Cleaning question (Mold-pic heavy)

[JPD]

The house I live in has a small mold problem, and I'm tired of living like this. What is the best way to clean these areas:

Someone told me they think homeowners insuarnce would cover this. The one thing I'm wondering, is this has been like this for more then a year, so would they take care of something that old?


This is my bedroom, above my head:




The hallway outside my bedroom door:



Right next to the backdoor :

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Last set: Bathroom ceiling

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[Aria]

Please tell me you're renting and can move out.

Leaving that aside, black mold is srs bizness and just cleaning it off won't really do much good if the leaks aren't addressed. Water is getting in somewhere to cause that.

[JPD]

Please tell me you're renting and can move out.

Leaving that aside, black mold is srs bizness and just cleaning it off won't really do much good if the leaks aren't addressed. Water is getting in somewhere to cause that.

I live at home with my parents, and they own the house. I am planning on hopefully being in a position to move out within a year.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Yeah, that looks like it should be checked out by a professional. Find out where the water is coming from. There's a good chance that the other side of that ceiling is even worse.

I was getting mold in the baseboard next to my tub, and I thought at first it was just from water escaping around the shower curtain and dripping down the wall. Also sometimes I could smell it. Then my downstairs neighbor told my dad he was getting a water spot in his bathroom ceiling, so my dad started investigating. When he opened up the wall in the closet to get to the pipes (there was no access to them before), we discovered that the floor around the tub inside the wall was soaked. Even the carpet in the closet was damp, and the bottom corner of my storage unit had water damage inside it (it's one of those particle-board cube storage systems so it just sucked the water right through). The grout was no longer sealed and water was going right through it. When he started taking out the tile next to the faucet, the drywall just fell apart, and the insulation behind the tile on the side wall was covered in black. Luckily it was just the wall and not a leaking pipe, but I took the opportunity to replace the tub (which had been refinished because it was a mess, but was later damaged when I leaned lightly on the soap dish and it came off the wall...which in hindsight should have been the first clue that something was going on behind there), and we put in a solid tub surround. This was at least a year after I moved in, and my insurance covered it.

Faucet end:


Side wall; the insulation underneath had to be replaced:

[mathnerd]

You're going to need a contractor that specializes in mold clean up and it's going to be a major repair. There's no possible way that it's not much, much worse on the back side of the drywall. And I agree with the person who said to check with your insurance company. There's a good chance it will be at least partially covered.

[KuariKaydrith]

That's not an easy clean up at all. You're looking at replacing drywall and insulation at the very least, and possibly entire walls, floors, ceilings, and roofs depending on where the water is getting in. For now I would suggest bleaching the ever loving shit out of everything, but it is only a stop-gap solution for something that looks like it needs to be completely gutted.

When you do move out finally you're going to want to wash every piece of clothing you have to get rid of any mold particles and smell that might be lingering. And I'd be really iffy about taking any furniture out of there when you move because it may have mold spores in it too.

[Crossbow]

Rule of thumb I always heard was if there's more than 10 square feet of mold, get a professional. That's well more than 10 square feet.