How does this sound for taking care of mold??

[Sachbvn]

A co-worker asked some of the guys she works with at another job who have some experience in this.

This is what they came up with:


Okay, I checked with about 3 of the guys at work and this is what they came up with.
One of them has had a problem with a house he rents and had to go by "code" although he said he only made 2 steps out of it using only the detergent and then the bleach and leaving the bleach on it.

1. Warm sudsy water with laundry detergent, a bristle brush and clean. (This is after you have scraped everything you can off). Make sure you are rinsing after each washing.

2. Use a spray bottle with 1 part bleach and 2 parts water and spray the area, let it sit for 3 minutes (do a small area at a time) and wipe down with warm water cloth. Spray the area again and let it dry. Continues this step until finished.

The "code" says you should use a detergent or soap with BORATE in it...you can find BORAX I think at most stores...use a cloth with warm water and saturate the area and let it dry completely with this mixture on it. Borate will eat any left over mold.

As far as painting over this are they all voted against it, as the paint leaves a place for the mold to grow, as it is it's own moisture.

Hope this helps.....

Oh, one more thing....MAKE SURE you wear a mask and goggles and wash anything you have on separately right away. don't mix those dirty clothes with anything else and have plenty ventilation. Take breaks so you can breath good clean air too. I don't have to tell you....you can get terribly sick from this, either from the cleaning solutions and or the mold.
I also went on line with them and it was almost verbatim what he told me. So think it must be a go!



How does this sound to yall? My question - we are really going to want to paint the walls - both for appearance, but mainly to help keep moisture out of the basement. Now - my understanding is that organic material is "food" for mold - is there a type of paint we can use that will serve our purpose, w/o providing a feeding buffet for mold???


Thanks,
Zac

[TDHofstetter]

Sodium borate is an effective fungicide - I just checked. It also inhibits the return of fungus, if left on & in the surface... so I believe I'd use a borax wash as the LAST step.

I think I'd use a stronger bleach mixture, myself, approaching 50%, depending upon how bad the mold is.

As to an inorganic paint - that's gonna' be HARD to find. I don't know of any finishing material that's not based on organics.

-- Tim --

Member of the
Robert "Limey" Bolton Memorial
International
Volunteer Mentorship and Assistance
Programme

[Sachbvn]

Yeah - I really am not sure there is a paint that isn't made up from.... well - what other paints are made from, but.... I guess the question is this:

Would you paint the walls after you went through the work of scraping and cleaning the walls? If I don't - the walls are going to look like horse turds - partially painted - old, kinda dirty looking ya know?


In regards to sealing the OUTSIDE foundation walls.... yeah - that is a bit of a problem. Quite a bit of landscaping has been done around the house and I just don't think my folks are going to want to undo that at this point.... I realize that is the BEST fix for the problem - but may not be an option. We'll see what we come up with.


Thanks Timmer!


Zac

[Sachbvn]

Oh yeah - last thing!


Are you aware of anything that would make Borax and Bleach unsafe if they were mixed....not that I would intentially mix them - but they don't give off any kind of fumes or gas when combined do they, that you know of??



Zac

[TDHofstetter]

No, no problem at all - they're commonly used together in ordinary laundry. Borax doesn't act at all like ammonia in that regard.

-- Tim --

Member of the
Robert "Limey" Bolton Memorial
International
Volunteer Mentorship and Assistance
Programme

[imahic]

Another guy and I remodeled a house that had 39 inches of muddy red water in it. We pulled out the drywall up to 4', cut out the wet insulation, kept fans running for about a week, sprayed 50/50 mix of bleach and water every other day. It's been a couple of years now and no sign of mold....knock on wood. That mold can be nasty stuff. I found out the hard way and had a dose of Legionaire's disease, had my lung scraped out inside and out plus the lining around my lung, and spent 9 days in the hospital. No fun at all, take my word for it. Near as we could figure out I came down with it after we were nearly done remodeling the house and had saved the master bath shower for last. Was cleaning the grout and scraping it out in order to put new grout in. We guess it was when I turned on the water to rinse out the mud and stuff that it disturbed the water standing in the drain and released the mold spores. When we inspect houses that have flood claims now for insurance you can rest assured this child be wearing a mask.

Mike

edit: Now when we write an estimate for insurance claims that have water damage we pay to have an "antimicrobial agent" sprayed....I think that is a fancy name for bleach water.....lol

[Sachbvn]

Mike - thanks for the heads up! Wow - that's awful about your terrible reaction to the mold spores. Well, I plan on wearing a mask - keeping my clothes separate, and washing them immediately (and by themselves) when I'm done for the day.

I plan on using my respirator style mask that I use for woodworking - I'll then throw the filter away when I'm done. Any recommendation on masks for others that may be helping? These will be temp - throw away style masks if possible.


Zac

[TDHofstetter]

Have 'em use the cartridge-style masks instead of the paper ones, and be sure the masks fit right - they should be able to hold their hands over the cartridge filters & suck the masks tight to their faces; that indicates a good seal. Just like checkin' yer gas mask. :)

-- Tim --

Member of the
Robert "Limey" Bolton Memorial
International
Volunteer Mentorship and Assistance
Programme

[imahic]

Tim has some good advice on the respirator type masks.

Mike

[Dal300]

If you want to kill the mold, bring in an ozone generator and let it run for about a week, then use Kilz to prime and cover old mold after scraping and sanding.

Don't allow anyone to stay in the house with the ozone generator running....