aswander

Remediating mold is made out to be a huge complicated issue by the press, but there's one simple fact - mold cannot grow without water. The "germ" or "seed" or mold is called a spore, and they are all around us, all the time, inside and outside. The little buggers float on air, so there's no getting rid of all of them. And while sticking your head in a pile of dried leaves will leave you sneezing due to high concentrations of aspergillus mold, just hanging out in your house or taking a walk down the street shouldn't be a problem under normal circumstances.

To grow, those "benign" mold spores need water and a source of food - cellulose - such as leaves, wood, and it's favorite - drywall and plasterboard.
It needs very little food, so a damp basement cluttered with your typical stuff like old couches, rugs, cardboard boxes is a feast for mold! The water doesn't even need to be visible - you just need a high concentration of moisture in the air, though a true trickle or stream of water will make things even worse.

So what do you do? First, you need to stop the water from coming in, and that will involve hiring a team to waterproof your basement. Secondly, don't lay carpet down there, if you want to finish the floor, stick to tile. Gaseous water vapor will get in through the cement floor and cause some mold to grow in any carpeting. I've seen in a million times as a real estate agent . Next, if you must "finish" the basement, you MUST build the walls out at least 1 foot from the foundation. This way you can move freely behind the walls and stop any future leaks by observing them. When you build the walls, use metal studes, not wood studs or frames. Finally, if you ever notice any discoloration or smells coming up from the bottom of the drywall, rip it out and replace it.

What about old mold? Well, if you've had a leak and you can see the mold, you have to get rid of it, even if it means removing pieces of wood or drywall. A pile of mold, even when the leak is stopped, will cause problems because it is very concentrated. Furthermore, that mold will begin producing mycotoxins like crazy when the water source is elimanted - this is a survival defense. So a pile of mold can be really harmful.

Where to look for mold? Well, we know it's in your basement. What about other places? When I have inspected homes with my real estate buyers, I always make them look on the ceiling under the 2nd floor bathrooms, behind the refridgerator and around the windows. I have them smell carpets for mustiness and look for stains on 2nd floor ceiling to look for evidence of water intrusion.

And to keep the mold away? It's called maintenance! You must have painters regularly paint the house (have them inspect it every year) if wood. Go up and check the roof for loose shingles yourself and nail them down. Make sure the flashing around your chimney is intact.

Mold remediation can be costly if it's really bad. You can hire some experts who will don protective suits, or you can just pick up the local group of immigrants looking for work on the corner and they'll probably do it for nothing, although that might be morally and ethically dubious.

Another thing to do is to keep the basement dry is to use a dehumidifier down there. They are about $70 and they suck most of the moisture out of the air - you just run a hose from the collection tank down into a sink.

So step 1 - go down and clean out your basement. Move everything into the garage for a while. Pull up carpeting and throw it out. If finished, tear out the drywall and call in a waterproofing team. Install a sump pump that will automatically pump out the water if it begins to flood.