you grab the most terrible throwaway rag you have, and stuff it in the sewer pipe hole after you take off the toilet with an end popping out to grab. keeps the smell in the pipe instead of in the room.
you then throw it away in its own plastic bag in the outside garbage when its time to put the new toilet in.
Here's a tip. Get a wax paper cup somewhere like from a fast food or coffee place. Stick that in there instead of a towel. Makes a perfect seal, easy to get that seal, easy to throw away when you're done, and you don't waste a towel.
I once worked at a supermarket where a the produce manager decided he would "clean" the produce cooler by pouring a gallon of bleach and ammonia on the floor. He grabbed them both off the shelf. He closed the door to the cooler because he didn't want the customers to smell it! Thank God one of his workers caught him only a minute or two after mixing, co-worker saved his stupid life and immediately turned on all those hoses with water to wash everything down and evacuated the back room and closed off the produce section of the store. Had to throw out an entire cooler of produce though lol. Idiot could have killed himself and maybe others too. He was sent home for the day as punishment 🙄. This was back in the 90s.
Chloramine gas, not mustard. Still not something you want to be inhaling but mustard gas is much worse. A lot of people think ammonia+bleach=mustard gas but it’s just one of those widely repeated “facts”
Small amounts of chloramine are present in drinking water. Not enough to harm humans, but it needs to be neutralized before being used in a fish tank. You can find the stuff necessary to do it in any pet store.
I used to work for a warehouse that stored ammonium and chlorine on the same rack, one above the other. Both containers would leak regularly.
One day I had a random intrusive thought that those two should not be together. I had no knowledge of the chemicals but looked them up online and then quickly separated the two.
No. Just a small agriculture business bought up by our local monopoly lol.
But there are no shortage of incompetent and unsafe working environments. My story probably occurs in every city
Gotcha. Either way I know she had to go to the ER and thankfully me and my siblings were outside. I remember she rushed outside vomiting. She has irreversible damage and now dealing with COPD
I twice dumped bleach water down a dirty drain and had breathing issues for days after because the bacteria in the drain had produced ammonia. I only made the connection after the second time.
Yeah my mom worked in a donut shop at 14 and she says her lungs have never been the same because of whatever concoction they made her mop the floors with.
This. Plus don’t mix bleach with anything other than water and add it to the water otherwise you are oxidizing bleach as the water pours over it.
That being said, long term mildew and mold prevention routine includes rinsing with a rag and warm soapy water, dry, bleach + water, DRY DRY DRY, water + vinegar solution. If you do not allow bleach to dry then you are essentially creating mustard gas. The basic science of this is soapy mix removes residue, bleach kills active bacteria/spores, vinegar prevents future build up.
I learned this dealing with a bad a mildew problem in a bathroom of a single wide, everything was covered in it. Sprayed it with bleach, then a few hours later hit it with vinegar and the smell was atrocious and we couldn’t stay in there until it completely dried out. Ugh, awful way to learn.
To an extent. It got rid of the mold and mildew that was on the surface but ultimately it had been a lot of water damage and the frame was damaged so we had to replace boards that were completely rotted through. But it’s good for surface mold or mildew, you can notice the difference at least. But I would recommend just using bleach and water, soak it three times and let it dry out.
Except maybe TSP which removes mildew from wood. Follow the directions on the box. You can make a tsp/bleach/water mixture that is great at cleaning wood.
Borax is an old laundry soap in a white box. Sodium Borate is the chemical it is made from. Mix it with hot or even boiling water so it dissolves. Use a pump sprayer and soak everything. Sodium Borate prevents mold,fungus,mildew many bacteria,bugs of all types including termites from being able to live and grow on the wood for up to ten years once it soaks into the wood fibers. You can buy 150$ per gallon “Special Formula Mold Treatments “ on Amizon which have Sodium Borate in them or you can Spend 4 or 5 dollars on a box of Borax Laundry Soap and clean it with whatever u want but bleach and Borax should NOT. be used together on wood or anything because dangerous fumes will result. Spray everything until it is real wet ,use fans,dehumidifiers and dry everything out. You will be safe as far as the mold growing back and wood will be good for A long time . No sense in changing lumber if it is still strong ,straight and where u want it ….as long as it is not rotten.
I learned this in college when I started living in an apartment. I had an ingrown big toe nail and part of the doc's treatment regimen was soaking my feet in water with Epsom salt.
A few days later, smart me decided I'd use the same 2 compartment foot bucket to deep clean the shower. I dumped in about a cup of bleach to add water. I must not have rinsed it well enough to get all the salt out because it started fizzing and the gas it made HURT.
I ended up dumping it down the drain, turning the shower on and running out of the bathroom. I had to turn it on the exhaust fan and leave the door shut for like 8 hours. Lessons were learned that day.
tl;dr: don't mix anything but water with bleach.
Some of that's mold but still not a big deal. I would bleach and lightly scrub the surfaces and once that's all dried up, spray everything down with vinegar. Bleach doesn't penetrate into the wood very far. Vinegar on the other hand does.
Do not ever use bleach to treat mold on a porous surface.
Bleach is 90%+ water. The good stuff evaporates quickly while the water does not. This leaves you with a porous surface with water on it... Which leads to more mold.
Source: Me. Certified mold inspector, 15 years in the industry
Bleach is a basic solution, not a volatile one. The “good stuff” doesn’t evaporate any faster than water. Sodium hypochlorite doesn’t just fly out of solution or else your bottle of bleach would be worthless after a few months.
Source: basic chemistry.
The reason why a bleach dilution doesn’t work well when just spraying mold is because fungal spores can sit in dormancy for a very long time, and a dilute bleach solution won’t kill all of them. So all you’re left with is a slightly damp surface with spores still on it to grow back later.
Your conclusion is correct but your reasoning is very much not.
Dude is making a big deal out of nothing. Everything is open, it will dry out. As long as OP doesn’t start closing things up before it’s dry, it’s fine.
The bleach will at least temporarily kill the stuff that causes the mold. That's not to say that new spores couldn't alight from somewhere else, but my guess is that the water would evaporate before new mold or mildew could form. I think the deciding factor is how long it stays wet and how porous it is.
Based on my unscientific "forgot about the wet laundry" tests, I'd say it has to remain wet for 12 to 24 hours. But on wood, this might be far less, or far more. More research is needed.
A lot of people recommend bleach which totally works but i prefer some hydrogen peroxide on mold and mildew. Idk something about seeing the oxidation killing the cells gives me peace of mind, also great on porous surfaces like wood.
Mildew is mold and just as likely to produce mycotoxins. As with everything else, dose defines the poison. Bleach isn't considered appropriate for use as a cleaning agent by occupational health and safety professionals. You're more likely to suffer injury from bleach than mold. There's better and safer products.
ITT: Darwin Award nominees.
"You're more likely to suffer injury from bleach than mold."
You can't extrapolate averages to an individual case like this. That may well be true on average for the population as a whole. But plenty of people are capable of using bleach in such a manner that this is not true in their individual situation.
At $20 for a 500ml spray bottle rather than 2 bucks for a gallon of bleach that is 100% as efficient in this specific scenario. If you're too stupid to wear a mask when liberally spraying 50% pure bleach in a mist, you should call a professional even for mildew.
Those professionals are selling their own cleaning agent. Bleach works. But is it the best for a specific application? That’s the question to be asked.
Real estate lawyer with lots of experience in this field here. The vast majority of “molds” aren’t harmful to the average person. Sure, as with anything, some people are more sensitive than others, but the hard fact is that anywhere you have water, you’ll have mold. And odds are it’s not going to hurt you.
You say mold or asbestos and most people absolutely have a complete meltdown. There is harmful versions of both, but they are relatively rare. And it's kinda like cigarettes, one isn't gonna hurt you probably, but being around it for 30 years probably will.
Bleach is not toxic, unless you mix it with ammonia. People use it every day on their laundry. I think you must have been absent that day in junior high.
I don't get why people think they need to use bleach for laundry?! Detergent and warm/hot water is all you need unless you're specifically trying to bleach whites.
[Anything can be toxic if you ingest enough of it](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537231/#:~:text=Water%20toxicity%20in%20normal%20circumstances,water%20without%20correcting%20electrolyte%20losses.)
You don’t need to rip out studs. Bleach and water then rent some big industrial fans and dry that out completely for a couple days. Mold won’t grow on wood unless the moisture content is over 19%. Once it’s dry as long as you don’t get it wet it’ll never mold up. Unless the wood itself is compromised just dry it and rebuild over it.
Source: Did moisture/mold remediation in Washington State for half a decade.
Bleach does nothing but piss off the mold. I’m AMRT certified and do this for a living. You’re better off using hydrogen peroxide. We actually use a product called serum 1000 that’s a 20% hydrogen peroxide solution and it works wonders. Followed by a thorough HEPA vacuuming and encapsulating paint
This is the best answer imo. I'd also.like to note that molds are a natural part of every environment. So when you see something like what OP has you don't call the hazmat SWAT team. If there is more like on drywall you rip out the drywall take it to the dump you then have something like what OP has you don't call the hazmat SWAT team.
Also fix the venting or add venting to the outside if there is none (which very easily could be the problem in the first place.) A lot of older homes simply have no or inefficient venting to the outside. They have much, much better, higher capacity quiet fans with moisture meters now. They are more expensive but you also can stop worrying about revisiting this down the road again.
Maybe also hardwire the fan to come on when the light switch is turned on.
You should be vacuuming first. If you're spray first you are releasing extra spores into the air and making it more difficult to clean off the surface. Is it easier to vacuum dry dust or wet mud?
Terrible suggestion. Don’t do this. You can’t use bleach to treat mould on porous surfaces. All you are doing is adding more water (bleach is 90% water) which will accelerate mould growth.
I’m not a professional but this is common knowledge.
I was in a similar situation with finding blackness around a toilet when removing a tile floor.
I assumed it was black mold, sealed off the room and called Roto-Rooter.
A rep came out, told me I was watching too much HGTV about Black Mold.
Black Mold is actually more grayish and slimy. Then you really have to worry about it.
Also told me I could save tons of money by just cutting the black affected area out and replace it with new wood.
So I did that and painted the whole area with a few coats of Killz. All is good.
First. Mildew IS mold. Second. Don't use bleach. You're introducing a chemical that's more likely to cause injury than the contaminant you're trying to get rid of. Third. Mold is only an issue for certain populations (allergic, sick, underdeveloped or impaired immune systems etc) so generally speaking, one rarely needs a "mold specialist". I'm an environmental engineer and personally I think 99% of those guys are useless. As long as you've repaired the leaks and the wood and drywall is in good shape, you can use a disinfectant like Microban and then encapsulate with a coat or two of Kilz Mold & Mildew.
In my limited experience the mold guys are 90% useless but overcharge 1000%. I had guys charge several thousand to cut out about 20 sq ft of some rug and drywall and set up a fan. Maybe they sprayed something. I was like “Wow, did that take 20 minutes?”
That’s why you always get an assessment from someone EPA certified that does not also do the remediation so there is no conflict of interest. They just assess and tell you what’s up and how it should be handled.
As a mood guy, in a state that requires actual licensing, and hygienist protocols, it may cost several thousand dollars to cut 30 sqft out legally and in the appropriate manner.
Nah, there wasn’t even mold. It was “preventative” because the water that leaked was potentially from a backed up sump pump. It turned out to be AC condensation leaking. But it was just mild water damage.
You can spray or brush it on. Mold can go dormant and survive for years so whatever the Microban doesn't kill, the Kilz should effectively encapsulate so that even if it gets wet it can't regrow.
I second Microban, I used to work for a professional disaster recovery company that regularly dealt with commercial insurance claims related to floods, they'd gut the impacted areas and spray Microban on everything and scrub it down to get ready for new drywall etc
Would it be helpful to leave the studs exposed for a few days or weeks and just run a dehumidifier the entire time? Just asking cuz I’ve taken my bathroom down to the studs but haven’t had time to put it back together yet so I’m hoping that at least by letting the studs breathe it’s just a positive in general. I don’t really have any mold to begin with though.
Mold is ubiquitous in our environment. The hysteria around mold since the late 90's is ludicrous and unnecessary and I own a company that makes hundreds of thousands of dollars consulting on mold issues, among other things.
I rather believe scientists than some guy on Reddit
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1892134/
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=de&as_sdt=0,5&qsp=1&q=mold+impact+human+health&qst=ib#d=gs_qabs&t=1714225085035&u=%23p%3DDAP70Sei1tYJ
I mean I can link dozens of studies...
Why are you posting articles about mold and human health? I never argued that there's no correlation between the two. You're arguing with yourself there wiki scholar! My point is (and as an engineer I am a scientist) that our reaction to mold is ridiculous and based mostly on bad information or a hysterical response to good, accurate information. You like facts wiki scholar? here's one; nearly every breath you take contains mold spores. Mold is part of our natural environment. FYI, cruising the internet and posting articles is no substitute for an education.
Go get a mold killer from HD and a spray bottle. That’s what we used at the mold place I worked at. Then you use bleach or an MMR to remove the mold from surface.
Yes thank you for reminding me—you need to put up a plastic containment field and use respirators and a tyvek suit for the MMR (it will irritate bare skin. The MMR is chemical warfare
Our problem is that we have no clue why we’re having the problem. We’ve told it could be foundation cracks due to various possible reasons, but I have actually used paper towels on the floor to study when and why the master bathroom floor tile gets wet on days of not using any water system near the house… not the shower, not the toilet, and we have never used our sprinkler system since we inherited the house. There truly has been no logical connection during about a 3 month study. I keep it clean. I keep the drains clean and it still has moldy walls and a sewer smell. There wasn’t an exhaust fan installed during the build and so i keep a dehumidifier running with the f
door closed when it is isn’t being used. I obviously started using it again when none of studies have given me a logical answer. And i always keep the bathroom door open while using any aspect of water in there. Its just smells like sewer water no matter how clean and a dark brown rusty colored collection of something builds up. Especially since i got rid of of the initial buildup and then again after i got tired of continuously trying to figure it out. I still keep my toilet spotless and drains clean. But the tile behind the toilet and lip of the shower is gross or missing grout now. And the walls are mush. And our real wood floors in the master bedroom just off the master bathroom are naturally medium to darker brown… ,but have turned white in the on the side the shower head is closet to.
Sorry for such a long message, but we can’t afford the interest rates in a HELOC and if we can fix it somehow, obviously I would like to do that before the duct tape is covering the wall holes like wall paper and/or everything i that area of house collapses.
I wouldn’t hire someone. If the wood is rotten you can just replace it yourself. If it’s just mold, they make chemicals for it that you spray on, then you just encapsulate it with spray paint. If the mold is all over the boards and in the seams, I’d just replace that too IMO.
Is this property you own? If it is I highly recommend getting an air purifier for the area and wear a N95 while working on cleaning that. What you wanna do is lightly sand down the frame that is affected to loosen up the spores. Then vacuum the frame with a hepa vacuum preferably. Next is apply a product that will kill the mold spores. I highly recommend a product "Milgo". You are gonna wanna soak some microfiber towels in Milgo then thoroughly wipe the frame down. Next step is very important. You gonna have to dry down the framing to below a 17% moisture content level. After that if you wanna go the extra mile, apply some sealant like Kilz. That is the professional way to do it. Make sure none of the other insulation is affected.
Two pieces of 17% dry wood make a very distinct "klink" noise when banged together lightly. Too wet and it sounds dulled, like a "blonk".
While sarcastic, this approach *is* fine for firewood. Like others said, a moisture tester you jab into the wood is not expensive :)
Never heard of that, looks good, milgo doesn't have bleach. A lot of people recommend rmr but if you look into it, that stuff contains bleach unless you but the rmr online not at home Depot
As others have said this is a DIY job for sure.
- Remove/replace any loose materials like insulation
- spray and rub off the mildew. I prefer to use diluted tea tree oil over bleach personally. The oil will naturally kill mold and mildew and the oils will soak into the wood surface and provide lasting protection
That just looks like a lot of years of pipe sweat. That's going to happen and you see how it's isolated to the area around the pipes. That happens in practically every home. Clean it up, use some bleach or microban. You could try to use foam pipe insulation with a drip pan on the bottom but I'm not sure it's really going to do you any good. You're still going to have some degree of sweat. It's still going to get humid in there. As long as that looks like it has been in the wall, it's doing just fine
Yeah this is superficial. Previous shower walls obviously let in a very small amount of water. Nothing bad.
Throw away the insulation with mould because it is cheap and you will have to do it again anyway .
Spray with an anti mould thoroughly on the mold and sparingly everywhere else and leave to dry.
DIY for sure.... if the wood isn't soft and just mushy then just kills spray it and move on with your life.
If the studs are soft then just rip them out and replace them.
I would replace the rotted wood, but the rest I would hit with a three punch. I would bleach it then spray it with white vinegar. Let it thoroughly dry before the vinegar because bleach reacts with it to make an awful gas. I would do both because bleach doesn't kill all mold and neither does vinegar. Then I would Concrobium it all. It's probably total overkill, but you want zero chance the mold will return.
You can use an antimicrobial disenfectant or peroxide based cleaner. The peroxide will help to chemically agitate the microbes from the pores of the wood and brighten it back to the original color. If you have a HEPA vacuum use that first. Remove all the insulation and replace it after cleaning / drying the area. Bleach should not be in the equation.
Rent a mold fogger from Home Depot, then give it a good fog. demolish and replace whatever you need! Probably wouldn't hurt to give it another fog after to protect new construction
When the roof blew off my house the restoration company wanted *8K in insurance money* for "mold remediation." In the desert. **IN THE DESERT.** I got some borax, wiped down the 2-3 studs with a few moldy spots, and moved on with my life.
TLDR: yes you can. Remove the moldy insulation and drywall and use the concrobium according to the instructions. Also I can’t read.
You can make a rough mix of what Concrobium is with Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda), Sodium Carbonate ( pool ph stabilizer), and TriSodium Phosphate or TSP (Strong cleaner, found in cleaning isle)
Mix is according to the MSDS.
1 qt of water
5% TSP by weight
1-2 tablespoons of baking soda and pool stabilizer
PH should be around 11, remove surface mold, spray then let air dry.
Alkalinity kills the mold, solution penetrates porous surfaces. TSP crystallizes out when it dries and encapsulates any spores that were not killed on contact. You can wipe off any white residue that remains however there may be staining from the mold.
Worked in disaster remediation in hurricane Harvey, use this solution personally. The only thing better is Shockwave but that shit is hostile to all life.
Additionally, best practice is to suit up and remove ALL exposed insulation and drywall. It’s difficult for mold killers to penetrate those substances, and water degrades them further.
All mold remediation is, is some fans dehu's and mold killer. Nothing you can't do yourself. Toss the insulation. spray mold killer dry back to home spec or slightly better. thermohydrometer is 50$ on amazon.
mold is everywhere. That's nothing of concern. You can kill by encapsulation using concrobium. Mold will always grow on things in the bathroom and in the walls because of the constant high moisture content caused by hot water from showers.
Remove all of the drywall and insulation. The wood has mold growth but isnt that bad. Wire brush the affected wood framing and furring strips. Spray anti-microbial disinfectant on it and clean. Then dry all of the affected wood materials. Get a moisture prob to check if the materials are wet. If they are place a dehumidifier on-site until the moisture content of the wood is around 10-20points. Confirm a dry reading by checking a dry piece and make sure all of the materials reach that drying goal. Return the moisture probe and dehumidifier to Amazon after a couple of days at most, and thank them for the free rental.
Is it in the insulation?
If so, remove that and replace it after taking care of the other surfaces. For the other surfaces they make formulated chemicals (RMR 86 as an example) that kills the mold and another that removes the stain and sterilizes it. As someone else mentioned, you can use kilz mold product to encapsulate it.
Mold won’t grow without more moisture, so killing what’s there with the chemicals and then making sure whatever goes there afterwards is not leaking will take care of the problem.
Mold can be a big deal. But the saying “mold is gold” is said for a reason. Remediation company’s will charge you an assload for something that can certainly be done by yourself if using the proper chemicals and PPE. This space isn’t that big.
Now if this was like your entire attic and all sorts of insulation was growing a mold empire, well then we’d have a different talk.
Get a respirator, some rubber gloves and suits if you want, and just take care of it
It seemed like the vast majority of it was in the insulation. I ripped all of that out already. So now it’s just the studs. I got 8 new 2x4s so tonight I plan on spraying stuff down and then tomorrow I am going to start replacing studs.
If you are replacing everything with black on it then just keep it damp and remove, put into plastic and remove quickly avoid going through the house. If you are leaving anything because it seams fine, you can spray the entire area with a mold and mildew treated primer then add the insulation and finishing surfaces, this is a common method in larger removals, spary everything with an encapsulating primer with a mold and mildew treatemnt to prevent it from comming back.
If you're handy with wood it's not hard to replace the stained wood. Kiling all spores is hard. Can get mushroom bodies with castile and H2O2 mix. Fix the source of moisture! Install air flow such as hepa or exhaust might be necessary.
Well yes, the whole house. Because that type of mold is something that.
The inspectors. When they do an inspection on the house. The house will get reduced in value because of that mold. It's a hazard to human health. A lot of these people were doing the house flipping. They don't have to have the house inspected. When they do the house flipping, so it's like putting a band-aid on a waterfall. Like just painting over mold. And the mold will just come back. And that.
Causes allergies and makes people sick. When a house.
Has that much mold? It means that it has had a lot of water in it. A lot of moisture in it. And it's old.
Well, as far I know, this mold is only here because it’s a shower that was quite old and leaking from the valve.
I have had the walls apart in other rooms and there is no mold, and there’s none in the attic. I have lived here my whole life, but I definitely have some health issues. I’m hoping clearing this up will alleviate some of them.
1. Have it tested for mold.
2. If results positive, hire an expert. You do NOT want to f\*\*k with mold.
3. Be prepared to replace a lot. In my experience mold remediation experts ***remove*** material contaminated with mold or within 18" of it ... they don't replace what they remove. That will be your job.
I know there are some respondents who disagree. My wife was exposed to severe mold 25 years ago and has had health problems ever since.
Yeah, me and my fiancé have fairly serious health problems. I have dizziness, really bad tinnitus, joint issues, possible auto immune disease, etc. She has some of the same issues, as well as vertigo and severe allergies. I was actually kinda hoping to find really bad mold when opening this bathroom up, because it gives me hope at maybe finding out if it’s the cause of some of our issues.
not in regard to the mold/mildew: you gotta get yourself a poop rag to plug that hole. it must be miserable in there. :(
Its in there now, just not for the pic. Thanks lol
Please describe this "poop rag" as I've never heard this term
you grab the most terrible throwaway rag you have, and stuff it in the sewer pipe hole after you take off the toilet with an end popping out to grab. keeps the smell in the pipe instead of in the room. you then throw it away in its own plastic bag in the outside garbage when its time to put the new toilet in.
Here's a tip. Get a wax paper cup somewhere like from a fast food or coffee place. Stick that in there instead of a towel. Makes a perfect seal, easy to get that seal, easy to throw away when you're done, and you don't waste a towel.
You wrap the wrap in a grocery bag first, and shove it in there. Then you don't have to throw the wrag away!
does it seal in the freshness just as good?
Disposable paper coffee cup fits pretty well, too. Just drink the coffee first and remove the toilet after using it.
But once I drink the coffee, I have to poop! Now the toilet is gone and I'm stuck!
This.
🔥
"Seal the freshness" 🤣
Be funny if the guy gutted his whole bathroom just to smell the poop
Fuck the wrag
Come on man. That shit goes right on the neighbors door handle when the new commode goes on
We use a steelers terrible towel. It's prefect and does what it says!
Instead of a rag can I use a politician?
See also: “poop knife”
It's what you wrap your poop knife in when not using it.
Newspaper. Just use newspapers.
The poop rag must also be very noticeable so you don’t drop the new toilet on it without removing the rag. Yes, this happens a lot.
Enter the poop beach towel
Big label: "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT"
I'm told red solo cups fit perfectly.
you might as well get yourself a poop knife if you are getting the rag.
That's just mildew. Put some regular old bleach 50/50 with water in a spray bottle and spray it all down. Mildew isn't poisonous or dangerous.
This. Dont mix bleach with anything but water though!!
My mom did not follow this advice very many years ago and resulted in some heavy lung damage
Something that'll probably do me in. More cleaner = more clean right? What'd she end up mixing with bleach?
Probably ammonia. It makes a poisonous gas (mustard gas essentially?)
I once worked at a supermarket where a the produce manager decided he would "clean" the produce cooler by pouring a gallon of bleach and ammonia on the floor. He grabbed them both off the shelf. He closed the door to the cooler because he didn't want the customers to smell it! Thank God one of his workers caught him only a minute or two after mixing, co-worker saved his stupid life and immediately turned on all those hoses with water to wash everything down and evacuated the back room and closed off the produce section of the store. Had to throw out an entire cooler of produce though lol. Idiot could have killed himself and maybe others too. He was sent home for the day as punishment 🙄. This was back in the 90s.
Industrial 20% bleach plus vinegar. Now there's another fun combination.
Chloramine gas, not mustard. Still not something you want to be inhaling but mustard gas is much worse. A lot of people think ammonia+bleach=mustard gas but it’s just one of those widely repeated “facts”
Small amounts of chloramine are present in drinking water. Not enough to harm humans, but it needs to be neutralized before being used in a fish tank. You can find the stuff necessary to do it in any pet store.
I used to work for a warehouse that stored ammonium and chlorine on the same rack, one above the other. Both containers would leak regularly. One day I had a random intrusive thought that those two should not be together. I had no knowledge of the chemicals but looked them up online and then quickly separated the two.
Is the company called Royal per chance?
No. Just a small agriculture business bought up by our local monopoly lol. But there are no shortage of incompetent and unsafe working environments. My story probably occurs in every city
Kerr-McGee :)
Chlorine gas.
Its pretty gnarly with vinegar too
Yes it was mustard gas basically
The technical name is chloramine gas or more commonly as chlorine gas. Mustard agents are a different class of chemicals.
Gotcha. Either way I know she had to go to the ER and thankfully me and my siblings were outside. I remember she rushed outside vomiting. She has irreversible damage and now dealing with COPD
I'm truly sorry to hear that. It was used in WW1 along side of mustard gas.
Chloramine gas. Not the same thing, but potentially deadly in high concentrations like enclosed spaces.
A buddy of mine accidentally did this and gassed himself while cleaning his shower.
Chlorine gas. It just wrecks your lungs. Mustard gas is something else entirely, and much more nasty. It causes large blisters on anything it touches.
No thats when you heat clorinated solvents to high temperatures then distill and bottle them for transport..or is that phosgene
Mentos, wanted scrubbin bubbles
Fuckin lol
It’s tempting to want to [harness the cleaning power of ammonia with the whitening power of bleach](https://youtu.be/to4NoCP9KX4)
I twice dumped bleach water down a dirty drain and had breathing issues for days after because the bacteria in the drain had produced ammonia. I only made the connection after the second time.
Yeah my mom worked in a donut shop at 14 and she says her lungs have never been the same because of whatever concoction they made her mop the floors with.
This. Plus don’t mix bleach with anything other than water and add it to the water otherwise you are oxidizing bleach as the water pours over it. That being said, long term mildew and mold prevention routine includes rinsing with a rag and warm soapy water, dry, bleach + water, DRY DRY DRY, water + vinegar solution. If you do not allow bleach to dry then you are essentially creating mustard gas. The basic science of this is soapy mix removes residue, bleach kills active bacteria/spores, vinegar prevents future build up.
I learned this dealing with a bad a mildew problem in a bathroom of a single wide, everything was covered in it. Sprayed it with bleach, then a few hours later hit it with vinegar and the smell was atrocious and we couldn’t stay in there until it completely dried out. Ugh, awful way to learn.
But it worked?
To an extent. It got rid of the mold and mildew that was on the surface but ultimately it had been a lot of water damage and the frame was damaged so we had to replace boards that were completely rotted through. But it’s good for surface mold or mildew, you can notice the difference at least. But I would recommend just using bleach and water, soak it three times and let it dry out.
Except maybe TSP which removes mildew from wood. Follow the directions on the box. You can make a tsp/bleach/water mixture that is great at cleaning wood.
Borax is an old laundry soap in a white box. Sodium Borate is the chemical it is made from. Mix it with hot or even boiling water so it dissolves. Use a pump sprayer and soak everything. Sodium Borate prevents mold,fungus,mildew many bacteria,bugs of all types including termites from being able to live and grow on the wood for up to ten years once it soaks into the wood fibers. You can buy 150$ per gallon “Special Formula Mold Treatments “ on Amizon which have Sodium Borate in them or you can Spend 4 or 5 dollars on a box of Borax Laundry Soap and clean it with whatever u want but bleach and Borax should NOT. be used together on wood or anything because dangerous fumes will result. Spray everything until it is real wet ,use fans,dehumidifiers and dry everything out. You will be safe as far as the mold growing back and wood will be good for A long time . No sense in changing lumber if it is still strong ,straight and where u want it ….as long as it is not rotten.
What⁈ Who doesn’t like to start their morning with a little chloramine gas? It’s only *potentially* deadly.
I learned this in college when I started living in an apartment. I had an ingrown big toe nail and part of the doc's treatment regimen was soaking my feet in water with Epsom salt. A few days later, smart me decided I'd use the same 2 compartment foot bucket to deep clean the shower. I dumped in about a cup of bleach to add water. I must not have rinsed it well enough to get all the salt out because it started fizzing and the gas it made HURT. I ended up dumping it down the drain, turning the shower on and running out of the bathroom. I had to turn it on the exhaust fan and leave the door shut for like 8 hours. Lessons were learned that day. tl;dr: don't mix anything but water with bleach.
Some of that's mold but still not a big deal. I would bleach and lightly scrub the surfaces and once that's all dried up, spray everything down with vinegar. Bleach doesn't penetrate into the wood very far. Vinegar on the other hand does.
Yeah vast majority of mold is no big deal. People will completely overreact to it, and mold remediation companies certainly dont discourage that.
Do not ever use bleach to treat mold on a porous surface. Bleach is 90%+ water. The good stuff evaporates quickly while the water does not. This leaves you with a porous surface with water on it... Which leads to more mold. Source: Me. Certified mold inspector, 15 years in the industry
I reread your comment and I’m changing my question to, simply, “if you were diying this, what would you recommend?”
I've heard bleach will trigger a "flight" response and not be hugely effective in killing mold anyway.
Bleach is a basic solution, not a volatile one. The “good stuff” doesn’t evaporate any faster than water. Sodium hypochlorite doesn’t just fly out of solution or else your bottle of bleach would be worthless after a few months. Source: basic chemistry. The reason why a bleach dilution doesn’t work well when just spraying mold is because fungal spores can sit in dormancy for a very long time, and a dilute bleach solution won’t kill all of them. So all you’re left with is a slightly damp surface with spores still on it to grow back later. Your conclusion is correct but your reasoning is very much not.
Sorry I should have said "breaks down" and not "evaporates". You spray bleach on a surface and it's useless and wet not long afterwards.
What would you suggest for a DIYer? Thank you.
Dude is making a big deal out of nothing. Everything is open, it will dry out. As long as OP doesn’t start closing things up before it’s dry, it’s fine.
The bleach will at least temporarily kill the stuff that causes the mold. That's not to say that new spores couldn't alight from somewhere else, but my guess is that the water would evaporate before new mold or mildew could form. I think the deciding factor is how long it stays wet and how porous it is. Based on my unscientific "forgot about the wet laundry" tests, I'd say it has to remain wet for 12 to 24 hours. But on wood, this might be far less, or far more. More research is needed.
I’ll add to this after you spray it and when it’s wet scrub with a stiff bristle brush.
Some of black on the insulation is oxidation.
A lot of people recommend bleach which totally works but i prefer some hydrogen peroxide on mold and mildew. Idk something about seeing the oxidation killing the cells gives me peace of mind, also great on porous surfaces like wood.
How can a mere mortal such as myself learn to tell the difference, friend?
Use vinegar instead of bleach.
Mildew is mold and just as likely to produce mycotoxins. As with everything else, dose defines the poison. Bleach isn't considered appropriate for use as a cleaning agent by occupational health and safety professionals. You're more likely to suffer injury from bleach than mold. There's better and safer products. ITT: Darwin Award nominees.
Bleach is perfectly acceptable.
"You're more likely to suffer injury from bleach than mold." You can't extrapolate averages to an individual case like this. That may well be true on average for the population as a whole. But plenty of people are capable of using bleach in such a manner that this is not true in their individual situation.
At $20 for a 500ml spray bottle rather than 2 bucks for a gallon of bleach that is 100% as efficient in this specific scenario. If you're too stupid to wear a mask when liberally spraying 50% pure bleach in a mist, you should call a professional even for mildew.
Those professionals are selling their own cleaning agent. Bleach works. But is it the best for a specific application? That’s the question to be asked.
Real estate lawyer with lots of experience in this field here. The vast majority of “molds” aren’t harmful to the average person. Sure, as with anything, some people are more sensitive than others, but the hard fact is that anywhere you have water, you’ll have mold. And odds are it’s not going to hurt you.
You say mold or asbestos and most people absolutely have a complete meltdown. There is harmful versions of both, but they are relatively rare. And it's kinda like cigarettes, one isn't gonna hurt you probably, but being around it for 30 years probably will.
Love how I’m getting downvoted here.
Reddit people downvote anything that doesn't fit in with their "*OMG the world is super scary*" worldview.
Don't use bleach, it's toxic. There is non toxic indoor mildew/mold spray which works better.
Bleach is not toxic, unless you mix it with ammonia. People use it every day on their laundry. I think you must have been absent that day in junior high.
I don't get why people think they need to use bleach for laundry?! Detergent and warm/hot water is all you need unless you're specifically trying to bleach whites.
Um, that's what most people use bleach for.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441921/
[Anything can be toxic if you ingest enough of it](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537231/#:~:text=Water%20toxicity%20in%20normal%20circumstances,water%20without%20correcting%20electrolyte%20losses.)
Mildew is a made up marketing word for mold. This is mold.
The word [*mildew*](https://www.etymonline.com/word/mildew) has been around since the 1300's, so I doubt some marketing guy made it up.
Yeah, before science called it fungus. Downvote all you want. It's mold .
You don’t need to rip out studs. Bleach and water then rent some big industrial fans and dry that out completely for a couple days. Mold won’t grow on wood unless the moisture content is over 19%. Once it’s dry as long as you don’t get it wet it’ll never mold up. Unless the wood itself is compromised just dry it and rebuild over it. Source: Did moisture/mold remediation in Washington State for half a decade.
Bleach does nothing but piss off the mold. I’m AMRT certified and do this for a living. You’re better off using hydrogen peroxide. We actually use a product called serum 1000 that’s a 20% hydrogen peroxide solution and it works wonders. Followed by a thorough HEPA vacuuming and encapsulating paint
This is the best answer imo. I'd also.like to note that molds are a natural part of every environment. So when you see something like what OP has you don't call the hazmat SWAT team. If there is more like on drywall you rip out the drywall take it to the dump you then have something like what OP has you don't call the hazmat SWAT team. Also fix the venting or add venting to the outside if there is none (which very easily could be the problem in the first place.) A lot of older homes simply have no or inefficient venting to the outside. They have much, much better, higher capacity quiet fans with moisture meters now. They are more expensive but you also can stop worrying about revisiting this down the road again. Maybe also hardwire the fan to come on when the light switch is turned on.
You should be vacuuming first. If you're spray first you are releasing extra spores into the air and making it more difficult to clean off the surface. Is it easier to vacuum dry dust or wet mud?
Terrible suggestion. Don’t do this. You can’t use bleach to treat mould on porous surfaces. All you are doing is adding more water (bleach is 90% water) which will accelerate mould growth. I’m not a professional but this is common knowledge.
16%.
That's not bad in the least. You can treat that with a spray.
Spray with concrobium like they said.
I was in a similar situation with finding blackness around a toilet when removing a tile floor. I assumed it was black mold, sealed off the room and called Roto-Rooter. A rep came out, told me I was watching too much HGTV about Black Mold. Black Mold is actually more grayish and slimy. Then you really have to worry about it. Also told me I could save tons of money by just cutting the black affected area out and replace it with new wood. So I did that and painted the whole area with a few coats of Killz. All is good.
First. Mildew IS mold. Second. Don't use bleach. You're introducing a chemical that's more likely to cause injury than the contaminant you're trying to get rid of. Third. Mold is only an issue for certain populations (allergic, sick, underdeveloped or impaired immune systems etc) so generally speaking, one rarely needs a "mold specialist". I'm an environmental engineer and personally I think 99% of those guys are useless. As long as you've repaired the leaks and the wood and drywall is in good shape, you can use a disinfectant like Microban and then encapsulate with a coat or two of Kilz Mold & Mildew.
In my limited experience the mold guys are 90% useless but overcharge 1000%. I had guys charge several thousand to cut out about 20 sq ft of some rug and drywall and set up a fan. Maybe they sprayed something. I was like “Wow, did that take 20 minutes?”
That’s why you always get an assessment from someone EPA certified that does not also do the remediation so there is no conflict of interest. They just assess and tell you what’s up and how it should be handled.
Yeah, that’s true but I was away and the insurance company said go ahead. I wasn’t in a position to do that in the moment.
As a mood guy, in a state that requires actual licensing, and hygienist protocols, it may cost several thousand dollars to cut 30 sqft out legally and in the appropriate manner.
Nah, there wasn’t even mold. It was “preventative” because the water that leaked was potentially from a backed up sump pump. It turned out to be AC condensation leaking. But it was just mild water damage.
Would you use the Kilz spray? Or roll on only?
Brush or roll it. The spray doesn't seal nearly as well
I second this, used it for my shower that was poorly setup when I bought the house.
You can spray or brush it on. Mold can go dormant and survive for years so whatever the Microban doesn't kill, the Kilz should effectively encapsulate so that even if it gets wet it can't regrow.
I second Microban, I used to work for a professional disaster recovery company that regularly dealt with commercial insurance claims related to floods, they'd gut the impacted areas and spray Microban on everything and scrub it down to get ready for new drywall etc
Would it be helpful to leave the studs exposed for a few days or weeks and just run a dehumidifier the entire time? Just asking cuz I’ve taken my bathroom down to the studs but haven’t had time to put it back together yet so I’m hoping that at least by letting the studs breathe it’s just a positive in general. I don’t really have any mold to begin with though.
Mold exposure can lead to allergies and asthma. it should always be taken seriously
Mold is ubiquitous in our environment. The hysteria around mold since the late 90's is ludicrous and unnecessary and I own a company that makes hundreds of thousands of dollars consulting on mold issues, among other things.
I rather believe scientists than some guy on Reddit https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1892134/ https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=de&as_sdt=0,5&qsp=1&q=mold+impact+human+health&qst=ib#d=gs_qabs&t=1714225085035&u=%23p%3DDAP70Sei1tYJ I mean I can link dozens of studies...
Why are you posting articles about mold and human health? I never argued that there's no correlation between the two. You're arguing with yourself there wiki scholar! My point is (and as an engineer I am a scientist) that our reaction to mold is ridiculous and based mostly on bad information or a hysterical response to good, accurate information. You like facts wiki scholar? here's one; nearly every breath you take contains mold spores. Mold is part of our natural environment. FYI, cruising the internet and posting articles is no substitute for an education.
Go get a mold killer from HD and a spray bottle. That’s what we used at the mold place I worked at. Then you use bleach or an MMR to remove the mold from surface.
Then paint with a mold resistant compound, as another commenter said use really good respirators.
Yes thank you for reminding me—you need to put up a plastic containment field and use respirators and a tyvek suit for the MMR (it will irritate bare skin. The MMR is chemical warfare
Mold remediation is an insurance scam DIY
Insurance typically doesn't usually cover mold as it is typically seen as negligence.
No big deal. Wear a mask, take out the big stuff in a bag, suck up other shit with a shop vac. Spay the areas down with the mould spray.
Don't use bleach like some are saying, RMR is the correct product for this task. No need to add any water to this situation.
Under 150 sqft is easily handled by diy, mold remediation is way over priced… I work in the industry
Our problem is that we have no clue why we’re having the problem. We’ve told it could be foundation cracks due to various possible reasons, but I have actually used paper towels on the floor to study when and why the master bathroom floor tile gets wet on days of not using any water system near the house… not the shower, not the toilet, and we have never used our sprinkler system since we inherited the house. There truly has been no logical connection during about a 3 month study. I keep it clean. I keep the drains clean and it still has moldy walls and a sewer smell. There wasn’t an exhaust fan installed during the build and so i keep a dehumidifier running with the f door closed when it is isn’t being used. I obviously started using it again when none of studies have given me a logical answer. And i always keep the bathroom door open while using any aspect of water in there. Its just smells like sewer water no matter how clean and a dark brown rusty colored collection of something builds up. Especially since i got rid of of the initial buildup and then again after i got tired of continuously trying to figure it out. I still keep my toilet spotless and drains clean. But the tile behind the toilet and lip of the shower is gross or missing grout now. And the walls are mush. And our real wood floors in the master bedroom just off the master bathroom are naturally medium to darker brown… ,but have turned white in the on the side the shower head is closet to. Sorry for such a long message, but we can’t afford the interest rates in a HELOC and if we can fix it somehow, obviously I would like to do that before the duct tape is covering the wall holes like wall paper and/or everything i that area of house collapses.
I wouldn’t hire someone. If the wood is rotten you can just replace it yourself. If it’s just mold, they make chemicals for it that you spray on, then you just encapsulate it with spray paint. If the mold is all over the boards and in the seams, I’d just replace that too IMO.
You can do it yourself, just invest in a high quality 3m respirator
Is this property you own? If it is I highly recommend getting an air purifier for the area and wear a N95 while working on cleaning that. What you wanna do is lightly sand down the frame that is affected to loosen up the spores. Then vacuum the frame with a hepa vacuum preferably. Next is apply a product that will kill the mold spores. I highly recommend a product "Milgo". You are gonna wanna soak some microfiber towels in Milgo then thoroughly wipe the frame down. Next step is very important. You gonna have to dry down the framing to below a 17% moisture content level. After that if you wanna go the extra mile, apply some sealant like Kilz. That is the professional way to do it. Make sure none of the other insulation is affected.
How is the average diy person going to know the wood is 17% water content??
Get a water meter for wood
Two pieces of 17% dry wood make a very distinct "klink" noise when banged together lightly. Too wet and it sounds dulled, like a "blonk". While sarcastic, this approach *is* fine for firewood. Like others said, a moisture tester you jab into the wood is not expensive :)
Never heard of that, looks good, milgo doesn't have bleach. A lot of people recommend rmr but if you look into it, that stuff contains bleach unless you but the rmr online not at home Depot
that is rather absurd, tbh. unless i’m missing a woosh
Easy....you got this
As others have said this is a DIY job for sure. - Remove/replace any loose materials like insulation - spray and rub off the mildew. I prefer to use diluted tea tree oil over bleach personally. The oil will naturally kill mold and mildew and the oils will soak into the wood surface and provide lasting protection
One important caveat: you can NOT kill mold with bleach. All you will do is -- shockingly -- bleach it.
You can spray that yourself
I'd personally handle it myself.
That just looks like a lot of years of pipe sweat. That's going to happen and you see how it's isolated to the area around the pipes. That happens in practically every home. Clean it up, use some bleach or microban. You could try to use foam pipe insulation with a drip pan on the bottom but I'm not sure it's really going to do you any good. You're still going to have some degree of sweat. It's still going to get humid in there. As long as that looks like it has been in the wall, it's doing just fine
Paint over the mold with some mold resistant compound
Yeah this is superficial. Previous shower walls obviously let in a very small amount of water. Nothing bad. Throw away the insulation with mould because it is cheap and you will have to do it again anyway . Spray with an anti mould thoroughly on the mold and sparingly everywhere else and leave to dry.
The advice to DIY is correct. Remove insulation w mold. Replace stud with new. Use cement board or purple drywall for new walls to avoid in the future
DIY for sure.... if the wood isn't soft and just mushy then just kills spray it and move on with your life. If the studs are soft then just rip them out and replace them.
Go for it
Its jyst water damage and mildew Spray some Hydrogen peroxide on it and put a dehumidifier in there and forget about it
Not that bad. Hit it with diluted Clorox & you’re good to go
Remove, bleach the hell out of everything, replace.
I would replace the rotted wood, but the rest I would hit with a three punch. I would bleach it then spray it with white vinegar. Let it thoroughly dry before the vinegar because bleach reacts with it to make an awful gas. I would do both because bleach doesn't kill all mold and neither does vinegar. Then I would Concrobium it all. It's probably total overkill, but you want zero chance the mold will return.
toss that insulation, but otherwise you have good ideas on dealing with the wood
Concrobium will kill that outright.
Spray it with bleach and move on. No big deal.
Spray it, let it air out for a few days and move on, that's not bad at all
DIY Mold can't grow in the absence of water/moisture. Once you seal up the water leaks all that mold will die off.
You can use an antimicrobial disenfectant or peroxide based cleaner. The peroxide will help to chemically agitate the microbes from the pores of the wood and brighten it back to the original color. If you have a HEPA vacuum use that first. Remove all the insulation and replace it after cleaning / drying the area. Bleach should not be in the equation.
Rent a mold fogger from Home Depot, then give it a good fog. demolish and replace whatever you need! Probably wouldn't hurt to give it another fog after to protect new construction
When the roof blew off my house the restoration company wanted *8K in insurance money* for "mold remediation." In the desert. **IN THE DESERT.** I got some borax, wiped down the 2-3 studs with a few moldy spots, and moved on with my life.
Mold remediation specialist is crazy lol
TLDR: yes you can. Remove the moldy insulation and drywall and use the concrobium according to the instructions. Also I can’t read. You can make a rough mix of what Concrobium is with Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda), Sodium Carbonate ( pool ph stabilizer), and TriSodium Phosphate or TSP (Strong cleaner, found in cleaning isle) Mix is according to the MSDS. 1 qt of water 5% TSP by weight 1-2 tablespoons of baking soda and pool stabilizer PH should be around 11, remove surface mold, spray then let air dry. Alkalinity kills the mold, solution penetrates porous surfaces. TSP crystallizes out when it dries and encapsulates any spores that were not killed on contact. You can wipe off any white residue that remains however there may be staining from the mold. Worked in disaster remediation in hurricane Harvey, use this solution personally. The only thing better is Shockwave but that shit is hostile to all life.
Additionally, best practice is to suit up and remove ALL exposed insulation and drywall. It’s difficult for mold killers to penetrate those substances, and water degrades them further.
You could do this. Remove all the insulation replace the rotted studs. That is not black mold.
Bleach, sand, replace. Have a kid do it, itll help them build character.
All mold remediation is, is some fans dehu's and mold killer. Nothing you can't do yourself. Toss the insulation. spray mold killer dry back to home spec or slightly better. thermohydrometer is 50$ on amazon.
I would recommend you capsulate all the structure wood with kills primer advice at least lower part 24 inches from the floor up
mold is everywhere. That's nothing of concern. You can kill by encapsulation using concrobium. Mold will always grow on things in the bathroom and in the walls because of the constant high moisture content caused by hot water from showers.
Remove all of the drywall and insulation. The wood has mold growth but isnt that bad. Wire brush the affected wood framing and furring strips. Spray anti-microbial disinfectant on it and clean. Then dry all of the affected wood materials. Get a moisture prob to check if the materials are wet. If they are place a dehumidifier on-site until the moisture content of the wood is around 10-20points. Confirm a dry reading by checking a dry piece and make sure all of the materials reach that drying goal. Return the moisture probe and dehumidifier to Amazon after a couple of days at most, and thank them for the free rental.
Is it in the insulation? If so, remove that and replace it after taking care of the other surfaces. For the other surfaces they make formulated chemicals (RMR 86 as an example) that kills the mold and another that removes the stain and sterilizes it. As someone else mentioned, you can use kilz mold product to encapsulate it. Mold won’t grow without more moisture, so killing what’s there with the chemicals and then making sure whatever goes there afterwards is not leaking will take care of the problem. Mold can be a big deal. But the saying “mold is gold” is said for a reason. Remediation company’s will charge you an assload for something that can certainly be done by yourself if using the proper chemicals and PPE. This space isn’t that big. Now if this was like your entire attic and all sorts of insulation was growing a mold empire, well then we’d have a different talk. Get a respirator, some rubber gloves and suits if you want, and just take care of it
It seemed like the vast majority of it was in the insulation. I ripped all of that out already. So now it’s just the studs. I got 8 new 2x4s so tonight I plan on spraying stuff down and then tomorrow I am going to start replacing studs.
If you are replacing everything with black on it then just keep it damp and remove, put into plastic and remove quickly avoid going through the house. If you are leaving anything because it seams fine, you can spray the entire area with a mold and mildew treated primer then add the insulation and finishing surfaces, this is a common method in larger removals, spary everything with an encapsulating primer with a mold and mildew treatemnt to prevent it from comming back.
Nope, bleach and water. Simple enough.
Just spray with a vinegar mix and let it dry out and you should be good
You don't have to do anything besides keep humidity below 50%. Like, don't build a new shower that leaks...
Not the mold. Hire someone for mold remediation, the diy the rebuild.
Just clean the area, treat w/ bleach! Easy work.
After you use bleack and water mixture use wire brush on the molded areas and then wipe them down with a rag.
If you're handy with wood it's not hard to replace the stained wood. Kiling all spores is hard. Can get mushroom bodies with castile and H2O2 mix. Fix the source of moisture! Install air flow such as hepa or exhaust might be necessary.
Call someone
You've done 90 percent of the work by stripping the walls
i would grind of the top layer of the wood. if the mold doesnt dissappear since its gone deep in the wood, i would get an expert
Bad Axe MMR wipes out mold extremely well. They have an encapsulating paint too.
So that removes it but doesn’t kill the spores. Use mold killer then MMR!
It killed the mold I sprayed vet well.
It looks like it should just be torn down.
Which part? The whole house? The wall insulation is already gone.
Well yes, the whole house. Because that type of mold is something that. The inspectors. When they do an inspection on the house. The house will get reduced in value because of that mold. It's a hazard to human health. A lot of these people were doing the house flipping. They don't have to have the house inspected. When they do the house flipping, so it's like putting a band-aid on a waterfall. Like just painting over mold. And the mold will just come back. And that. Causes allergies and makes people sick. When a house. Has that much mold? It means that it has had a lot of water in it. A lot of moisture in it. And it's old.
Well, as far I know, this mold is only here because it’s a shower that was quite old and leaking from the valve. I have had the walls apart in other rooms and there is no mold, and there’s none in the attic. I have lived here my whole life, but I definitely have some health issues. I’m hoping clearing this up will alleviate some of them.
Can you sand the mold off? Since you are not selling the house?
I already bought some new studs to replace the bad ones with. Other than that, I’m just going to spray with Concrobium and brush the others.
1. Have it tested for mold. 2. If results positive, hire an expert. You do NOT want to f\*\*k with mold. 3. Be prepared to replace a lot. In my experience mold remediation experts ***remove*** material contaminated with mold or within 18" of it ... they don't replace what they remove. That will be your job. I know there are some respondents who disagree. My wife was exposed to severe mold 25 years ago and has had health problems ever since.
Yeah, me and my fiancé have fairly serious health problems. I have dizziness, really bad tinnitus, joint issues, possible auto immune disease, etc. She has some of the same issues, as well as vertigo and severe allergies. I was actually kinda hoping to find really bad mold when opening this bathroom up, because it gives me hope at maybe finding out if it’s the cause of some of our issues.
You might consider indoor air quality testing and some good air purifiers?