Black mold. How do I kill this?!

[Taboo]

Ugh ugh ughhhhh.

I was out of town for two or three weeks for holidays. I came back and walked into our bathroom. Surprise! The tiling on the bathroom doesn't cover all of the walls, there's 1-3 feet of plaster wall bordering the whole bathroom, and some time while I was gone, mold sprouted all over it. It's disgusting and smells terrible and I'm really freaked out because I'm allergic to mold. Right now it's clusters of black moldy dots about an inch across but they're everywhere, even on the insides of the window frame. It's splotchy, not full coverage, but I'd say there's probably about 10-15 square feet of the bathroom walls affected.

My roommate is getting home tomorrow night. I bought a spray bottle of bleach and he's going to try and wipe it down, and we're going to take photos of it and call the landlord so they know. What's the best way to go about removing this sort of thing and how do we handle this if the bleach doesn't work??

I am so pissed, I just want to the entire bathroom until this stuff DIES.

[blas]

I've never experienced black mold, but because of my own laziness, I had mold growing in my tub/shower from not cleaning it.

Now I'm making it a point to clean it with bleach at least once a week.

And after watching an episode of Swift Justice with Nancy Grace, I'm paranoid of mold in the closet because of rain/snow that leaks in from the roof and down the walls.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Probably some fifty fifty dilution of bleach and water in a spray bottle ought to work. That's what I use. I have a tiny little yellow bathroom with not only improper ventilation and improper drywall. Sometimes it's too cold to open the window and let the steam out when we shower and it gets mildewy on the drywall. Just sort of give it a light misting and it takes care of it.

So the quick fix is a little bleach water.

The real fix is tear the whole bitch out and replace with cement board and tile.

And install a fart fan in there.

[figures]

You need more than a dust mask if you are allergic. All the paper masks filter out are large particles of airborne dirt, and they don't do that well. I would suggest a cleaning service, a non allergic friend, or a decent filtration mask rated for allergens.

Then you have to kill the Mold. DO NOT MIX BLEACH AND AMMONIA!!! IT MAKES NERVE GAS!!! There are easy to find tutorials online about Mold removal.

http://www.ehow.com/mold-removal/

If it's been there a while, you will want to get a sealer, because the spores can survive weak bleachings and start the process again.

[Andara Bledin]

White vinegar.

We had a major leak problem in our bedroom from the recent rains (the carpet squelched up to three feet from the wall) and we had mildew crop up on the bottom of our dresser. We spritzed it with white vinegar the day after we noticed it, and now it's gone.

From an article on the site figures linked:

If you want to go natural, distilled white vinegar kills many species of mildew and mold. Pour some white vinegar into an empty spray bottom [sic] and spray the affected area a couple of times. It will get rid of the molds in a few hours.

^-.-^

[BarbieGirl]

Home improvement stores, well at least Lowe's did when I worked there, sell kits you can leave a petri dish out and it will collect spores then you send it in for $25ish and they process it and tell you what kind. Although I'm sure there are handy man type company's that can also do that too.

Bleach is a quick fix and repainting makes it last a little longer, but really the only way to get rid of it is rip the walls out and start fresh.

Depending on where you live there are laws about mold and reporting it. Although I am only familiar with Washington as that's where we lived. I know that if you don't report it to your landlord if they come back after you move out and can prove that you knew and didn't say anything you can get hit with some massive fines. There were many apartments and rental houses that got shut down because black mold (at least one version) is DEADLY.

I know with our apartment the management just sprayed it down with bleach every other month, and I did at least once a month. I thought my kids had inherited my bad allergies they ALWAYS had runny noses and got sick pretty easily. My Asthma was horrible and I was getting sick. I assumed both were because I worked in the nursery at church and my kids were in there too and that it was just a cess pool.
But after moving to nice dry Boise; we are doing SO much better.

So find out what the mold laws are in your state, look at your lease to see if you signed a mold reporting agreement. And hound the heck out of your landlord to fix it, call them EVERYTIME more spores show up. Document the heck out of it.

And to help with moisture in the air (because odds are in an apartment the bathroom fan isn't ducted out and just has an air freshener in it so it just sucks up wet air and spits it right back out.) get some Dri-z-air or something similar. it has a larger bucket with a small one that goes in top that has slits. Fill the top with their little crystal ball things and it sucks the moisture down into the bottom bucket so you can dump it out every so often. Just put it on the floor behind your toilet or somewhere out of reach if you have kids or pets.

Also when you're done cleaning the bathroom, take whatever you are wearing and wash it alone with the strongest stuff you have, so that you don't transfer spores around your house. Bleach the heck out of any rags you use and throw away any sponges.

If the walls where the mold is are above the tile then you either have REALLY moist air or probably a rather bigger problem in the wall.


*Didn't quite realize this was such a soapbox issue for myself* lol.

[Taboo]

I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, since the bathroom doesn't have a fan (very very common here) or much of a way to be aired out (tiny window, has been stuck closed since before we moved in).

We're going to try the bleach first since I have it already, and we may do vinegar as well. We're definitely reporting it to the landlord. There are some laws locally regarding landlords taking care of mold but they're not as specific here as in some states. What it comes down to is that if there is a structural issue (a leak, etc) that needs repair and they do not fix it efficiently, they can be taken to court over health issues if they occur, but hopefully this is not going to get anywhere near that point.

[Aethian]

Mold I's sometimes an indication of a leak behind the wall. Best to call the landlord and let there insurance cover this or it could come back.

[Amethyst Hunter]

DO NOT MIX BLEACH AND AMMONIA!!! IT MAKES NERVE GAS!!!

I'd add that ammonia should NEVER be mixed with anything; in fact I won't touch the stuff at all myself. It's just too nasty a chemical and even by itself you can do some real damage to yourself (skin irritant, danger to the eyes, fumes poisonous to the lungs...).

If it's been there a while, you will want to get a sealer

KILZ paint. You can find it in most any retail joint that sells paint, particularly your hardware/home improvement box stores.

[Taboo]

Okay. We bleached the heck out of it. Quite a bit of it is gone.

Some of it disappeared and then seems to have reappeared a bit this morning. So I think we're going to need to bleach it again in another day or two, then see if we can get permission to paint a sealant over it.

[figures]

If it's on the wall, it's IN the wall. Get permission and a cutting tool. (those cheap .99 cent retractables work surprisingly well.) Check under the drywall for mold too. THAT is where it will get you. If you don't find any, it's easy to repair.

[Megg]

I second what figures said. You may need to call in the pros on this one, if it's in the wall, it's likely in more than one wall.

[trailerparkmedic]

If it's reappearing so quickly, that's a huge sign that it is IN the wall, and your landlord needs to look at it and fix it.

[BarbieGirl]

yeah, if it's reappearing over night then you have a nasty problem that you'll need professionals to fix.