A Moldy Situation – Part 2

You can check out Part 1 of our Moldy situation here.

We are back in our remediated house and it feels good!  We only had to leave for 2 days.  Our project was considered “small” as there wasn’t a lot to remediate.  So, all in all, we were “lucky”. And there were no surprises during the remediation!  Well, except for this guy….

Throughout the project we had access to a website in which they were continuously uploading pictures.  We about schmapped our pants when we saw that picture.  It turns out it was probably just a mouse, the remediater zoomed in on it to make it look extra big and scary.  We had even checked with my mother-in-law (previous owner, and builder of our house) to see if she had a cat that went missing.  HA!

The fact that our basement was essentially unfinished for the most part made their job easier.  It also probably cut down on the potential mold growth since there was less material it could have grown on.  The project was fairly straight forward. They pulled all the rim joist insulation out.  They hepa-sanded and hepa-vacuumed mostly everything: the rim joists (once the nasty insulation was pulled out), the ceiling (which is just the upstairs floor joist as we don’t have finished ceilings down there) and the unfinished stairs.  The cement floor and walls were also cleaned. Our drywall down there wasn’t installed the best so during the remediation they went through and cut it up so it wasn’t sitting on the concrete.  Apparently that’s a big no-no since mold LOVES drywall due to it’s acidic makeup.  They tore some full walls out where there was mold (the “crap room” that I thought had mold did, in fact, have mold).

Once we got back into the house we did a little thing I call “un-modeled”.  Instead of re-modeling, or finishing the basement, we went in the opposite direction.  We tore even more shit out.  We knocked out the walls to the crap room. That room was a recipe for disaster from the get-go.  Four walls in the middle of a basement with absolutely no air flow, with drywall that touched the cement floor.  EEK!  And all we did was store crap there.  So now, hopefully, we will store less crap by not having that room.  We tore out basically ALL of the drywall down there.  And we sealed the concrete walls/floor with a product called RadonSeal. It restricts water, vapors and radon gas transmission through concrete. It’s also zero VOC. It’s now a very breezy basement and will have a ton of air flow, with little opportunity for water, stagnant air, etc.  (It would actually be a great place for a kegger!! Do people do those anymore?) Now, the average person doesn’t need to go this far.  And there are plenty of ways we could finish our basement and keep it mold free if we wanted.  We decided to go in this direction because: 1) The drywall needed to go.  I don’t know if I got a picture of it but there were XXX rated drawings all over it from when my husband used it as his “club hang out” with his buds back in High School. And more importantly it wasn’t hung properly, the drywall, not the phallic drawings (those were hung properly).  So, sadly the porn on the walls is gone.  2) The only reason we go downstairs is to get something out of the deep freezer and do laundry.  3) Since we don’t use the basement I didn’t want to finish/furnish it and spend all that money just to have to clean it on a regular basis. I don’t even like cleaning the upstairs the way it is.

Hopefully that completes this portion of my healing adventure.  We learned a lot.  One of the biggest things we learned is it’s really unfortunate that builders don’t know more about how to build houses to prevent water/mold issues.  Mold issues are on the rise and one of the reasons is because of the building processes.  I am not here to scare people at all!  That is the last ting I want to do.  Been there, done that, it’s no good for anyone.  My words of advice: if you have a leaky something, take it seriously. Fix it and take care of the damaged material ASAP.  If you get water in your house in any sense, get it out, dry it out and when in doubt seek the advice of a professional.  AND please, if you have health symptoms that are mysterious, or people in your house are not feeling well and not getting better please take the opportunity to hire a professional to check for mold.  Mold is sneaky!  It can affect people in many different ways.  I am not going to list the ways it can affect people because it is literally everything from allergies to Alzheimer’s. But PLEASE if someone in your house is not feeling well and it could potentially be due to mold in your house (even if you are not ill from it), respect the other person and take care of the mold.  The mold is not going to miraculously go away and neither will the health issues.

With this behind us we are getting ready to go on an adventure and when we come back we will be micro-cleaning our upstairs. Mold spores hang out in dust so we will work to remove as much dust upstairs as possible and move on with our lives.

Thanks for taking the time to read about my Moldy Situation. I am here for you if you need any help. And if someone you know needs any help, please send them my way. I have GREAT recommendations for those living locally to the Twin Cities. And mold can be overwhelming so I would love to be able to help people feel a little more grounded during the process by providing them with tips/tricks, directions or recommendations.

Happy Adventuring,

EZ