work like a champ.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U1SMPBS

[danans]

> Anecdotally, including us, anyone you talk to here is dealing with mold issues,

Is the mold a recent thing related to el Niño or has it been a problem for a while?

In the US at least, many houses built in the 90s-2000s have mold issues because they were built without proper water vapor permeability and also with materials that are also not moisture resilient.

This is even an issue in dry areas like California.

[quickthrower2]

It has increased the frequency of the problem.

Homes tend to stand up to harsh rains, as that is normal. What is not normal is 100 almost consecutive days of the heaviest torrential rain I have every witnessed, similar to a tropical wet season.

With this much rainfall, you get your building tested like never before. Our back lawn was flooded most of the time, with the water seeping into the building whatever way it can. There are new roof leaks, persistent puddles that seep into the brickwork. A stream of water running like a river around the property. High humidity means nothing is drying out. And so on...

[danans]

> It has increased the frequency of the problem.

That makes sense, and rhymes with climate change. What are the mitigation steps that can be taken at this point without completely reconstructing the house to exist feet above the rainy season water level?

[JacobAldridge]

This year seems the worst we've ever seen in our parts of Eastern Australia - we've also had some of the worst ever floods thanks to La Nina (and climate change), so that's more water than ever. And mould being a living thing keeps spreading when not managed, so it's lingering long after the floodwaters receded.