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Lil bathroom project turns BIG. (mold)

Bobcat

Bobcat

Sound Hound
Took the week off to work on a little water damage in the downstairs bathroom.
I redid this bathroom ~20 years ago with a new shower and floor tile.
I've had to fix a water damaged spot on the adjacent drywall near the floor twice now but this second time looked worse... and it was.
There was a leak in the shower valve and it's been there a LONG time. The paint on the drywall actully kept the wall intact. After removing three times as much drywall as originally thought I've now removed the 3 piece FG shower surround and the ceramic floor tile (concrete floor in basement).
There was some mold under the shower and on some of the drywall.
I've been removing the moldy stuff, putting it in a garbage bag and sealing it before taking it outside. All of this has been done with the bathroom door closed trying to keep any mold spores from going out into the finished basement.

While I'm doing this my wife is looking up mold on the web and FREAKING OUT!

She wants to get a remediator in to look at it and I'm seeing 5 figures (think exterminator in a white van).

We did our upstairs bathroom ~15 years ago w/ some mold but not like this.

Any experience out there? Am I the foolish one here?

I'm on a roll and will complete the cleanup (Vinegar. Heard bleach is bad.) then perhaps get the air tested before rebuilding.

Damn, FG surrounds are $800 bucks now?!
 
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Hi Bob,Wear a decent mask or respirator while you work and get a hepa grade filter in your shop vac and you'll be OK. The poisonous type of mold is pretty rare. Do either of you have any breathing issues?
 
Been wearing a N95 mask the entire time. No breathing issues. She gets like this but I didn't know if it was another fire drill or if I should be alarmed. We're getting the leak fixed now and most of the effected organic material is gone. I will have to demo the bottom half of a wall out to the basement. Getting to old for this $hit.
Thanks for the feedback.
 
Any air quality testing for mold spores will be off the chart, so it's useless to pay $200 to do it. It will freak out the wife to no end, also. There is nothing wrong with cleaning with bleach/ammonia - it is what we use for pro cleanups. Just be aware it only cleans/kills what it wets, so you apply and wipe, apply and wipe, apply and wipe/scrape. When you get down toward the base, apply, and wet scrub. BE THOROUGH.

The stuff to take special care is the black mold, Stachybotrys, which does not play nice. It is good to set up an exclusion tent with positive forced air and a single larger draw negative HEPA exhaust if you are attacking this.

It is not rocket science, but if you do a good job, you'll avoid sensitizing your family to future allergy conditions if you get this addressed.
 
There is actually a product on the market at your local hardware store that kills mold.
You can buy it in powder or liquid form and mix it in a hand sprayer for your amount of mold content. the hand sprayer we used were those simple gardening pump sprayers.
Usually takes a day or two for it to dry after a treatment, but works very well.
I can't remember the name off the top of my head, we used it in Mississippi after Katrina.
We had to either tare down all inner structure ( 2X4's, floor joyces, etc..) or use the mold killing product.
Sorry, i can not remember the name right now though.
 
Bobcat said:
Wife's picking up some concrobium at Lowes. Any experience with that?
Click to expand...

I am having a serious brain fart here, really sorry.
I for the life of me can not think of what we were told by OSHA/health/building inspectors to use, i just remember it worked.
I'll look around Lowes site again and see if anything sparks a memory.

Edit:
That Amplifi stuff looks familiar, but still not sure.
That Concrobium looks/reads well, i like the odorless part.
The stuff we used smelled like Ammonia & Bleach, i remember getting a serious headache after about an hour of use.
 
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katrina rehab worker

bad400 said:
There is actually a product on the market at your local hardware store that kills mold.
You can buy it in powder or liquid form and mix it in a hand sprayer for your amount of mold content. the hand sprayer we used were those simple gardening pump sprayers.
Usually takes a day or two for it to dry after a treatment, but works very well.
I can't remember the name off the top of my head, we used it in Mississippi after Katrina.
We had to either tare down all inner structure ( 2X4's, floor joyces, etc..) or use the mold killing product.
Sorry, i can not remember the name right now though.
Click to expand...

I was in Pearlington, Miss. for a 2 week stint courtesy of our local church. We did volunteer work on the old churches that took the brunt.
Very much volunteer stuff all around with donations from big organizations. We did 3 churches but the Corp condemmed 1 big church. Beyond hope with a cracked foundation(what there was of a foundation)
Spent a great time meeting folks from all over. All denominations were there.
Katrina was a non denominational disaster.

Paul
 
pdm4606 said:
I was in Pearlington, Miss. for a 2 week stint courtesy of our local church. We did volunteer work on the old churches that took the brunt.
Very much volunteer stuff all around with donations from big organizations. We did 3 churches but the Corp condemmed 1 big church. Beyond hope with a cracked foundation(what there was of a foundation)
Spent a great time meeting folks from all over. All denominations were there.
Katrina was a non denominational disaster.

Paul
Click to expand...

I lived in Kiln Ms, my parents still live in Gulfport Ms. we staid and rode out the storm, not fun i can promise you.
It could have been worse, but not by much LoL.

Thank You, I'm glad you were able to help. there was so many people and buildings in need for sure.
 
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Bathroom gutted w/ almost all damaged studs and drywall gone.
She has a remediator picked out and will have a tester set up probably on Monday.
I'm $crewed.
 
Bobcat said:
Bathroom gutted w/ almost all damaged studs and drywall gone.
She has a remediator picked out and will have a tester set up probably on Monday.
I'm $crewed.
Click to expand...

Man, that sucks.
The mold killer stuff didn't work, or you just wasn't sure enough to try it?
 
bad400 said:
Man, that sucks.
The mold killer stuff didn't work, or you just wasn't sure enough to try it?
Click to expand...

My wife has gone bat $hit crazy on this, says the whole house is contaminated and she's itching. Kids n I are fine n rolling our eyes. She's out there sometimes.
 
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