Georgiana Daniels Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 ....or maybe our situation really is awful. Discovered flooding in our bedroom last Saturday, which freaked me out. Threw out a bunch of stuff, called the plumber, then Monday we had a handyman come out. He discovered the leak wasn't fixed. Now we have to get the plumber out again (I didn't want to handle this with my husband out of town) and NOW I'm hearing a drip behind the wall, between the bedroom and the shower. I could cry. I've heard horror stories about mold, and how people's homes get red-tagged, they have to take everything to the dry cleaner, and throw out everything else that was in the home/room, move out until it's cleaned professionally and construction to rebuild walls. I'm terrified of this. We were hoping to move out LONG before this stuff started happening. Our place has been on the market for 2.5 years. Now with all this, we might NEVER get to move. Who would buy a place like this? Have you ever dealt with mold? Did you freak like me? Am I overreacting, or is it really that bad? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
********* Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Yes, I've dealt with mold. And yes, MOLD really *is* that bad. However, you don't know if you have mold yet or not. First of all, you MUST stop the leak. Things will continue to go bad QUICKLY as long as water is still leaking. Once you get the leak stopped, then you can assess water damage, what needs to be ripped out/rebuilt, and if there is any mold, what to do about that. If I were you, I'd figure out how to stop the water from flowing to whatever area it's leaking from. NOW. Good luck. That totally stinks. :grouphug::grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 First thing I would do is to shut the water off at the main. Then you will have time to call etc. as needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiana Daniels Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 I'm pretty sure we do have it. There really isn't any visible in our room, but once they dig into the wall to fix the leak, I'm fairly certain there will be some. Did you have to move out? Did you have to call in a team of professionals? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Get a dehumidifer if possible-- that might be hard in Arizona! Run fans to keep air circulating. Try to dry this out. Also if you turn the water main off and check to see if you can hear the noise. If you can it is not plumbing. This is a dh suggestion. But it does make sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooketopia Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 I hope you won't take this the wrong way... ...get off the ledge. You will need to get the leak fixed. Freaking out will make it harder to handle. You a.) may or b.) may not have mold. Freaking out will either a.) make it harder to handle or b.) simply be an exercise in wasting your energy. Nothing is made better in this situation by freaking out. What's wrong will still be wrong regardless of how badly you put yourself into a crazy place of worry and anxiety. Calm down. Nothing makes any of this better by freaking out. If you calm down, you'll be able to look back on this in five years and pat yourself on the back for handling it so well. None of this is meant tritely. I am a card-carrying member of the "Freak Out Over EVERYTHING" club, I know how it feels to be where you are. But the time I've kept my cool, it's gone better and I've been happier. Bad stuff is going to happen, no point in making it worse by freaking out. Take a breath, flash a smile, throw your shoulders back and just deal with the problem as you get more answers. Don't waste time imagining worse-case scenarios. Go clean up the mess, make your calls to the insurance folks and repairmen, etc. Go be productive instead of sitting and worrying. You'll feel much better if you DO something instead of sitting and waiting for bad news, trust me. :grouphug: I hope there's no mold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
********* Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 I'm pretty sure we do have it. There really isn't any visible in our room, but once they dig into the wall to fix the leak, I'm fairly certain there will be some. Did you have to move out? Did you have to call in a team of professionals? Well, ours did not have a happy ending, unfortunately. We did have a professional come in, but in the end we had to let the house go in foreclosure. We were so upside down in the house that there was no way for us to come up with the tens of thousands of dollars needed to fix the damage. It has all worked out for us in the end, but it's not exactly a happy story to others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halftime Hope Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Georgiana, there may already be mold growing where the leak is, depending on how long it's been going on. Things will only get moldy when there is a consistent source of moisture and it is wet (damp enough) for mold spores to germinate. Once the source of water is cleared up and things can dry out, mold will stop growing. You should replace soaked wall board, then refinish the wall but that is not the end of the world. If you are concerned about contents getting moldy, that only happens when mold is not addressed. The horror stories are from mold that has been allowed to grow unchecked. Don't let anyone spray bleach water on or inside your walls to "kill mold." Wet wallboard and insulation need to be replaced and anything that needs to be sprayed, like wet wooden 2x4s, needs to be sprayed with a commercial biocide (hospital grade) and then immediately dried with a blower until completely dry before reinstalling new insulation and new drywall. Please don't freak. It is not the end of the world. I promise that the mold issues that you hear about on the news are from problems that do not get addressed or from defective products like the Chinese drywall. What you've got may involve some work, but it isn't catastrophic or insurmountable. :grouphug: You'll be OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiana Daniels Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 I hope you won't take this the wrong way... ...get off the ledge. You will need to get the leak fixed. Freaking out will make it harder to handle. You a.) may or b.) may not have mold. Freaking out will either a.) make it harder to handle or b.) simply be an exercise in wasting your energy. Nothing is made better in this situation by freaking out. What's wrong will still be wrong regardless of how badly you put yourself into a crazy place of worry and anxiety. Calm down. Nothing makes any of this better by freaking out. If you calm down, you'll be able to look back on this in five years and pat yourself on the back for handling it so well. None of this is meant tritely. I am a card-carrying member of the "Freak Out Over EVERYTHING" club, I know how it feels to be where you are. But the time I've kept my cool, it's gone better and I've been happier. Bad stuff is going to happen, no point in making it worse by freaking out. Take a breath, flash a smile, throw your shoulders back and just deal with the problem as you get more answers. Don't waste time imagining worse-case scenarios. Go clean up the mess, make your calls to the insurance folks and repairmen, etc. Go be productive instead of sitting and worrying. You'll feel much better if you DO something instead of sitting and waiting for bad news, trust me. :grouphug: I hope there's no mold. I'm not taking it wrong at all. Exactly what I need to hear, because even though I'm trying not to panic, it's the one thing I'm really good at! Turning off water to listen for drip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiana Daniels Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 Georgiana, there may already be mold growing where the leak is, depending on how long it's been going on. Things will only get moldy when there is a consistent source of moisture and it is wet (damp enough) for mold spores to germinate. Once the source of water is cleared up and things can dry out, mold will stop growing. You should replace soaked wall board, then refinish the wall but that is not the end of the world. If you are concerned about contents getting moldy, that only happens when mold is not addressed. The horror stories are from mold that has been allowed to grow unchecked. Don't let anyone spray bleach water on or inside your walls to "kill mold." Wet wallboard and insulation need to be replaced and anything that needs to be sprayed, like wet wooden 2x4s, needs to be sprayed with a commercial biocide (hospital grade) and then immediately dried with a blower until completely dry before reinstalling new insulation and new drywall. Please don't freak. It is not the end of the world. I promise that the mold issues that you hear about on the news are from problems that do not get addressed or from defective products like the Chinese drywall. What you've got may involve some work, but it isn't catastrophic or insurmountable. :grouphug: You'll be OK. This helps. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiana Daniels Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 Well, ours did not have a happy ending, unfortunately. We did have a professional come in, but in the end we had to let the house go in foreclosure. We were so upside down in the house that there was no way for us to come up with the tens of thousands of dollars needed to fix the damage. It has all worked out for us in the end, but it's not exactly a happy story to others. We are upside down, too. It was already going to cost us to move out, now I can't imagine. I'm sorry you lost your home, and glad to hear it worked out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
********* Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 We are upside down, too. It was already going to cost us to move out, now I can't imagine. I'm sorry you lost your home, and glad to hear it worked out. You're very sweet, but don't feel sorry for us. :) We were never supposed to buy the house in the first place. We didn't listen to the Lord, and dh and I are completely responsible for the mess we got ourselves in. And even so, the Lord has been so good to us. SO good. He let us learn our lesson, but also has had amazing grace and mercy on us. Because of the way everything worked out, we are free and clear of the house, did not have to file bankruptcy, and now rent a mold-free (:D) townhouse. It's hard for dh and I to explain to others, who obviously did not walk through it with us. But we are just SO thankful for the Lord's provision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiana Daniels Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 You're very sweet, but don't feel sorry for us. :) We were never supposed to buy the house in the first place. We didn't listen to the Lord, and dh and I are completely responsible for the mess we got ourselves in. And even so, the Lord has been so good to us. SO good. He let us learn our lesson, but also has had amazing grace and mercy on us. Because of the way everything worked out, we are free and clear of the house, did not have to file bankruptcy, and now rent a mold-free (:D) townhouse. It's hard for dh and I to explain to others, who obviously did not walk through it with us. But we are just SO thankful for the Lord's provision. It sounds like it worked out in an amazing way. I am trusting that God will work this out for us. Saying I trust Him and LIVING it seem to be world's apart at the moment, but I know He is faithful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiana Daniels Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 Took me a bit to figure out how to turn the water off, but now that it is, I STILL hear the little pinging sound behind the bedroom/shower wall. It's about 2 seconds apart and sounds like a drip. ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjzimmer1 Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 While I'm not terribly knowledgeable about mold, I do know that there are different kinds of mold and some are easier/cheaper to deal with than others. For instance "Black Mold" (a specific strain because other black colored molds are not "Black Mold") is the worst one and the one you hear most about in the news. From my understanding this one causes the most respitory issues and is the most expensive to clean up because you need the masked and gloved professionals to handle it. Other strains of mold are not as serious and can be handled by a properly instructed amateur. So just because you hear water doesn't mean mold and if you have mold doesn't mean it's the super $$$$ kind to clean up. At this point you don't even have enough information to warrant freak-out yet :001_smile:. We had a leak where our deck joined the house. The interior wall in the basement would be soaked after every hard rain. We'd turn every fan on and dry it out. This lasted for a couple for years because my husband was unemployed and we hand no money to fix it. When we finally had money a guy came in, fixed the connection to house, cut out the ruined drywall, cleaned up the mold on the cement exterior wall, replace the dry wall and mudded and sanded the piece (I painted since I needed to paint that room anyways). The whole project took him less than 8 hours to complete and cost us around $300. We thought it would be much much more considering how long it had gone on and the amount of damaged drywall. So even if there is a leak doesn't mean it will be thousands of $, you really won't know anything till someone locates the leak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiana Daniels Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 While I'm not terribly knowledgeable about mold, I do know that there are different kinds of mold and some are easier/cheaper to deal with than others. For instance "Black Mold" (a specific strain because other black colored molds are not "Black Mold") is the worst one and the one you hear most about in the news. From my understanding this one causes the most respitory issues and is the most expensive to clean up because you need the masked and gloved professionals to handle it. Other strains of mold are not as serious and can be handled by a properly instructed amateur. So just because you hear water doesn't mean mold and if you have mold doesn't mean it's the super $$$$ kind to clean up. At this point you don't even have enough information to warrant freak-out yet :001_smile:. We had a leak where our deck joined the house. The interior wall in the basement would be soaked after every hard rain. We'd turn every fan on and dry it out. This lasted for a couple for years because my husband was unemployed and we hand no money to fix it. When we finally had money a guy came in, fixed the connection to house, cut out the ruined drywall, cleaned up the mold on the cement exterior wall, replace the dry wall and mudded and sanded the piece (I painted since I needed to paint that room anyways). The whole project took him less than 8 hours to complete and cost us around $300. We thought it would be much much more considering how long it had gone on and the amount of damaged drywall. So even if there is a leak doesn't mean it will be thousands of $, you really won't know anything till someone locates the leak. Amazing! In my mind, I'm thinking thousands. And our insurance is the cheapie kind, so I *doubt* they will cover it, but I've already filed the claim. Praying/hoping we find little, and what's there is not black. Still wondering what on earth the drippy sound is if the water is not turned on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyof4ks Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Took me a bit to figure out how to turn the water off, but now that it is, I STILL hear the little pinging sound behind the bedroom/shower wall. It's about 2 seconds apart and sounds like a drip. ?? Where did you turn the water off at? The water to the house or just the leaky thing? As for mold, I agree with others. Mold can be bad, but it must go unchecked for a long time. Most people address it at the latest when they see spots on the wall, and even at that point it is fixable, but once it takes over rooms, that is when it becomes too much to just replace yourself. We had a roof leak that caused mold behind some paint in our dining room, and we discovered it when the tape on the wall brought paint with it when removed. We replaced all of the Sheetrock and insulation ( it was not on the 2X4s thankfully), and it is fine now a year later. It was not the black mold that people talk about, it was black, but it was a different strand. Calm down, it will be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denisemomof4 Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Dh was travelling when I found a coat closet full of water. Teh coats smelled moldy before I ever knew I had an issue. It happaned during warm weather so I never went into the closet, leaving the issue ignored for too long. I called a plimber who turned off the vlve in the shower wall after cutting out a section of the wall. I threw out coats we no longer wore and washed the rest. Although I did smell mold in the closet, it appeared to only be on the coats. I smell no mold and nothing is growing. It has been over three years since it happened. So don't panic;) but DO get that water shut off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Took me a bit to figure out how to turn the water off, but now that it is, I STILL hear the little pinging sound behind the bedroom/shower wall. It's about 2 seconds apart and sounds like a drip. ?? I hate to tell you this but you might have to have the water turned off for a while. If water is puddled somewhere, it would take awhile for the dripping to stop, you know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiana Daniels Posted April 12, 2012 Author Share Posted April 12, 2012 I turned it off outside at the main line that leads inside. Maybe it will take a while, if there is a puddle. Thank you all SO much for sharing your moldy stories. It actually helps to know I'm not the only one and it might not be a huge deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiana Daniels Posted April 14, 2012 Author Share Posted April 14, 2012 Thanks for all the calm-talk and advice yesterday, everyone! As it turns out, there was no mold behind the shower wall, the hole is small and fixable, and the source of the leak was discovered at the base of the shower due to old caulk. Now to see the bill..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted April 14, 2012 Share Posted April 14, 2012 Thanks for all the calm-talk and advice yesterday, everyone! As it turns out, there was no mold behind the shower wall, the hole is small and fixable, and the source of the leak was discovered at the base of the shower due to old caulk. Now to see the bill..... Good! Just remind yourself that no matter what the bill, it would have been much higher if there was mold. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiana Daniels Posted April 14, 2012 Author Share Posted April 14, 2012 Very true! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted April 14, 2012 Share Posted April 14, 2012 First thing I would do is to shut the water off at the main. Then you will have time to call etc. as needed. :iagree: Quick thinking as usual, Jean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiana Daniels Posted April 14, 2012 Author Share Posted April 14, 2012 :iagree: Quick thinking as usual, Jean. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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