Does it sound like the maintenance man at my apartment building is lying?

Question

I live in an old mill building that's been refurbished and turned into apartment buildings.
My boyfriend and I live in a loft/studio. 
He loves to lay in the bathtub for 2-3 hours with hot water from the shower going over him. He puts the water at a very high temperature.
Within 20 minutes the entire apartment is filled with steam, the surface of the counters is wet, it's humid and almost impossibly hot and uncomfortable in this tiny apartment filled with steam. My hair even starts to frizz up and I feel sweaty and sick.

It's driving me crazy because I get nauseous and feel sick from the humidity.
There's a vent in the bathroom above the bathtub on the ceiling.
There is only a single light switch in the bathroom, when turned on it turns on the overhead light and that's it.

The vent makes no noise to indicate that there's a fan running. We complained to maintenance and the maintenance man said that all the apartments (there's 50 apartments on 3 floors) are connected to a ventilation system on the roof and they run 24.7 he put a paper towel under and showed how the vent slightly pulled on the paper towel to demonstrate suction. To me it seems barely detectable.
Even taking a short shower, the bathroom turned into a steamy hot mess with condensation, everything in the bathroom is wet and gets moldy. We've changed the shower curtain liner monthly.
Usually fans are turned on by a light switch as well.

Something about the maintenance story isn't adding up

Anonymous · Answer

Maintenance maintains the building...they did not design the system. I take it the bathroom is in the middle of the apartment. Most are.  Does your bathroom door have a screen in it?  That allows air through.  If it is a solid door then you got to leave the door open a bit to allow air to enter and be sucked out.  So you have a movement of air otherwise mold happens.  Leave that door open all the time if it is solid  That is the only way the humidity will get sucked out. My gf lived in an apartment and had mold in the bathroom and she had a screen on the door and she had a fan.  Either the screen was blocked or she left wet towels in the bath to dry and shut off the fan immediately when she was finished washing. WRONG. Leave the fan running for an hour after the shower bath whatever.  Never dry stuff in the bathroom when it can be dried on her dining room chairs or something ...laundry hanging out to dry.
I live in a house so my bath is right beside a window so leaving the window open a half inch does wonders for drying time. No mold EVER.

? · Answer

Like others have said, large buildings have central ventelation and it was shown to work. Crack a window to improve airflow.

Your BF has VERY unusual bathing habits and no building is designed to handle such a situation.

Purchase a dehumidifier to lower humidity.

As for the dishwasher, there may have been a delay in parts or an urgent maintenance issue may have come up.  Dishwashers are not urgent unless the supply is leaking.

a · Answer

He isn't lying
Many hotels do the same thing.
You have one powered roof vent and duct work to all the bathrooms and yes it runs 24-7.

T C · Answer

The central vents are very common for multi-use buildings….
If you want to enhance it… you could purchase a circular duct vent assist fan (between 20-30 dollars) and either hook it up to the light or use an extension cord. (probably have a 4” duct)

Another thing …. I know it’s plastic…. but you can wash the shower curtain as opposed to tossing it.

As for the dishwasher …nail him down to time. Schedule to be his first repair in the morning.

If he doesn’t show tell him you are going to call an appliance repair service.

y · Answer

He is going to be going to the priority to fix first, the emergence situation. So the dishwasher thing, not a priority, he is probably not the one dictating what is his priority either. Understanding how it works, the dishwasher thing, even though he should have called, doesn't make him a liar.  He put the paper there and sure, it pulled in, proved there was some flow, not enough obviously.  But what he described, is how many are being built now a days, and yes, they don't work all that well, but it is cheaper and uses shared resources, greener so to speak.  Basically, there is nothing he can do if that is how the system was designed.  Now, those grills on those vents usually are easy enough to remove, pull it and see if there is even a fan up in there that you can see. If not, the system is as he describes, if there is. You can certainly see if it comes on or not.

Does it sound like the maintenance man at my apartment building is lying?

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