Black Mold

Dear Tim,

We live in a basement apartment in Orem, Utah. I noticed that every now and then there will be a nasty moldy smell that will fill our apartment. I later noticed that it only smelled bad when the landlord upstairs would use their clothes dryer. I thought that maybe the dryer vent came attatched and was blowing through the walls and sockets. Immedietely the thought of mold came into mind. After a few months of worrying about it, I decided to pull the dishwasher in the kitchen away from the wall to locate the source of warm moist and stinky air. I was disgusted to what i found. Someone has cut away a section of drywall about 1'x2' and i could see a water pipe that serves an outside hose bibb that was leaking water (quite a bit) There is mold EVERYWHERE, and the dryer vent makes it very warm. It is so disgusting! I wanted to find some advice before talking to the landlord about it. Do you any idea what kinds of mold could grow in these conditions (Dark WET and Warm environments) Do you think i should have an inspector come in to test it? I don't want to live here if its going to danger my new born baby.

Thanks so much for your help.

Ricky,
This is a VERY serious situation. You need to take immediate action. Call the landlord. Move to a friend or relative's house. Contact the local Public Health office on Monday.

Dear Tim,
I live in a custom built Santa Fe style home in Apache Junction Arizona.. Ever since the house was built some of the windows have had leaks below them where water will puddle up.. I know its coming from the windows. When I showed the contractor he said it was the windowsill and that the water was draining in the house insted of out.... He has since re sculped two of the worst ones and they still leak... His other solution was to put calking along the bottom that didn't help either.. Now I see black mold at the floor of 5 of my windows... #1 I'm wondering how to fix it. Do I need to reinstal all my windows? #2 Is the contractor still responsable for this? My house is 6 years old.. I also know that all my windows were installed without any window flashing by the contractor.. I would rather not use the same contractor for fear of the same results.. I also have a sliding glass door with the same problem.Please help, what can I do to save my house and my health.. Good thing it doesn't rain allot in Arizona..
Thanks,
Shawn O'D

Hi Tim,
We added onto our home about 12 years ago. We installed many new windows mostly Pella, from a major chain discount store. Every year we have had condensation on the windows. We now have areas of black mold (I am sure that's what it is) staining the window between and adjacent to the pane area and the wood frame itself. Pella told me I had broken the seal by using a razor blade to scrape away varnish after I varnished the windows years ago.
The wood sliding glass door also has this mold between the two sections that slide by each other in the winter also. I have asthma and notice the increase in respiratory problems. I have tried to clean the areas up in the summer with bleach and then revarnishing and the condensation returns every year and the black staining returns. HELP!!!! what can we do short of replacing all these windows again? My husband is very frustrated and so am I. Anita

Anita,
It is a water issue. Read all of the columns in my Condensation category and all of the columns in my Mold section. Follow my advice to the letter.

I had a water leak come through my wall and it was covered by a huge mirror. I found black mold behind it. Got rid of the mirror and completely saturated the wall with Chlorox, no water just straight chlorox. The mold disintegrated. It looks like it never happened. I had the leak fixed. My question is, will that be enough or do I have to replace the wall? The mold only covered a couple of feet across. Thank you.

Alex,
Beats me....... Is the wall sound? It is impossible for me to comment if I can't tell its condition.
Sorry!

Alex,
My husband and I live in a manufactured home and it was built in 2003 and we moved in in August 2003. After 4 years of living in the house, water is now running in from our bathroom into our kitchen. We have black mold on 2 of our walls and mold in the flooring of our bathroom. It appears that the piping wasn't installed properly when the house was put on the land. There is a bag and foam around the pipe from the ground to the house that has been cut and tape put over it and the washer and nut are glued on. Can my house be saved?

Dawn,
I am not Alex. Have no clue where he is. You need to call a fantastic remodeling contractor to tell you what needs to be done to fix your problems.

Hi Tim,

Black mold has been uncovered behind the walls in my apartment when a leak developed.

I've read a lot of articles saying that chlorine bleach does *not* completely kill the mold because of it's ionic factor.

Do you know of a product that will kill the mold forever?

Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Chris Burton

Chris,
I am not an organic chemist...... Sorry! But I can tell you that chlorine bleach is really good. Please read all of my Mold columns. You will discover that you are always surrounded by mold spores and you are fighting a loosing battle. The key is to control water.

Dear Tim,
MY DAUGHTER FOUND A LARGE AREA OF BLACK MOLD ON HER WALL BEHIND HER BED AND IN THE CORNER. MY HUSBAND USED A MIXTURE OF BLEACH AND WATER AND SATURATED THE WALL. THE PAINT PEELED OFF. MY QUESTION IS WHY WOULD MOLD GROW ON HER WALL. THE ROOMS IN OUR HOME FEELS DAMP BUT THERE IS NO LEAKS ANYWHERE IN OUR HOME. PLEASE HELP, THIS IS SO SCARY AND DISGUSTING. WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO .

Shelia,
Please go read all of the columns in my Mold category. It will make sense. You must discover the source of the water. It could be condensation. Read all of my Condensation category columns as well.

I have a situation with mold growth on a wall in the back of my business; I was standing around it taking pictures but I did not really touch the mold; I went to my car and ate an apple and within 2 hours my lip began to swell on the right side along with my face; it was as if I was having an allergic reaction to something I ate but I did not eat anything different; I went to the E.R. and they gave me a cortezone shot for the swelling; I have noticed that black mold can cause allergy symptoms but I have not seen anywhere in the studies where it causes swelling; is it possilbe that the swelling was a result of the mold?
Could I have somehow ingested it with the apple that I ate since I did not wash my hands; Although I didn't touch it, I was wondering if it could have been airborn.
thank you.

Sandy,
You are at *AsktheBuilder* not AsktheDoctor......

:-> I hope you get better and discover what happened.

Hello,

I live in a condo development and recently I found mold in the basement of most of the buildings on the property. These room as used as storage and in one case the sewer pipes run through the basement into the concrete. In this room, the ceiling is sagging from moisture and on the wall is black mold everywhere... also on closer inspection... there was what appeared to be brown wet ugly mushroomed shape mold next to the black mold.

A couple of the owners are down there now removing the mold and replacing it with drywall.

What's the deal with the mushroom???
Totally disgusting looking.

Thank you for your response.

Glenda,
Too much water. Don't eat the mushroom.

this is tragic, sad, but scary it can kill babies!!!
soso sad
-v

I need to remediate an entire house of mold

Greg,
May the Force be With You.

Tim,
I have lived in an older home for @ 9years now. Over those years we have done alot of remodeling. I always noticed a musty smell in the basememt. We did purchase a dehumidifier which seems to help; However living in americas heartland and all the rainy weather on rare occasion water comes into the basement. We have finished one room in the basement and have never had a problem with mold or water damage. This year however there has been so much rain that i cant keep the basement free of musty smells and I have just discovered black mold growing on the walls in the finished room. We cleaned it with a bleach solution and sprayed a scotchguard with mold and mildew protector on it. Within one week the mold was back covering more space than before. My children have been repeatedly ill this winter and I am needing to know what the next step is. Who do I call? Do I rip out the drywall? Being a single mom of 4 I need to know what to do for our health and our homes safety. Should I be concerned?

Thanks so much Sherry

Sherry,
You need to read my Drainage columns to see if you can stop the water from the outside. Read also all of my Mold columns. You MUST get the humidity down in the basement. Try more dehumidifiers.

we had our home built last summer and they used moldy 2x4's to frame out the house and it rained on them and got black mold on them and we caleed and complained so they came and replaced the twisted ones maybe 15 out od 40. andhow we moved in mid november of this year, and now our basement has mold all over it and they are addressinf that issue but what about the moldy 2x4s that they used to frame out the house are they potentially gonna cause problems in the future, my husband and son are allergic to mold already and i had already gotten sinusites, they have a air cleaner running so we can stay here and wanna put one on my furnace, we have it all video taped and the owner of the company said they should of never used those boards but now what?? I am so lost any info is good info
thanks

Tim,

I have a house which I purchased just recently . There were two seniors living in the house and I never heard any concerns about mold. I am renting this property out to a family of 5 with 2 teenage girls and a boy who will soon be a teenager. They have lots of friends in this house also. Since they moved in approximately a year they had concerns with mold forming in the washroom .The mold seems to be along the ceiling mostly in the area directly above the shower and against the outside wall. one day while up in the attic I noticed that there is no insulation on the ceiling for about 2-3 inches in from the top plate so I am assuming this is causing a condensation problem as a result of warm steamy air in the bathroom and the cool surface of the ceiling which is exposed.

I plan on placing insulation over the top plates covering the entire area of the bathroom so as to cut down on the condensation, is there anything else you would suggest. There is also some mold forming on the ceiling in one of the bedrooms again on the couple of inches of ceiling just in from the outside wall. The tenants here keep all of their doors closed in the house at all times and I am sure this is compounding the problem. I have a dehumidifier for them to help reduce the moisture problem but I am not sure if they have it turned on at all times.
Where the mold is on the bedroom ceiling there is heavy stucco. May it only be a matter of scrapping of the heavy stucco and getting that area redone with the plaster after. Does mold just lay on the surface or eat into the stucco that is why I had planned on removing the stucco thinking it is a surface problem and that there shouldn't be any mold underneath the stucco.

Thanks ,

Chris

Alex:

I have noticed lately that when I open the door to my dishwasher there is a moldy smell. My daughter says it is from leaving damp dishes in there.. Is there a way to get rid of the odor?

Thanks so much.

I know someone whose home had some damage due to the Midwest flooding. A wall in her living room (near fireplace) had black mold growing near the top of the wall and ceiling. The growth on the outside of the wall is maybe a few square feet area. She had someone "chip" away at the mold and drywall and repatch. Please let me know if this is a feasible solution or what she may be able to expect in the future. It would seem to me that more drastic measures would be required, and her solution will only be temporary. Isn't there a good chance the mold has spread behind the walls and sections of the drywall would need replacing? Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated.

My husband works on a construction site that is a high rise hotel. Construction stopped because money ran out. Its the rainy season here so when construction stopped water got everywhere. When they were able to start up again, most of the drywall had molded. My husband and his crew are concerned about the effects of this mold especially since they have to work around it 8-10 hours a day. There is no notice by the contractor when this will be fixed. Can you tell me if this can be harmful?

Tiny black mold spores were found all along the baseboard, & drywall from a leak from my new Heat Pump Condenser line. I also had green mold on my carpet. We have hired professionals to take care of the mold remediation, but I am very concerned because it was in my kid's playroom... do you think that the toys that were in that room are OK still or do you think that they could have gotten mold spores on them & should be treated or discarded? (toys were removed for the remediation process, but they've been in the same room as this for a while before it was discovered (it wasn't discovered until our carpet got soggy & we moved furtniture to discover the moldy carpet. Then, that was pulled up to see mold on the trim.) Does this make sense? What should we do about the toys?

Hi Tim

My son has removed all the wet and molded flooring and drywall, but there seems to be mold on the floor jousts, do these have to be removed also or just cleaned. He stopped the leaking source.
Thank you
Concerned Grandma

Dear Tim,
My wife and I just rolled up an old carpet in our basement, that was just laid there by the previous owners. We found mold on the concrete floor. What type of mold could it be and what is the best way to get rid of it?
Thanks,
Mike

We are concerned with the amount of red slim which bulds up in our humidifier. It seems to finally turn a bit white/brown and clog up the drain. We are also finding it in the dehumidifier and it is also pluggin up the drain. Any comments or suggestions. Is it a mold or something we should be concerned with in our home. We do seem to have a great deal of indoor allergies.
Thanks....

I was clening the basement yesterday and found a few black garbage bags with black mold on the items in them. I immediately got them out of the house. I also found a patch of black mold about 8 inches wide under the bags. I cleaned in with bleach but I was not wearing a mask and my husband and daughter were in the vacinity of the dust and mold. Are we all going to get sick now? Since I want to make a play area for my daughter there are there any other precausions I should be taking?