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Mold in my new recreation room
Jason01Grids
✭ Freshman
I wanted to turn the basement into my own personal man cave but it kind of went sideways fast cause of mold. Did some digging, found a mixture that I used to clean the walls that mold seeped into, now I'm paranoid that I might get an infectious disease if I sit there for too long, mold might still be in the air who knows. I'm planning on getting a foosball table, a pool table, put some darts wheels on the walls, make a little haven for me and my buds cause with the whole lockdown, it doesn't seem like we'll be going out too much this year. Doesn't hurt to have your own relaxation place either. But what can I do with the whole mold situation? Cause I'm afraid it might pose an issue in the future too, and I don't want to lose this space cause I plan on investing a lot of money in it.
Comments
If you're investing alot of money get a mold detector in there and see from there. Had mold in my old home and it wasnt worth the hassle (also wasnt my dream home). Id say at least get a pros opinion and you can decide your course of action from there (unless you're a pro yourself).
Best bet with mold would be to get a professional in to look at it. Also need to find the source of the moisture.
^^^ This for sure. I'm a home inspector and if I see any signs of "microbial" growth that shouldn't be there, I will note it in the reports and suggest licensed professionals further evaluate. There are many different "microbial" or fungi growths that are not necessarily classified as "mold" and are not considered the same threat as mold is.
Best bet is to hire a home inspector certified in mold/ air quality testing that isn't associated with a remediation company. Let them take the test and give you the results. Make your decision from there.
Just an article from my certification organization..
I'll assume that you are not a pro and go straight for the tip everyone else already gave you for starters, call someone in who can identify the source and evaluate the situation, make sure it's actually mold you are dealing with. On the other hand, if you are sure that mold was the problem here and that you somewhat got rid of it, then you can just use a dehumidifier for prevention, keep moisture low so that it doesn't grow back later. The whole idea with the man cave is awesome, hope one day I'll have my own, but if it is mold you're dealing with, black mold to be precise, then you might actually come down with respiratory illnesses if you spend too much time breathing in the spores filled air. I'll leave you with a few articles that might help, or at least give you some useful insight on the whole mold situation. Good luck, dude!
I'm currently in the early stages of building a house and mold is my #1 concern. The humidity in the South makes for very good conditions for mold to grow. There is a ton of information out there to the point it can be overwhelming. A pro will know exactly what to look for and how to fix it. However, fixing the actual problem versus treating the mold could be a very expensive project. Good luck to you and hopefully its a simple fix.
(TED talk alert) I don't mess with mold. Please be careful.
I have a personal experience with invisible mold (no visible traces of it anywhere except underneath the house) in a previous rental that wreaked havoc on my life for a year or two. I don't love talking about it because it's such a crazy story that it doesn't seem real. But I wouldn't wish the experience on my worst enemy, so I share with others to help them avoid the situation.
My fiance and I moved into a beautiful older home built in 1955 in Columbia, SC at the time.
As much as we loved the house, from the moment we moved in we both started feeling odd. Every time we'd leave then come back, within hours we would just start to feel extremely anxious and on-edge - which led to inexplicable shouting matches that were completely uncharacteristic of our otherwise great relationship. We'd leave the house, and feel mostly back to ourselves within a few hours. So, we began to try and stay away from the house as much as possible. Didn't know what we were going to do, but just knew we didn't want to be there.
Health-wise, I'm in good shape - hardly ever get sick. Don't really have any allergies other than mild seasonal allergies, yet by the time I identified the cause of why I was feeling so "off" in that house and got out, I was borderline asthmatic and unable to think clearly at all. It's the last part that is the most scary. I am self-employed and the brain fog and anxiety that were brought on made me unable to get much work done at all. I would constantly lose my train of thought mid-sentence and be unable to recall anything about a phone conversation. Needless to say, my income took a nose-dive.
My fiance got the worst of it. She actually has Lupus that was well-managed before, then the moment we moved into the house she started having weird symptoms like occasional bloody nose, terrible muscle fatigue, constipation for 14+ days, extreme anxiety and even rage/outbursts that were completely uncharacteristic of her super sweet nature. We actually ended up calling the ambulance twice and going to the ER a couple times because of her strange reactions.
We both lost a lot of weight and looking at the pics from then you can see in our eyes we were not well. And we were eating extremely healthy trying to combat what it was we were feeling.
To make matters worse, the mainstream doctors we visited, wouldn't recognize the effects of it. They mostly are trained to think that with mold you are either highly allergic or don't notice many effects from it. Unless the mold is black mold - the well known stachybotrys. In my case I found that to be false. We had high levels of aspergillus/penicillium which are very common household molds, but I've come to believe the dose makes the poison, since we had high levels of it.
What tipped me off that mold might be the issue, was we started to notice that our fruits and veggies seemed to turn moldly a lot more quickly than normal. So, I got my landlord to get a mold test, and sure enough, we had a large patch in the crawlspace, directly under our pantry. Then later I looked through with a fine-tooth comb and saw some hidden water damage on the interior walls that had most likely been painted over a few times. Then discovered no moisture barrier in the crawl space, and a slow leak running from the A/C to under the house.
For a solid year after we were pretty paranoid about mold anywhere. We would start to itch if we tried on any clothes from that house that hadn't been treated with ammonia + borax. We also threw out a LOT of our possessions when we moved out.
I thank God that I went through that so others don't have to. We have been out for 2 years now and feel finally back to normal, but even that took months to regain. I spoke to a lady who had also rented from the same company and she had two pets get cancer and herself while she was living in one of their places. I feel fortunate ours wasn't that bad.
@SAVDGD it's really scary the health effects that microbial growth can have on many. I use the term "microbial growth" due to the varying degrees and particular types there are.
As a home inspector, any type of of microbial growth that I can visually detect, I will set it up in my report and request further evaluation by certified/ licensed professionals. Many home inspectors are certified/licensed in Mold and Air Quality testing and usually charge a fee just for this service and may have a more "intrusive: going behind walls" inspection than what I would normally do.
Just another reminder why a home inspection is important prior to a purchase of a home. Also, anyone considering a long term rental of a home should probably considered an Air Quality test prior to, or have the landlord present them with an recent certified test letter.
Glad your doing better and it wasn't worse......
Call a Servpro or other reputable remediation company.
get a dehumidifier (around $100-200 probably) pulls moisture out. Great in basements. Dump water. Fills up a gallon of water every 12-36 hours.
“kilz” paint Over the areas once it is deemed Safe.
Thanks, I appreciate that and all the precautions you take as well. It's truly puzzling how under represented the health effects of it all are to the public.