Mold Issue | The Boneyard

Mold Issue

Joined
Jul 6, 2019
Messages
633
Reaction Score
3,435
My wife and I purchased and moved into a new house about a month ago. When we had the inspection we knew there was some mold in the attic that we would need to take care of, but the inspector said the rest of the house was in very good condition... he said usually he tells people not to move forward when there's mold, but it's only confined to that space and we can just take care of it there and be good.

Well, since moving in I wanted to be thorough and hired an environmental inspector that specifically just finds mold and identifies the problem - he doesn't do any remediation. He confirmed the attic, but found other things as well...

  • Mold in attic
  • Air spores in 2/4 bedrooms. We're tearing out the carpets in those rooms and refinishing the floors (hardwood underneath)
  • Significant issue in basement. About 1000 sq. ft. of the basement is finished, with a fireplace and walkout with large pitcher windows overlooking the woods. Mold is a big issue there and he recommended essentially spraying the whole unfinished part and basically gutting the whole finished part (rip out all carpets, remove wood paneling and tear it down to the studs. Then do remediation and rebuild.

Since moving in we have discovered that the house definitely has a humidity problem. The house has a whole house dehumidifier, but with that running 24/7 it gets the house to 50's and 60's % relative humidity. They installed it a year ago apparently and were in the 70's before then all the time (learned this from talking to the HVAC guy).

What am I looking at here to solve this? My wife and I are already talking about cutting our losses and moving, and we're pretty stressed out about this.

I'm considering:

1. Staying and doing all of the mitigation required, but always being worried that there is more mold I don't even know about.
2. Taking care of the areas where there is definitive mold, freshening up the house, and selling.

Thoughts?
 

Gutter King

Let me drop a deduce on ya
Joined
Mar 30, 2014
Messages
257
Reaction Score
1,747
My wife and I purchased and moved into a new house about a month ago. When we had the inspection we knew there was some mold in the attic that we would need to take care of, but the inspector said the rest of the house was in very good condition... he said usually he tells people not to move forward when there's mold, but it's only confined to that space and we can just take care of it there and be good.

Well, since moving in I wanted to be thorough and hired an environmental inspector that specifically just finds mold and identifies the problem - he doesn't do any remediation. He confirmed the attic, but found other things as well...

  • Mold in attic
  • Air spores in 2/4 bedrooms. We're tearing out the carpets in those rooms and refinishing the floors (hardwood underneath)
  • Significant issue in basement. About 1000 sq. ft. of the basement is finished, with a fireplace and walkout with large pitcher windows overlooking the woods. Mold is a big issue there and he recommended essentially spraying the whole unfinished part and basically gutting the whole finished part (rip out all carpets, remove wood paneling and tear it down to the studs. Then do remediation and rebuild.

Since moving in we have discovered that the house definitely has a humidity problem. The house has a whole house dehumidifier, but with that running 24/7 it gets the house to 50's and 60's % relative humidity. They installed it a year ago apparently and were in the 70's before then all the time (learned this from talking to the HVAC guy).

What am I looking at here to solve this? My wife and I are already talking about cutting our losses and moving, and we're pretty stressed out about this.

I'm considering:

1. Staying and doing all of the mitigation required, but always being worried that there is more mold I don't even know about.
2. Taking care of the areas where there is definitive mold, freshening up the house, and selling.

Thoughts?
There should be a reason for the humidity. I don't think you can put together a cohesive gameplan without figuring that out. It seems odd that the problem hasn't been solved by now though. You can't throw money at the situation without getting to the root, because you probably have a disclosure issue (do the previous owners?) now that the rest of the house has issues.

Have the roof and soffits been checked for proper ventilation ratio? I think you would probably need to start there.

There are RE agents on the board that may better address this aspect, but what the hell was your inspector doing? It seems there were some pretty egregious errors there that you may have recourse for.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
8,967
Reaction Score
31,562
1. Did the inspector offer any sort of guarantee? Some offer one through a third party. It probably wouldn’t help too much but worth a try

2. You need to fix it. You can’t sell it like that without full disclosure. If you disclose it, you will get killed on price.

3. Ventilation is almost always the issue. Start with the attic.

4. Mold spores in the air aren’t generally a big deal. Mold is wildly overreacted too in terms of mitigation. If you can dry the place out, a top to bottom cleaning should solve it. Often all that is needed to get mold counts down is a duct cleaning in houses with central air. Houses without duct work require removal of the moisture, carpet cleaning and wiping down of all surfaces.

5. Do not involve a disaster cleanup company! They are a ripoff in these situations. They’ll come and clean it with Hepa vacs etc. but they won’t fix the moisture source. You’ll be throwing away thousands and the mold will just come right back. Get a contractor to help address the ventilation and/or water intrusion issues. When the house is dry and properly ventilated, clean it really well, including steam cleaning of carpets and professional cleaning of ductwork.
 
Last edited:

ConnHuskBask

Shut Em Down!
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Messages
8,936
Reaction Score
32,588
Can't help you with any of the remediation but I have each of these in my house: Wave Mini and Wave Plus.

They are a bit pricey and they won't help mitigate the problem, but it would at least give you a baseline measurement to see if future changes are or aren't working. I set mine up prior to getting an air duct cleaning, and I notice the air had improved quality on the readings afterwards. Could be coincidental, but I doubt it. Make sure if you do a duct cleaning the business is NADCA certified. Most of the places that send out coupons in the weekly mail flyers are not.

One other thing to add is that the Air Things customer support is fantastic. They price matched a couple weeks after my purchase and also answer any questions with a live chat representative withing minutes.
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
35,132
Reaction Score
29,316
My wife and I purchased and moved into a new house about a month ago. When we had the inspection we knew there was some mold in the attic that we would need to take care of, but the inspector said the rest of the house was in very good condition... he said usually he tells people not to move forward when there's mold, but it's only confined to that space and we can just take care of it there and be good.

Well, since moving in I wanted to be thorough and hired an environmental inspector that specifically just finds mold and identifies the problem - he doesn't do any remediation. He confirmed the attic, but found other things as well...

  • Mold in attic
  • Air spores in 2/4 bedrooms. We're tearing out the carpets in those rooms and refinishing the floors (hardwood underneath)
  • Significant issue in basement. About 1000 sq. ft. of the basement is finished, with a fireplace and walkout with large pitcher windows overlooking the woods. Mold is a big issue there and he recommended essentially spraying the whole unfinished part and basically gutting the whole finished part (rip out all carpets, remove wood paneling and tear it down to the studs. Then do remediation and rebuild.

Since moving in we have discovered that the house definitely has a humidity problem. The house has a whole house dehumidifier, but with that running 24/7 it gets the house to 50's and 60's % relative humidity. They installed it a year ago apparently and were in the 70's before then all the time (learned this from talking to the HVAC guy).

What am I looking at here to solve this? My wife and I are already talking about cutting our losses and moving, and we're pretty stressed out about this.

I'm considering:

1. Staying and doing all of the mitigation required, but always being worried that there is more mold I don't even know about.
2. Taking care of the areas where there is definitive mold, freshening up the house, and selling.

Thoughts?
If you’ve only been there a month, and found all those issues… were they disclosed prior to the sale? I think the seller, the lawyers, the agents all owe you, but that’s probably the opposite of what the law is. I’d get another lawyer involved… if you like the the house, neighbor, location, area, otherwise, if you push you might get some financial retribution.
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
2,034
Reaction Score
4,430
Have a mishap in your shop where you inadvertently set the house on fire. Make sure you have tour meaningful stuff in storage before doing that.
 
Joined
Nov 25, 2019
Messages
2,083
Reaction Score
6,553
My wife and I purchased and moved into a new house about a month ago. When we had the inspection we knew there was some mold in the attic that we would need to take care of, but the inspector said the rest of the house was in very good condition... he said usually he tells people not to move forward when there's mold, but it's only confined to that space and we can just take care of it there and be good.

Well, since moving in I wanted to be thorough and hired an environmental inspector that specifically just finds mold and identifies the problem - he doesn't do any remediation. He confirmed the attic, but found other things as well...

  • Mold in attic
  • Air spores in 2/4 bedrooms. We're tearing out the carpets in those rooms and refinishing the floors (hardwood underneath)
  • Significant issue in basement. About 1000 sq. ft. of the basement is finished, with a fireplace and walkout with large pitcher windows overlooking the woods. Mold is a big issue there and he recommended essentially spraying the whole unfinished part and basically gutting the whole finished part (rip out all carpets, remove wood paneling and tear it down to the studs. Then do remediation and rebuild.

Since moving in we have discovered that the house definitely has a humidity problem. The house has a whole house dehumidifier, but with that running 24/7 it gets the house to 50's and 60's % relative humidity. They installed it a year ago apparently and were in the 70's before then all the time (learned this from talking to the HVAC guy).

What am I looking at here to solve this? My wife and I are already talking about cutting our losses and moving, and we're pretty stressed out about this.

I'm considering:

1. Staying and doing all of the mitigation required, but always being worried that there is more mold I don't even know about.
2. Taking care of the areas where there is definitive mold, freshening up the house, and selling.

Thoughts?
Have you removed any of the paneling to see if the walls are damp or if there is seepage?
How about the flooring? Is there dampness anywhere coming up from beneath the floor?

From friends, family, and personal experience there are several issues to check.

It's possible they didn't waterproof the outside of the foundation properly or, if they did, they might not have gone high enough.

If it's a wet area and they didn't put in foundation drains around the outside of the foundation that could lead to seepage through the walls or the floor.

If the lot wasn't graded properly to keep standing water away from the foundation that can be a problem. When we built our house we found seeping water along the back wall of one end of the foundation after heavy rain a month or two after we moved in. We had foundation drains installed around the foundation when the house was built so I was concerned they hadn't been installed correctly. As I looked at the area outside at the spot where the seepage was occurring I realized that area of the lot hadn't been graded properly so I had the contractor come back (for free) to regrade the area and create a swail a few yards away from the foundation so standing or pooling water during heavy rains could no longer get near the foundation. Problem solved.

My parents house was damp in the basement and they had to have "french drains" installed inside to drain the water to a sump pump. The water table was high and the clay soil complicated that.
 

tdrink

Pessimistic idealist
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
4,946
Reaction Score
1,184
I'm a remodeling contractor and agree that this is likely a drainage issue.

Finished basements with paneling and inadequate perimeter draining go together like chocolate and peanut butter.
 

ColchVEGAS

Still buckin like five, deuce, four, trey.
Joined
Apr 13, 2018
Messages
912
Reaction Score
3,030
Stuff like this does not happen overnight. If the house has a whole house dehumidifier it was known that moisture was an issue so this should have all been disclosed in the sale contract. Either your inspector did not do a great job and understated the issue or the environmental inspector went full on scare tactic on you. I would talk to a lawyer and see if there is anything that can be done on the lack of disclosure side. It may be less expensive than to remediate and truly fix the issue.
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
1,786
Reaction Score
4,089
Have you removed any of the paneling to see if the walls are damp or if there is seepage?
How about the flooring? Is there dampness anywhere coming up from beneath the floor?

From friends, family, and personal experience there are several issues to check.

It's possible they didn't waterproof the outside of the foundation properly or, if they did, they might not have gone high enough.

If it's a wet area and they didn't put in foundation drains around the outside of the foundation that could lead to seepage through the walls or the floor.

If the lot wasn't graded properly to keep standing water away from the foundation that can be a problem. When we built our house we found seeping water along the back wall of one end of the foundation after heavy rain a month or two after we moved in. We had foundation drains installed around the foundation when the house was built so I was concerned they hadn't been installed correctly. As I looked at the area outside at the spot where the seepage was occurring I realized that area of the lot hadn't been graded properly so I had the contractor come back (for free) to regrade the area and create a swail a few yards away from the foundation so standing or pooling water during heavy rains could no longer get near the foundation. Problem solved.

My parents house was damp in the basement and they had to have "french drains" installed inside to drain the water to a sump pump. The water table was high and the clay soil complicated that.
This is good advice. Significant mold issues rarely arise from humidity alone, definitely not 60-70%. The previous owners may have had a major water event, or you may still have water leakage issues, and the humidity is just a symptom.
 
Joined
Jul 6, 2019
Messages
633
Reaction Score
3,435
I really appreciate all of the input. The only places we physically found mold in the basement was in a built-in cabinet located in the center of the finished part of the basement, and in built-in shelves. The mold inspector said he would tear out the whole basement down to the studs because it doesn't make sense why there is mold in the cabinets that are literally floating in the middle of the basement (they're in between the two posts and contain the radon mitigation in addition to storage). The house does have french drains running all along the front and side of the house, with a sealant on the foundation.

Since moving in, I have searched and cannot find any evidence of water damage in the basement besides that cabinet - which is what the inspector said. I think he didn't find mold in the basement because the previous owner had tons of their stuff in those cabinets. Obviously there may be mold under the carpet or in the walls that we can't see - the situation is just strange because there isn't evidence of water damage anywhere else. The seller did disclose they had done remediation in the attic, and we knew the attic was an issue going in and knew we would just remediate that and improve ventilation there and thought we'd be good. We had zero evidence at the time of issues in the basement - like I said, french drains, sealant on the foundation, no signs of damage in the basement all made us feel good about the basement when we bought the house. It was also clear the previous owner was extremely meticulous with maintaining the house - he has multiple binders maintaining records of everything he's done, what colors and materials he's used, etc.

The attic has a fan and cross ventilation. It is super humid in there despite that. I think a big issue with the humidity is just that the house is in the woods. It's completely surrounded with massive, old growth trees that I think are just capturing moisture and holding it there. I didn't really think about this possibility when buying the house, and didn't notice humidity issues when walking through. It sucked with this market we didn't have time to really do our full due diligence.

That's partially why we're considering just remediating the mold and selling the house in a year or two, since we keep running into issues that just weren't apparent before and we're not really interested in just dumping money into potential fixes and crossing our fingers that it solves the problems.
 
Joined
Dec 11, 2014
Messages
1,365
Reaction Score
7,714
I really appreciate all of the input. The only places we physically found mold in the basement was in a built-in cabinet located in the center of the finished part of the basement, and in built-in shelves. The mold inspector said he would tear out the whole basement down to the studs because it doesn't make sense why there is mold in the cabinets that are literally floating in the middle of the basement (they're in between the two posts and contain the radon mitigation in addition to storage). The house does have french drains running all along the front and side of the house, with a sealant on the foundation.

Since moving in, I have searched and cannot find any evidence of water damage in the basement besides that cabinet - which is what the inspector said. I think he didn't find mold in the basement because the previous owner had tons of their stuff in those cabinets. Obviously there may be mold under the carpet or in the walls that we can't see - the situation is just strange because there isn't evidence of water damage anywhere else. The seller did disclose they had done remediation in the attic, and we knew the attic was an issue going in and knew we would just remediate that and improve ventilation there and thought we'd be good. We had zero evidence at the time of issues in the basement - like I said, french drains, sealant on the foundation, no signs of damage in the basement all made us feel good about the basement when we bought the house. It was also clear the previous owner was extremely meticulous with maintaining the house - he has multiple binders maintaining records of everything he's done, what colors and materials he's used, etc.

The attic has a fan and cross ventilation. It is super humid in there despite that. I think a big issue with the humidity is just that the house is in the woods. It's completely surrounded with massive, old growth trees that I think are just capturing moisture and holding it there. I didn't really think about this possibility when buying the house, and didn't notice humidity issues when walking through. It sucked with this market we didn't have time to really do our full due diligence.

That's partially why we're considering just remediating the mold and selling the house in a year or two, since we keep running into issues that just weren't apparent before and we're not really interested in just dumping money into potential fixes and crossing our fingers that it solves the problems.

Sounds like you might want to take a close look at the radon mitigation system for the basement mold. Seems like that would be the only source of moisture in the set-up if I understand what you have described correctly. The systems I'm aware of penetrate the slab and then use a fan to create a vacuum drawing radon from under the slab. Is there not a good seal in or some other type of leak (which would also render the radon mitigation ineffective) Is there a temperature differential between the pipe and the basement air (which would be a source of condensation)? If you want to do some preliminary inspection behind your wall you might consider something like this (just got the auto-focus model for looking behind one of my walls and am happy with it)

The attic seems a little more puzzling if you can't identify a roof leak, as they're usually hot as all get out this time of year, so tend to be very dry. Is there un-insulated air conditioning duct work or some other source of cold that would promote condensation ?
 
Joined
Nov 25, 2019
Messages
2,083
Reaction Score
6,553
My wife and I purchased and moved into a new house about a month ago. When we had the inspection we knew there was some mold in the attic that we would need to take care of, but the inspector said the rest of the house was in very good condition... he said usually he tells people not to move forward when there's mold, but it's only confined to that space and we can just take care of it there and be good.

Well, since moving in I wanted to be thorough and hired an environmental inspector that specifically just finds mold and identifies the problem - he doesn't do any remediation. He confirmed the attic, but found other things as well...

  • Mold in attic
  • Air spores in 2/4 bedrooms. We're tearing out the carpets in those rooms and refinishing the floors (hardwood underneath)
  • Significant issue in basement. About 1000 sq. ft. of the basement is finished, with a fireplace and walkout with large pitcher windows overlooking the woods. Mold is a big issue there and he recommended essentially spraying the whole unfinished part and basically gutting the whole finished part (rip out all carpets, remove wood paneling and tear it down to the studs. Then do remediation and rebuild.

Since moving in we have discovered that the house definitely has a humidity problem. The house has a whole house dehumidifier, but with that running 24/7 it gets the house to 50's and 60's % relative humidity. They installed it a year ago apparently and were in the 70's before then all the time (learned this from talking to the HVAC guy).

What am I looking at here to solve this? My wife and I are already talking about cutting our losses and moving, and we're pretty stressed out about this.

I'm considering:

1. Staying and doing all of the mitigation required, but always being worried that there is more mold I don't even know about.
2. Taking care of the areas where there is definitive mold, freshening up the house, and selling.

Thoughts?
If you open that basement cabinet area make sure you look for any nails that may have penetrated a water pipe when the cabinetry was being built/installed.

A neighbor moved into the 12 year old house next door a few months ago and went through the floor of the extra bedroom over the garage due to a slow leak caused by a nail in a water pipe feeding the bathroom. Just a drip, drip, that kept getting worse as the nail rusted. It rotted the sub-floor and his weight hitting the weakest part was enough to break through the carpet and plywood sub-floor.
 

ClifSpliffy

surf's up
Joined
Nov 9, 2018
Messages
9,512
Reaction Score
14,295
random observations.
so, which is it?
post 1: 'but it's only confined to that space and we can just take care of it there and be good.' inspector 1.
post 1: 'Significant issue in basement.' inspector 2.
i vote inspector 1, for these reasons:
a) the original inspection for closing was presumedly done in, while not exactly typical times as jan-june this year was drier than average, and along with 'It was also clear the previous owner was extremely meticulous with maintaining the house - he has multiple binders maintaining records of everything he's done...' i luv buying stuff from people like that, while,
b) the subsequent inspection was done in, well, read it for urself A Wet Start to July (cornell.edu), umm, like crazy wet, like 3 times average. i'd bet cash money that ur crib is somewhere in that dark green area.
remediation?
1. relax, do nothing other than dump the basement carpeting and any other carpeting that you feel like cuz that stuff, unless it's 100% natural fiber, can be an issue when considering moisture, mold, etc...
2. 'I think a big issue with the humidity is just that the house is in the woods. It's completely surrounded with massive, old growth trees that I think are just capturing moisture and holding it there.' yes, yes indeedy. after a better knowledge of water around ur crib (maps, soil maps, etc etc are readily and freely available for ur place), an intelligent analysis (sun locale, seasonal prevailing winds, soil, etc) for ur choking, moisture retaining, sun blocking canopy. cut some when a plan comes together.

'mold inspector said he would tear out the whole basement down to the studs'
if he also volunteers to pay for it, then listen. if he doesn't offer to pay for it, then throw him into those soon-to-be better managed woods, along with the basement carpeting. it sounds like a real nice house, basement fireplace, basement big windows and all that.
not quite like that 'one hour martinizing is a crock' statement by saint cosmo of kramer fame, but pretty close when discussing that new 'everything is mold' craze that's all the rage, especially for the clipboard carrying crowd that likes to send out bills for their 'superior intellects.'

when exactly was the house built?
 
Last edited:

tdrink

Pessimistic idealist
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
4,946
Reaction Score
1,184
Sounds like you might want to take a close look at the radon mitigation system for the basement mold. Seems like that would be the only source of moisture in the set-up if I understand what you have described correctly. The systems I'm aware of penetrate the slab and then use a fan to create a vacuum drawing radon from under the slab. Is there not a good seal in or some other type of leak (which would also render the radon mitigation ineffective) Is there a temperature differential between the pipe and the basement air (which would be a source of condensation)? If you want to do some preliminary inspection behind your wall you might consider something like this (just got the auto-focus model for looking behind one of my walls and am happy with it)

The attic seems a little more puzzling if you can't identify a roof leak, as they're usually hot as all get out this time of year, so tend to be very dry. Is there un-insulated air conditioning duct work or some other source of cold that would promote condensation ?

With the additional information, I also suspect the radon mitigation for the basement mold. What year was the house built? If the slab doesn’t have a vapor barrier below it you will likely get some water vapor evaporating up through the floor even if the seal on the pipe is good.

Make sure your gable fan is moving enough air. Gable venting only works with forced air flow. Ridge/soffit venting is preferable.

Make sure your bath fans and range hood are working properly. Consider upgrading bath fans.

Too much shade is problematic. If you can’t cut trees at least get hedges and bushes away from the foundation.

This has been the rainiest July ever recorded, so that’s probably not helping.
 

Dream Jobbed 2.0

“Most definitely”
Joined
May 3, 2016
Messages
14,827
Reaction Score
55,739
Have eversource come do an energy assessment for free. They’ll seal any cracks that may be letting moisture seep in. Then have someone come back
 
Last edited:
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
8,967
Reaction Score
31,562
Is the radon system running all the time? Sometimes, if a house is really tight, the system will create a vacuum and the house wont breathe properly. A consideration might be to lessen the time the radon system is running and see if that makes any difference. If you have AC, run it nice and cool and see if you can dry the house out. I've been in damp houses before that I though may have issues but they really just needed to be dried out. A house left damp for years has a lot of drying out to do once the issue is dealt with.
 
Joined
Jul 6, 2019
Messages
633
Reaction Score
3,435
Thanks for the input everyone. I had a remediation company come this morning to give a quote. $6900 for the attic and basement. Fortunately, they aren't recommending tearing out the whole basement. He things there is a pipe leaking underneath the cabinet in the basement and we just need to tear that out and find what is causing the moisture in there.
 

ClifSpliffy

surf's up
Joined
Nov 9, 2018
Messages
9,512
Reaction Score
14,295
Thanks for the input everyone. I had a remediation company come this morning to give a quote. $6900 for the attic and basement. Fortunately, they aren't recommending tearing out the whole basement. He things there is a pipe leaking underneath the cabinet in the basement and we just need to tear that out and find what is causing the moisture in there.
as far as i can see, you still haven't told us when was the house built?
cuz, u know, a house built in 1967 is exactly like a house built in 2007.
or not. and why can't you tear out the cabinet? sounds to me, $6900, that ur still getting 'hosed.' at least, u seem past the 'tearing out the whole basement' thing. ur checkbook thanks u.
 

HuskyNan

You Know Who
Joined
Aug 15, 2011
Messages
24,494
Reaction Score
194,070
as far as i can see, you still haven't told us when was the house built?
cuz, u know, a house built in 1967 is exactly like a house built in 2007.
or not. and why can't you tear out the cabinet? sounds to me, $6900, that ur still getting 'hosed.' at least, u seem past the 'tearing out the whole basement' thing. ur checkbook thanks u.
I work for environmental remediation company. You have no idea of the government requirements for remediation - the licenses, the permits, the PPE required to do the job. Getting workers to even apply for a job is obscenely difficult so you have to pay them a premium plus potentially hazard pay. After the job is done, there may be governmental reporting and inspections required. Charging $6900 sounds about right.
 
Joined
Jul 6, 2019
Messages
633
Reaction Score
3,435
as far as i can see, you still haven't told us when was the house built?
cuz, u know, a house built in 1967 is exactly like a house built in 2007.
or not. and why can't you tear out the cabinet? sounds to me, $6900, that ur still getting 'hosed.' at least, u seem past the 'tearing out the whole basement' thing. ur checkbook thanks u.
The house was built in 1960. The bulk of that cost is taking care of the attic, which is a huge issue. I'm not tearing out the cabinet myself because it requires proper remediation to not get spores everywhere. I had the mold in the cabinet tested, and it's black mold, cladosporum, which you don't want to mess with. They'll use proper PPE to make sure it doesn't get all over my house. I'm going to rebuild myself. There is another unfinished workshop in the basement that requires essentially the same level of remediation that the attic does.

They said tearing out the carpet is not necessary because there is active moisture in the cabinet, indicating that the issue is right there and is not covering the entire basement. I had samples taken from the open air in the basement, with normal spore levels, which also indicates the issue does not extend beyond the cabinet. The carpet in the basement is glued down, and may be glued on top of asbestos tile. It's easier just to put down a vapor barrier on top of the carpet and put floating vinyl or similar on top of it, which is what they recommended and what I will do myself.
 

ClifSpliffy

surf's up
Joined
Nov 9, 2018
Messages
9,512
Reaction Score
14,295
'which you don't want to mess with.' we mess with it all the time cuz
'Cladosporium species are present in the human mycobiome but are rarely pathogenic to humans' wiki.
every time u take a breath, anywhere on planet earth, u get some.
normal, unfreaked humans, often clean it up with;
bleach, for nonporus surfaces,
white vinegar (my fav), for porus locales,
hydrogen peroxide, anti-just-aboot-everything, including swabbing ur nose as a covid prevention therapy (also, an awesome topical therapy like gargling with it iffn u have a sore throat or a tooth thing where u haven't made it to the dentist yet),
and borax, an epic cleaner.

this is the one that really makes me shake my head:
'The carpet in the basement is glued down, and may be glued on top of asbestos tile. It's easier just to put down a vapor barrier on top of the carpet and put floating vinyl or similar on top of it, which is what they recommended and what I will do myself.'
as opposed to the logical answer (rip it all out!), ur seriously considering
this as an option? yikes! separate from continuing a perceived black mark for any future sale inspection, u'll have a nice little 'future bad things laboratory' going on. simply put, asbestos is a mechanical threat to animal respiratory health, and mostly not a chemical threat to animal respiratory health. mebbe sum here understand this. dust asbo, and not pieces of asbo, is the threat. soooooooo, put on a mask if so inclined, and shred the whole thing, put the pieces of asbo tile in those 'special bags' and take them to the 'special place.' mebbe put on one of those space suits if ur imagination is really running wild. and oh, 'vinyl.' sure, let's just add more plastic to the situation. at least clay caps on closed municipal dumps (did that, too) have the patina of natural products used in remediation.

now, we gotta hit the tomato crop, to figger out if we're going to do anything different aboot this years epic clado attack on them, cuz, ya know, we've had three times normal precip this season. prolly not tho, we'll do as usual and just trim the bottoms up to let more air circulate. hmmmm, air circulation, trees, hmmmm....

thanks for the house date thing, cuz, starting in the 70s, and for a while afterward, the crazy inflation caused many new homes to be made from the worst stuff, freaking mold, mildew, stuff falling apart factories. so, not your house.
Cladosporium species are present in the human mycobiome but are rarely pathogenic to humans. gesundheit!
 

Online statistics

Members online
149
Guests online
2,384
Total visitors
2,533

Forum statistics

Threads
155,752
Messages
4,030,460
Members
9,864
Latest member
leepaul


Top Bottom