[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.