Anyone ever remove mold?

Bassist4Life · #1 06-30-2008, 06:53 PM

I'm pretty sure that I have some mold behind a finished wall in my basement. I'm going to remove it myself and fix the water problem. Those of you with experience, do you have any advice for me?

The area is fairly small and self-contained (at least I think it is). Water trickles out from under the wall when there's a heavy rain. It has started to deteriorate the bottom of the drywall. I'm pretty sure that there will be some mold behind the wall.

I talked to a couple local companies about coming in to take a look. One reputable business said it would be $195 to come in an look and $65 for each mold test they would have to do. They guy said that it would cost approximately $1100 to $1200 to send a team out for a day to do mold remediation.

He also said that I could probably do it myself if it was a small area. If I get behind the wall and find out that it's more than I can handle, I could always give them a call. He directed me to www.epa.gov/mold

It seems like a really great website. I have a feeling that I can do this on my own and save a TON of money. I went on YouTube to look for videos of people actually treating/removing the mold, but it's all worst case scenarios and horror stories of mold and mold related illness.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Joe

fenderhutz · #2 06-30-2008, 06:54 PM

You will spend more in the equipment to be safe about it than paying someone to do it. Seriously.

If it's black mold I wouldn't even mess with it.

My wifes family is in real estate and we are talking a major cleanup even for the smallest mold growth. They need to check your vent system and everything if there is a chance it went airborne.

jonathan_matos5 · #3 06-30-2008, 06:54 PM

wear a mask so you dont breath that stuff in.

Bassist4Life · #4 06-30-2008, 07:41 PM

Thanks for the responses so far. I appreciate it.

You know... I look at my potential mold problem, then I look at the videos on YouTube. People are standing in a room completely engulfed in black mold with a video camera documenting their situation.

I know that it's considered toxic and people have encountered health issues from prolonged exposure to mold, but could it really be that bad?

Some videos on YouTube show mold accompanied by music you'd hear in a horror flick. News clips do the same thing.

If it's as bad a people say it is, would the EPA say that you can do it yourself if the moldy area is less than 10 square feet?

I don't know... I'm conflicted...

FL Knifemaker · #5 06-30-2008, 08:32 PM

I eat Garganzola cheese, so, yes

cheesemonkey · #6 06-30-2008, 09:12 PM

from a building? no... from my toes? yes

bongomania · #7 06-30-2008, 09:39 PM

Try bleach first. I hate bleach for its fumes and toxicity, but boy does it kill mold. The only problem is making sure you actually get to all the mold with the bleach. That's where the horror stories come from, is circumstances where it was impossible to get to all of it, so what remained kept propagating.

scottice · #8 06-30-2008, 09:46 PM

Do what I did and tear out the wall and locate ALL of it. Get it all or it'll be back.
Oh, fix the leak first.

Bassist4Life · #9 06-30-2008, 10:52 PM

Man, mold is sounding like cancer right about now. Is it really that bad? We're talking 'bout that stuff you find on an ol' loaf of bread, right?

I've also seen websites that say bleach doesn't actually kill mold, it just makes it clear. Living and dead mold can create the same heath hazards.

What are we to believe?! Bleach kills living organisms, right? Apparently it only makes some of them translucent (according to the professionals).

Apparently, I'll have to section off part of my basement with plastic to keep mold spores from spreading. I'll have to dispose of drywall that is infected. I'll need many plastic bags for this. Why not just drag my Rubber Maid garbage can downstairs? I'll need a proper respirator mask, gloves, and goggles. I'll need some solution to clean the mold and a wire brush to scrub the surfaces.

Then, I'll need to find out why water is entering my basement and fix it.

Has anyone else actually gone through this process?

Joe

Ericman197 · #10 07-01-2008, 08:17 AM

Different molds grow on different substrates/conditions. For example there is orange bread mold, cobweb mold, black mold, forest green mold, etc. I don't think whatever is growing in your walls is so toxic that you can't remove it yourself, as long as you wear a mask, and maybe goggles?

The only other advice I can give is to install a dehumidifier and a rotating fan. I have both in my basement and it helps circulate dry air, which helps prevents mold growth. You may also want to put a tub of dessicant down there such as damp rid. The water trickle is obviously your main problem, but humidity in general is a requirement for a lot of mold species to grow.

rokkitt · #11 07-01-2008, 08:28 AM

We have talkbass

Mold removal guys have a forum also. - I haven't seen it, but my buddy has when he was getting information for the same problem.

Check there.

Al

Benjamin Strange · #12 07-01-2008, 08:31 AM

Ummm.... yeah, we in New Orleans have dealt with a little bit of mold recently.

I tore out the walls in two houses with mold all over them. Everybody around here was just wearing run of the mill masks, and most of us here killed the mold with bleach or some other type of chemical. Since insurance companies still haven't paid many of us, many have had to make do and not spend the thousands of dollars on pro mold remidiation. So far I haven't heard of a single instance of anybody having any health problems due to mold cleanup. I imagine that the dangers of such mold are greatly exaggerated.

Bassist4Life · #13 07-01-2008, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benjamin Strange

Ummm.... yeah, we in New Orleans have dealt with a little bit of mold recently.

I tore out the walls in two houses with mold all over them. Everybody around here was just wearing run of the mill masks, and most of us here killed the mold with bleach or some other type of chemical. Since insurance companies still haven't paid many of us, many have had to make do and not spend the thousands of dollars on pro mold remidiation. So far I haven't heard of a single instance of anybody having any health problems due to mold cleanup. I imagine that the dangers of such mold are greatly exaggerated.

Thank you for your perspective. That's what I'm talking about. I'm sorry to hear about your situation in New Orleans. My situation is nothing compared to yours. I should just man-up, get down there, tear out the wall, and fix that friggin' leak in the wall.

I'm just wondering how you actually remove the mold. Do you spray it first? After spraying, do you scrape it off surfaces? This is the process I was hoping to find in a YouTube video; the actual removal/remediation of the surface mold.

Joe

Benjamin Strange · #14 07-01-2008, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bassist4Life

Thank you for your perspective. That's what I'm talking about. I'm sorry to hear about your situation in New Orleans. My situation is nothing compared to yours. I should just man-up, get down there, tear out the wall, and fix that friggin' leak in the wall.

I'm just wondering how you actually remove the mold. Do you spray it first? After spraying, do you scrape it off surfaces? This is the process I was hoping to find in a YouTube video; the actual removal/remediation of the surface mold.

Joe

Mostly we tore the entire surface out and threw it away. Anything left over we'd just spray with some sort of bleaching agent and then wipe it off.

bryan bailey · #15 07-01-2008, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bongomania

Try bleach first. I hate bleach for its fumes and toxicity, but boy does it kill mold. The only problem is making sure you actually get to all the mold with the bleach. That's where the horror stories come from, is circumstances where it was impossible to get to all of it, so what remained kept propagating.

Actually bleach doesn't kill all of the mold, it actually, well just bleaches it till it grows back.

I used to work for a water/fire/mold damage and restoration comp.

You're going to have to set up some fans in the room on constant exhaust and seal the room. Then you're going to have to cut out all the rotted and damaged drywall. After that you're going to have to sponge down all the spots with sporicidan(sp?) I think you can get it at like a home depot or something, basically its a mold eradicator. After that you should get a pump sprayer and spray all the areas you couldn't reach with the sponging and then after a couple hours of letting it sit get a dehumidifier in the room and leave it there for like 3 days.

That should do it.

Bassist4Life · #16 07-01-2008, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bryan bailey

Actually bleach doesn't kill all of the mold, it actually, well just bleaches it till it grows back.

I used to work for a water/fire/mold damage and restoration comp.

You're going to have to set up some fans in the room on constant exhaust and seal the room. Then you're going to have to cut out all the rotted and damaged drywall. After that you're going to have to sponge down all the spots with sporicidan(sp?) I think you can get it at like a home depot or something, basically its a mold eradicator. After that you should get a pump sprayer and spray all the areas you couldn't reach with the sponging and then after a couple hours of letting it sit get a dehumidifier in the room and leave it there for like 3 days.

That should do it.

Do I really want to circulate the air like that? I don't doubt that you know what you're talking about. You worked for a company that does this all the time. The basement only has a tiny vent in the center of the glass block window; and that's on the other side of the basement.

Would it be better to isolate the area and work small? By that I mean cut out small sections at a time being careful not to disturb the area too much. Small pieces of drywall and insulation will go directly into a large plastic bag and into a garbage can with a lid. I don't mind taking my time and working slowly.

I plan on leaving that part of the wall unfinished until I can be certain that the water situation is completely fixed. I don't want this mold coming back again.

Fortunately, this is not a living area. It's a finished basement, but it's used mainly for storage.

Joe

MJ5150 · #17 07-01-2008, 10:18 AM

I did some mold remediation when I was in NOLA, but I am by no means an expert. I was just taking directions from someone who did it for a living. Take your time and be thorough. Remove anything with even a speck of mold on it, then take out everything around it.

-Mike