Elizabeth86 Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 Anyone experienced dealing with mold that might point me in the right direction. I just discovered a small patch of mold in one room in our house. My husband insists it isn’t serious and it will clean right up. I am really doubting this. If there is mold on our drywall, there is likely mold in the walls, right? This isn’t a diy job, right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweet2ndchance Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 It depends. We found mold in a bedroom and traced it all the way back to a leak in the roof in the adjoining bathroom. Patched the roof. Painted the rafters with mold killing primer. Replaced all the drywall all along where the water was running to get to the bedroom. It wasn't an easy job but it was doable by ourselves. We haven't had a problem with mold since. If you can find the place where water is getting in it is possible to DIY it but honestly, having done it ourselves, I would hire someone to do it if at all possible if we ever have a problem with mold like that again. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizabeth86 Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 (edited) 1 hour ago, sweet2ndchance said: It depends. We found mold in a bedroom and traced it all the way back to a leak in the roof in the adjoining bathroom. Patched the roof. Painted the rafters with mold killing primer. Replaced all the drywall all along where the water was running to get to the bedroom. It wasn't an easy job but it was doable by ourselves. We haven't had a problem with mold since. If you can find the place where water is getting in it is possible to DIY it but honestly, having done it ourselves, I would hire someone to do it if at all possible if we ever have a problem with mold like that again. Did you use a certain cleaner or vinegar or what? ETA I mean did you try to kill the mold before tearing out the drywall? I’m just imagining it might be dangerous if you didn’t. Idk Edited February 11 by Elizabeth86 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 We’ve had small amounts with a clear idea of where it came from (leaky sink), and vinegar is the bomb. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 Yes, it's through the board. It's not just something you treat at the surface level. If you're lucky, you just have to cut two feet away from the place where mold is visible and you'll have clean studs behind it. You just patch in if you know why you have mold there (like you had a leak that is now fixed or whatever) and move on. We had a hurricane made roof leak with a small damp patch. We had professional remediators come in in case it was mold. (It ended up not being mold.) There are professional rehab standards to follow---one of those is a 24" radius minimum around a mold spot for drywall replacement. It's a use plastic sheeting to separate off the area/wear a N95 mask kind of adventure....definitely not a put vinegar on it one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 We have it in the bathroom but it’s just surface and wipes away. I think if it’s from a pipe leaks it’s different Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melissa in Australia Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 I had it in a bathroom.it was because the paint had deteriorated. I washed with sugar soap and sanded the whole room, then repainted with oil paint. That was 2 years ago and no mold has reappeared Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 I’m married to a well regarded expert in the field and others are right; it depends! 1. The cause. Example - I’ve found mold on my kids’ bedroom baseboard. Someone had hidden food behind the bed. Easy peasy clean up with household cleaner because it removed the source. Other example - our first apartment had mold in my son’s closet. The solution was to move, because the shower pipe in the wall had been leaking and someone had simply taped garbage bags around it. (Obviously no one was going to do the job right.) 2. Type of mold. I’m not as knowledgeable in that area. I just know they’re not all as scary as some. The degree of damage can be the difference between DIY-simple and a company in full tyvek, too. Personally (and from home experience,) if I had a small spot of unknown cause with little fear of some big leak, I’d clean the spot with microban and see if/how long it took to come back. If I knew I had a pipe in the area, I’d call a plumber, who will probably have a thermal camera to see better before cutting into any wall. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweet2ndchance Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 We used bleach and bleach based cleaners for the surface mold. We used masks to tear out dry wall. Not a perfect solution but none of us got sick. I think the mold killing primer is a life saver though. We use it for the roof leak but we've also used it when a shower in a different bathroom leaked in inside the wall. After it completely dried out, we painted every surface we could reach in the wall with the mold killing primer as a precaution. No problems with mold at all in there even though the entire inside of the wall was soaking wet for at least a few weeks before we found the problem. The product is made by Zinsser. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizabeth86 Posted February 11 Author Share Posted February 11 4 hours ago, Carrie12345 said: I’m married to a well regarded expert in the field and others are right; it depends! 1. The cause. Example - I’ve found mold on my kids’ bedroom baseboard. Someone had hidden food behind the bed. Easy peasy clean up with household cleaner because it removed the source. Other example - our first apartment had mold in my son’s closet. The solution was to move, because the shower pipe in the wall had been leaking and someone had simply taped garbage bags around it. (Obviously no one was going to do the job right.) 2. Type of mold. I’m not as knowledgeable in that area. I just know they’re not all as scary as some. The degree of damage can be the difference between DIY-simple and a company in full tyvek, too. Personally (and from home experience,) if I had a small spot of unknown cause with little fear of some big leak, I’d clean the spot with microban and see if/how long it took to come back. If I knew I had a pipe in the area, I’d call a plumber, who will probably have a thermal camera to see better before cutting into any wall. Could I pm you about this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 2 minutes ago, Elizabeth86 said: Could I pm you about this? Sure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizabeth86 Posted February 12 Author Share Posted February 12 Does anyone know what you need to do with the belongings in the room? Is there a way to clean them properly or what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted February 12 Share Posted February 12 My allergist told us that anything hard (wood, plastic, metal) was washable/wipeable (soft detergent or 50/50 isopropyl alcohol + water) but to give up on anything paper or unwashable fabric. Mold spores are remarkably airborne, so depending on what you think you are dealing with matters. We already had hardwood floors in the house and it was a ceiling that had the leak so we left flooring in place. In a previous home, ds had constant asthma flareups until we ripped carpet out of the house because the pad against concrete subfloors retained enough humidity that mold was everpresent in the pad. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizabeth86 Posted February 13 Author Share Posted February 13 (edited) 9 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said: My allergist told us that anything hard (wood, plastic, metal) was washable/wipeable (soft detergent or 50/50 isopropyl alcohol + water) but to give up on anything paper or unwashable fabric. Mold spores are remarkably airborne, so depending on what you think you are dealing with matters. We already had hardwood floors in the house and it was a ceiling that had the leak so we left flooring in place. In a previous home, ds had constant asthma flareups until we ripped carpet out of the house because the pad against concrete subfloors retained enough humidity that mold was everpresent in the pad. Yikes! So books have to go? I’m getting one of those mold tests that you send away and they identify the mold. Do you know what molds are dangerous? Black mold, yes? What else? Edited February 13 by Elizabeth86 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 4 hours ago, Elizabeth86 said: Yikes! So books have to go? I’m getting one of those mold tests that you send away and they identify the mold. Do you know what molds are dangerous? Black mold, yes? What else? There is some black mold that isn’t dangerous. Unfortunately a visual inspection just doesn’t tell you much. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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