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Questions & Answers on Mold
Inspection,
Mold Testing, Mold Remediation, and Mold Removal
[Oct. 23, 2002]
Q.
We are considering buying a
home that had a mold problem. The home was built in Nashville, TN in 2000
and the original home owner sued her builder for damages and mold caused
by a leaky chimney. The Home Builder settled out of court with the home
owner in early 2002 and purchased the home back from her. Since he
purchased the home, he has torn down the side of the house where the
chimney is, re built the chimney, fixed the leak, and re framed that wall
with new wood. He has provided us with a report from a mold inspector
showing us that mold levels in all rooms were within the normal range.
Should we continue to consider buying this home? Once there is damage, is
it ever really gone? Once we purchase it, will we have to disclose this
information if we ever sell it again? I have been to your web site and
found that information very helpful.. We would certainly consider hiring a
mold inspector of our own choosing to test the home but we want to be sure
that this is worth pursuing before we go to that expense. Any information
you can provide would be helpful.
A.
The extensive rebuilding done
by the builder gives definite hope that the mold problem may have been
taken care of in professional mold remediation. You need to hire a
Certified Mold Inspector
to check out and mold test the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning
equipment and ducts, plus all rooms of the house, attic, basement, and
INSIDE walls, ceilings, and floors that are close to the rebuilding,
but not actually in the rebuilt area, plus, obviously, the entire rebuilt
area. Be sure to get an extension of time to close to allow for thorough
mold inspection, testing, and getting mold laboratory testing results. Try
to get at least a 3 to 4 week extension so you are not rushed in this
important task. You can find a Certified Mold Inspector by visiting the
Inspector Directory of
Mold
Inspection Professionals.
[Oct. 17, 2002]
Q.
ME AND MY FAMILY HAVE BEEN
LIVING IN A 1 BEDROOM APARTMENT FOR 2 YEARS AND FOR THE LAST 2 MONTHS MY 2
1/2 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER HAS BEEN SUFFERING FROM A DRY COUGH AND RUNNY NOSE.
HER PEDIATRICIAN EITHER PRESCRIBES A COUGH SYRUP OR PRESCRIBE SOMETHING
OVER THE COUNTER. I'M VERY WORRIED ABOUT THE CONTINUATION OF KEEP GIVING
HER COUGH SYRUP. WE HAVE ALSO TRIED BREATHING TREATMENTS AT HOME. SHE HAS
ALSO COMPLAINED OF HER EYES HURTING. I'M ALSO STARTING TO HAVE THE DRY
COUGHS, BUT NOT AS COMMON AS MY DAUGHTER. I THOUGHT THIS COULD BE FROM
JUST THE WEATHER, BUT I HAVE NOTICED SOME WHITE COTTON WEB LIKE ON THE
CEILING OF MY LIVING ROOM ABOVE MY AIR CONDITIONING VENT. COULD THIS BE
MOLD?????
A.
The persistent health
problems and your sighting of the white cotton web are strong clues that
your family may be living in a mold infested apartment. Your first step is
to test the cotton-like, suspect material to see if it is mold, and what
type of mold. you should also test the air of the various rooms of your
apartment. Please follow the testing suggestions at
Mold Testing.
[Oct. 17, 2002]
Q.
How does mold get energy and why can it grow
in the dark?
A.
Mold gets its food [and therefore energy] from eating and digesting your
home and personal possessions made of cellulose materials. Because mold
does not need either sunlight or light to grow [it grows quite well inside
dark, wet or high humidity walls and above ceilings], it grows light or
dark as long as it has food to eat and a source of moisture [such as a
water leak or high humidity].
[Oct. 16, 2002]
Q.
I am trying to figure out
what steps to take to determine if I have a black mold problem. I've
noticed a few areas in my crawl space with black spots that are like dried
tar or paint on my wooden rafters and sub-flooring (no real sign of water
damage). My questions: 1. What does Stachybotrys mold look like once it is
dried or 'dead'? 2. The possible mold spots I have are not connected
together but are separated like splashes of paint. Does this resemble the
toxic black mold Stachybotrys
or any other mold? 3. There are a few areas
where the spots appear on brick and concrete blocks. Apparently
Stachybotrys black mold doesn't grow on this medium correct, so can I rule
it out? 4. Will a dried or 'dead' Stachybotrys mold sample grow in a test
culture (for a home test)? 5. Should I just clean it up myself with
bleach?
A.
Thanks for your excellent
questions. Your numbered answers are:
-
Mold that
is simply dried up is not dead mold but instead DORMANT MOLD that is
waiting for more water or humidity moisture to begin growing again. Dried
Stachybotrys mold is not uniquely different in appearance from any other
mold [most molds are black in color]. The only way to know if the suspect
substance is mold, and what type of mold, is to scrape off a significant
mold sampling from the timbers into a plastic zip lock bag, upon which you
attach a label with your name, the property address, the type of sampling
[scraping mold bulk sample or direct mold sampling], the precise test
location [attic and where in attic], and
visit
Mold Lab for
information on how to send your collected mold samples.
-
Your
description of the mold spots suggests possible mold growth, but only the
bulk mold sampling and laboratory mold analysis described above will be
the accurate answer.
-
When you
see possible mold growth on brick and concrete blocks, it is possibly mold
that is eating organic dirt and dust that are lodge on the surface of the
masonry.
-
If mold
is only dried and dormant, it will grow in either home mold tests or in
laboratory mold culture plates. For info on mold test kits, please visit:
Mold Test Kits.
If mold is dead, it will not grow in mold culture plates. If you want our
lab to perform non-viable [non-living] testing, our lab can determine
whether the suspect substance is in fact mold. By taking two different
samples from one specific mold suspect area, you can arrange to have one
of your tests be a viable [living] mold culture test, and the second be a
non-viable test. By seeing the lab results from both, you will know for
sure whether or not you have a mold problem where you see the possible
visual mold in your attic.
-
Do NOT
use chlorine bleach to cleanup mold because it doesn't kill mold for the
three reasons explained on our sister website at:
Mold Killer.
Use instead, Total
Coverage fungicide
that is explained on the same web page. Yes, you can probably do your own
mold remediation because of the small area of mold that you are presently
aware of. You should also be doing air testing of the attic and other
rooms of your home and of the hvac system to determine if your mold
problem is bigger than you might think. For info on mold testing, please
visit:
Mold Testing.
For info on mold remediation, please visit
Mold Removal.
[Oct. 13, 2002]
Q.
Thank you for your very informative website.
I have been suffering from extreme fatigue for many years and have been
suspecting that the cause is in my my house. This is because I feel
good as soon as I go on a trip and do not sleep in my house. But
when I return, I feel a little worse each day for about a week until I'm
back to feeling my extreme fatigued again. My bed is on the other side of
our bathroom wall were our custom-tiled shower is. There is no
evidence of mold either in the shower or in my bedroom. If there is
mold inside the wall, could it affect me if it is not visible? Also, we
have a closet adjacent to our guest bathroom in which we have been storing
our towels and sheets, etc. For many years, I had not noticed that
the tub/shower was in need of new calking. We notice that there is a
strong musty odor in the closet and towels but there is no sign of any
mold. If there is mold inside the wall, how can it produce a musty
odor?
A.
Extreme fatigue is certainly a sign
of living in in possible mold infestation. There is a possibility that you
have a small water leak in the bath plumbing causing mold growth in the
wall or floor. You need to have your home mold inspected and mold tested
to discover if you have a water problem or mold problem. A
Certified Mold Inspector can use, among other helpful
mold testing devices, a hidden moisture detector to check out your
floors and walls for water problems. To find one in your area, please
click on:
Certified Mold Inspector
[Oct. 12, 2002]
Q.
My husband and I bought a
house three years ago and have since had two children, one of which has
asthma and a lot of respiratory problems. My husband and I have since
noticed that we are having more respiratory infections ourselves. We also
have had forgetfulness, mood swings and depression problems, my husband has
also had nose bleeds since we have lived here. We hadn't thought much of it,
and just thought it was because we were adjusting to parenthood and stress.
However, our daughters pediatrician advised us to remove our carpeting and
just use our wood floors to help with her asthma. When we did there was
black mold all over between the carpet pad and the hardwood floors. We
really think the house is making us sick. However we have only lived here
three years and do not have enough equity or money to just walk away with a
loss. Is there any services that might help or give us an alternative to
living in this home? How do we get away from this mold contaminated house?
A.
Where there is no insurance
coverage [because of no insured catastrophe having happened to cause the
mold problem since your mold this mold hell], you will need to consider such
options as:
[1] getting a mortgage payment moratorium so that you don't pay any
mortgage payments during the time you take out mold from your home, a
process which can take months, especially if you Do It BEST Yourself to to take
out your home mold---a good insurance attorney, real estate attorney, or
personal injury attorney should be the one to approach your lender for a
mold mortgage payment moratorium; and [2] doing your own mold testing and
mold removal so that you can make getting rid of mold happen financially.
Specific suggestions can be found at:
Mold Testing
and
Mold Removal.
I would also suggest that you immediately purchase a copy of Phillip Fry's
very detailed help mold book
Do-it-BEST-yourself
Mold Prevention, Inspection, Testing, and Remediation,
that you can order for $49.00. This book is send through email attachment
only.
[Oct. 4, 2002]
Q.
My parents home is contaminated with the bad
mold. They had some clothes remediated with the ozone type cleaning, and
then she wiped off some hard items with clorox. She brought some of these
items to my home. Will this be a problem for me? Also she periodically goes
into her home, and then back to mine. Can she bring her mold to my house?
A.
Chlorine bleach will not kill mold because it
is too weak in it solution, constantly deteriorating in effectiveness during
storage, and it is not a soaker into porous materials that contain mold
spores and mold growth. Ozone can kill mold spores that it can come directly
in contact with, but ozone is not an EPA recommended mold remediation
technique because ozone often does not get to mold inside porous materials
and it is destructive of plastic and rubber and is dangerous to people. Yes,
your mother may be bringing mold spores into your home in transferred items,
on her clothing and shoes, and in her hair and on her body. This problem is
called mold cross contamination. You need to do mold testing of your home to
know if serious mold cross-contamination has happened.
[Sept. 25, 2002]
Q.
Is it
possible to get an infection from black mold going in an open wound?
A.
Absolutely, yes! Mold spores in the air can easily land into an open
wound on your body and enter your blood stream to grow elsewhere or begin
growing in the open wound flesh.
To find a
Certified Mold Inspector
in your area, please visit
Certified Mold Inspector
To find a Certified Mold Remediator
in your area, please visit
Certified
Mold Remediator
To become trained as a Certified Mold
Inspector or
Remediator,
please visit:
Mold
Training |
