35
Yeah, that advice was super wrong. Moisture encourages mold growth.
After a water leak you need to go to extremes to dry the air to get wet things to evaporate into the air, which you then continue to dry. I would run dehumidifiers, or shoot, if your house has A/C, just run the A/C since that is a dehumidifier.
The only risk is if you excessively ...
answered Jan 7 '19 at 19:36
Harper - Reinstate Monica
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18
Looks like effloresence to me, which itself is not harmful, but possibly a symptom, mainly of water movement; I would check perimeter walls for further signs of water infiltration, and make sure water movement outside is properly being handled, i.e. gutters, grading.
18
Looks like fungus of some sort. It grows on many surfaces. Try household cleaners and a sponge.
There are many types of mold, and the hysteria surrounding them is often unwarranted. Mold spores are everywhere, and only a very specific type is potentially dangerous, and only in significant quantities.
The term “toxic mold” is not accurate. While certain ...
16
You are being sold.
The evaporator coil in the AC condenses water vapor in the air. It does this by blowing the warm air from your home over the cool evaporator coil. The cool coil pulls the moisture from the indoor air, removing it and draining it from your home via the condensate array. This happens with every air conditioning cycle. If the AC unit can't ...
13
There could be several factors that may be contributing to the situation. It sounds like an air quality problem. This could be caused by airborne mold spores, chemical contamination from bad paint or flooring adhesives (VOC's) etc. , CO from a malfunctioning heating or A/C unit or something from outside getting in. I have had to address this problem with ...
13
It is possible for A/C to cause mold issues but it depends on a few factors. The problem is this: when choosing a A/C unit for a home, often people (even 'professionals') will assume that bigger is better. The installer plugs in the numbers to the manufacturers model and comes up with a recommended unit size, then bumps it up to a larger one.
The problem ...
10
Every answer here suggests using a water-bleach solution, though I am suggesting cleaning the mould (if that is what it turns out to be) with just soap and water.
And I have my friends Health Canada and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Council to back me up. CMHC is not a health authority, but they do have an interest in damage to mortgaged-backed homes ...
10
General construction advice for 'general' showers:
In/on the walls:
use RedGard as a vapor barrier over the cement board
use paperless or blueboard sheetrock
use mildew resistant pain
adequately vent the room with a proper exhaust fan
In the shower construction itself:
seal all caulk properly
make sure standing water can't puddle
Now, all that said, I ...
9
Clean it up with bleach and a sponge (chlorine is the main ingredient of mold-cleaners). If your home is humid (RH >55%) consider installing a dehumidfier so with less moisture you get less mold.
8
I would second the comments recommending a second opinion. A sump is in the basement to allow water to be drained away if it accumulates around the footings. If there's no water there it quite probably means that your water table is low enough that there's not seepage. It also would indicate that you have decent drainage around the house and rain water is ...
8
The pink stuff is a bacterial biofilm. Cleaning agents containing bleach work well to kill the stuff.
8
Vapour barrier goes on the cold side of the insulation.
The problem here is that for an unheated, Un-airconditioned shed, the outside will always be the cool side.
Insulation won't stop heat transfer, it only slows it down. A closed shed, no matter how well insulated, will always turn into a sauna.
Now you have a hot, steamy inside, and a (relatively) ...
8
Efflorescence, salts rising to the surface due to presence of moisture. Common in cementitious materials where water is present.
You can wash it away with mild HCL solution but the stains will remain. Not much to worry about here. On structural masonry over long periods of time there might be a concern as it could be indicative of structural integrity ...
7
The last couple pictures appear to be wood boring insect damage (termites or carpenter ants). I'd spray the area with pesticide, setup bait traps in a perimeter around the home, and in this location, sister or replace the stud with a pressure treated 2x4.
7
I am a certified home inspector, so I am a little reluctant to answer this question. I will, however spill a few thoughts. In recent years, the tests you refer to have become fairly popular, but normally in houses that show some signs of water or mold. I personally would only recommend an infrared scan if there was suspicious water spots or paint peeling on ...
7
My experience is that the black growth actually gets right into the bath mat material and cannot be easily removed. I suggest that you replace the mat and then use an alternate procedure when stowing the mat after use.
After use always rinse it off well so no bath scum and other things are left on it. Then hang it up over a towel bar, suction cut side up, ...
7
General practice is going 6 inches above molded area and cut it out. You must inspect the backside of the drywall. If you can't you need to keep cutting out until you hit 6 inches of unaffected wall. You then need to follow a mold remediation plan - not sure how anything else in the wall looks but useless replacing the drywall if you will put up new ...
7
First, kill the mold with bleach and wipe down the whole area to try to get rid of as many spores as possible.
Next, identify and treat the root cause. Mold at the bottom of the inside would suggest that interior condensation is pooling there. Window condensation is caused by two factors:
Interior glass temperatures below the dew point
Humid enough ...
7
Yes, unless you are an inspector yourself. Inspections often catch things owners don't know about. The owner may have maintained it meticulously, but he can only fix the problems he knows about. My home inspector caught a few safety issues like pitch of the exhaust from the water heater and a sharp edge around a flexible gas line in the fireplace. You should ...
7
This is indeed black mold. We had the same problem at home because:
A vent is built between the shutter box and our bedroom.
The shutter box wasn't insulated at all: the lath was cold and had a large surface in a small volume. It was basically a perfect condenser.
Our HVAC wasn't properly set up and the mechanical ventilation wasn't strong enough to stop ...
6
Bleach, when used carefully, may be effective at killing surface mold. However, when I started to research how to get invisible to the eye mold and it's related odor out of some unfinished wood, over and over I kept finding assertions that bleach is inadequate for eliminating mold issues for the following reason:
Mold's hypae (root structures) actually ...
6
Cover the vent
They sell magnetic vent covers at nearly all hardware stores. Buy one, and cover the vent when it's not being used. This will prevent moist air from entering the vent, though it may not stop water if it pools around the vent.
Install an exhaust fan
Install a properly sized exhaust fan in the bathroom. Let it run during showers, and for ...
6
Definitely mold. Yes you can clean it off - use a mixture of bleach and water.
I would however be concerned with the original cause. If you don't fix this, it will just happen all over again.
6
I've been in no less than 300 attics and every one of then has had dust, grey dust, in them. Your attic has soffits installed to vent the attic. You also have vent pipes going through the roof to vent caps that allow some backdraft into the attic. If you've ever had your roof redone, stuff will be knocked down. Mold needs a fare amount of moisture and most ...
5
I think what you are seeing could be fluoride that is put in the water by the utility company. Try CLR or Clorox clean-up –
5
You can probably just wipe it off with a bathroom cleaner or some diluted bleach. You should also determine the cause of it, otherwise it will just return. Often in bathrooms it is from a lack of ventilation.
5
You can wrap the drain line in electric pipe heating tape to prevent it from freezing:
You should be able to find it at your local home improvement store.
5
If you let is sit in a bleach solution the mold will eventually fall off (with maybe a thorough scrubbing - sos pad). You might want to throw it away. It got the mold because you suctioned it to the wall leaving water trapped inside the cups - a breeding ground in a humid bathroom.
5
I think you are right to use caustic. NaOH is fantastic. It comes with some positives that outweigh the negatives in your case. Peroxyacetic Acid or Peracetic acid, they are the same, come with some things you should know about.
It's an explosive acid. The guys who have jet packs and fly around. They burn this stuff. I have found that small doses ...
5
I'm a materials scientist, and I can tell you that the main plastic components used in plumbing products are generally polyolefins (polypropylene, polyethylene and polybutylene etc...). They are highly chemically inert to caustic solutions so you shouldn't have any problems there. PVC is not quite as resistant but for the short periods of time you are ...
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