Thread: Home Owner In Need Of Serious Help!!!

I’m sorry to hear it. All that can be done is destructive removal of the mold and the just using bleach will not eliminate the problem after it has been exposed. It needs to be encapsulated to keep it from coming back. You may already know this and I don’t need to go into detail. There are some great Mold abatement companies in Washington don’t know of many in Oregon.

As for going after the previous owner you would need to start now and call your local state attorney general to get more information on how to proceed. They may be able to help you with the Seller disclosure form that I hope the seller provided before the property was under contract.

One question that will need to be address is how was it missed on inspection? Was it just in the walls at the time and not in any crawl spaces? If it was hard to find at the time it was inspected and there are no signs of it being covered up or removed in any way then how is it provable that the previous owner knew about the mold in the first place?

1. If you have not had the black stuff tested then you don't know that it is mold. It could be mildew. Get a test done to determine if it is one of the dangerous molds. Most of thousand of molds and mildews are harmless. If it is dangerous you need to get out of the house and hire professionals, your families health is the most important thing here.

2. When dealing with mold/mildew it does not matter how you get rid of it because it will keep coming back until you get rid of the source of moisture. There is no mold/mildew without moisture. This is why it is so prevalent in bathrooms.

3. Find and solve the moisture problem first. The moisture could be coming from any number of sources such as wet crawl space, leaking roof, leaking windows, bad siding, leaking pipes, poor ventilation, poor drainage, etc.

4. Google "mold problems" to find out more about how to handle your problem.

Very sorry to hear this . And more over I agree with Greg.
The only factor that has to be controlled is moisture but not mold.
Better u have a look at this website:
http://www.toxic-black-mold-info.com/prevent.htm

Originally Posted by Greg

1. If you have not had the black stuff tested then you don't know that it is mold. It could be mildew. Get a test done to determine if it is one of the dangerous molds. Most of thousand of molds and mildews are harmless. If it is dangerous you need to get out of the house and hire professionals, your families health is the most important thing here.

2. When dealing with mold/mildew it does not matter how you get rid of it because it will keep coming back until you get rid of the source of moisture. There is no mold/mildew without moisture. This is why it is so prevalent in bathrooms.

3. Find and solve the moisture problem first. The moisture could be coming from any number of sources such as wet crawl space, leaking roof, leaking windows, bad siding, leaking pipes, poor ventilation, poor drainage, etc.

4. Google "mold problems" to find out more about how to handle your problem.

Greg, you beat me to it!! I would have mentioned all the things you did, since I have a couple of tenants that have this issue... It is all about mosture and air circulation.

I would first install ceiling fans or put some box fans around the house that seem to have this "mold" problem... Moving air prevents water from sitting on the walls.

Next find out where the water is coming from... Is the walls leaking from the outside? Find out, and then fix.

What I have also done was paint the walls with a mildew resistant paint, they even have stuff you can add to paint to make them mildew resistant, so now you can paint in ANY color you want (used to be only white.) Again, this stuff doesn't stop the mildew, just slows it down... Absence of water and air circulation stops mildew/mold.

As far as going after the guy who sold it... You do know that the house was sold AS IS, right? If the home inspector (even if that was YOU) didn't find it, it must not be a problem... Usually problem issues are hard to hide, as excessive water does damage the walls. And now you are coming back after 2 - 3 years, to try to say that there was a problem? Well, good luck in winning that lawsuit.

Well, I think you have been given a lot of good advise, hope you can solve your dilemma.

Later!

Good morning, Mr. Maul:

I see that the “black mold” myth is alive and well.

As a scientist, let me address some of your concerns and some of the myths and misconceptions provided to you by responders on this list.

FACT #1:
ALL houses have black mould. ALL properties have black mould. There is NO property in the country that does NOT have black mould.

Therefore, when you say you have “black mould” in your house, it is rather like saying “OMG, I have AIR in my house! And air contains carbon monoxide and therefore, I have carbon monoxide in my house.” Of course you do – so does everyone else. But the presence of the carbon monoxide in your house is less important than the concentrations of the CO (which speak to the significance of the presence).


Based on the information in your post, there is nothing that seems out of place. In otherwords, you have not provided any info that indicates a "problem" you have merely identified "presence." Until there is some kind of characterizing objective statement such as “I have seventy five square feet of black mould growing on my ceiling…” then the “problem” may merely be a perception problem on your part, not necessarily a mould problem.


FACT #2:
Black mould, green mould, blue mould, white mould…. There is absolutely no significance in the color of the organism. The color of the mould does not have anything to do with its toxicity, and the color of the mould never enters into the decision making process on how to get rid of it. If you want to learn the history of the nonsense that started the whole “toxic black mould” silliness, see here: (I was going to provide you with a link but the forum does not permit it ... Google our company name and go to "State of Knowledge")

FACT #3:
Testing for mould is a COMPLETE waste of time and money, and testing is almost exclusively performed by mould con-men and “toxic mould” charlatans. A legitimate mould expert would virtually never perform a “mould test” since, as a legitimate mould expert would explain to you, such “tests” are virtually always useless. For more information on mould testing see here: (I was going to provide you with a link but the forum does not permit it ... Google our company name and go to "Sampling myths")

FACT #4:
The responder called RedCarpetSchool stated: “It needs to be encapsulated to keep it from coming back.” Simply not true – in fact, encapsulation can exacerbate the problem making the situation much worse. Certainly, RedCarpet was correct in that using bleach will similarly fail.

There are three elements to mould control:

1) Moisture,
2) Moisture,
3) Moisture.

That's it.

One virtually never has a “mould problem” rather, when one has mould, one has a “moisture problem;” the mould is merely the visual manifestation of the moisture problem. Indeed, based on nothing more than a visual inspection, by a knowledgeable consultant (without collecting any samples), a legitimate consultant can almost always: 1) confirm whether it is mould or not 2) determine if it is a “problem” or not 3) identify the source of moisture 4) identify the best way to correct the moisture problem, 5) and identify whether or NOT the mould itself needs to be addressed. (Contrary to common beliefs, sometimes, leaving mould in place is perfectly acceptable.

Although a legitimate mould expert can usually adequately identify the genus of the organism by merely looking at it, the identification of the organism is virtually never needed, and virtually never enters into the decision making process for resolving the issue. For the most part, nobody really cares what it is, they just want it gone and don’t want it to come back. In the last 20 plus years I have been practicing Industrial Hygiene, I have never encountered any one who has said: “Oh! That big 5 square foot patch of ugly black mould on my wall is just Cladosporium? Well, shucks, Cladosporium is the most common mould on the planet, let’s just leave it there!”

Onto FACT #5 … (Greg almost had a perfect response, if only he had left the first paragraph off his response…)

FACT #5:
There is no such thing as “toxic mould.” Let’s look at Greg’s response bit-by-bit and see where apparently well-meaning responses perpetuate myths. Greg's comments are in Italics.

If you have not had the black stuff tested then you don't know that it is mold.

Not true. Most people already possess sufficient life experience and knowledge to know the difference between mould and non-mould staining. There can be times when it may be a little confusing for the uninitiated – for example, see some of my photos here:

(I was going to provide you with a link but the forum does not permit it ... Google our company name and go to "So what does toxic mould look like?")

It could be mildew.

Almost certainly NEVER mildew. “Mildew,” like “mould” are terms of art that lack any hard definition. The term “mould” does NOT refer to a kind of an organism and is NOT a classification of fungi. The term “mould” is a physical descriptor that is applied to describe the physical appearance of an organism – a mould is a fungi that exhibits filamentous members. Therefore, a fungus could be a yeast at one part of its life cycle, a mould at another, and just a plain old fungus at another. “Mildews” are a term of art which to a mycologist are usually going to refer to a plant pathogen.

Get a test done to determine if it is one of the dangerous molds.

There is no such test. “Mould tests” are performed to identify the various organisms present to genus or species level. Since there is no such thing as “dangerous mould” there is no test that can be used to determine if the organism present is dangerous. It is rather like suggesting that one test peanuts to determine if they are the dangerous kind of peanut or not. The inherent ability of a peanut to illicit an anaphylactic attack and kill a human lies not with the peanut, but rather with the immune system of the person who is allergic to peanuts. “Testing for moulds” is a scam perpetrated by “consultants” who actually don’t know much about moulds. They perform “testing” so they can impress their client, and appear to have credibility by producing an impressive looking lab report replete with Latin names and mysterious scientific numbers – however, the consultant virtually never uses the report, and normally has no idea what it means – and in fact, it virtually never means anything at all and is entirely uninterpretable by anyone.

If it is dangerous you need to get out of the house and hire professionals…


Rubbish. Since there is no such thing as dangerous mould, Greg is setting someone up as a victim of a “toxic mould” scam artist.

I have performed hundreds upon hundreds of assessments for mould in hundreds and hundreds of structures – some of my photos are so dramatic they have appeared in many publications. However, in all of those hundreds upon hundreds of assessments, we have encountered ONE case where evacuation was needed, and we have recommended only TWO cases of evacuation. Leaving the house is virtually NEVER needed.

Feel free to explore these comments.

Cheers!
Caoimh