A good friend looked at a home for sale, its a foreclosure. The home has a sump pump and interior french drain. When the power was turned off the water built up in the basement. Its probably been this way for months. all the walls in the home are covered with mold.
My friend wonders if he could get the home dried out, with dehumidifiers and get the sump pump working then just scrub everything to kill the mold? he is looking for a cheap home and I am trying to help
A small amount of mold can be killed and controlled with bleach but mold as you described isn't something I would mess with as a DIYer. What appears before the eyes may not be the entire covered area. A professional cleaning company will be able to detect mold in all areas and clean appropriately.
Bottom line, mold is something you don't want to mess with especially if a family will be living there.
A small amount of mold can be killed and controlled with bleach but mold
as you described isn't something I would mess with as a DIYer. What appears before the eyes may not be the entire covered area. A professional cleaning company will be able to detect mold in all areas and clean appropriately.
Bottom line, mold is something you don't want to mess with especially if
a family will be living there.
My friend wonders if he could get the home dried out, with dehumidifiers and get the sump pump working then just scrub everything to kill the mold? he is looking for a cheap home and I am trying to help
One email friend of mine did some rehab on a mobile home with mold. Cost him weeks in the hospital, and he'll never be the same man again. As for me, I'd not even consider working on such a home.
+1I worked on a friends shower that had a big mold problem. I about coughed up my lungs after ripping that stuff out. Never again!
A year ago we passed on several homes that had mold issues in the basement. One was otherwise a wreck but in a great location and I could have afforded to gut the entire thing and replace everything with top-shelf fixtures for what they were asking for the house. ...until we looked in the basement. I wasn't about to tackle mold. You never know where it's going and whether it will come back when you're done. Too big of a risk.
I support what others have said and add this:
The mold you can see may only be 10% of the problem's extent. Mold will be behind, under, and within possibly the entire structure. Probably the only thing that will get rid of ALL of it is a fire!
Meanie wrote in news:km6ql7$p1e$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:
Mold is really aliens from another planet.....or Canada LOL.
I would look for a company that can use liquid chlorine dioxide gas generation. Whether clean up is done before or after, I don't know.
Greg
How is it you Americans can't even construct a watertight basement? I looked at some new houses being built in America a few years back, they were a heap of shit.
dom. One email friend of mine did some rehab on a mobile home with mold. Cost him weeks in the hospital, and he'll never be the same man again. As for me, I'd not even consider working on such a home.
I ALWAYS said that the statement, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." is a major lie.
wisdom. One email friend of mine did some rehab on a mobile home with mold. Cost him weeks in the hospital, and he'll never be the same man again. As for me, I'd not even consider working on such a home.
I ALWAYS said that the statement, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." is a major lie.
It is my understanding that DIY removal of mold is not too bad *IF* it is short term growth and the mycelium has not had a chance to migrate deep into the porous materials. If mold growth is long term it is REALLY entrenched. You can kill the topical stuff, remove it, and feel good for short while. Then, the slightest bit of dampness and the stuff sprouts from all the parts left in the porous material.
If you want a comparison, look at mold that groes on cheese left too long in the fridge. Short term growth, cut off affected areas and eat [the good that's left, not what you cut off]. But long term growth, that mold has ruined the cheese deep down into it. Or if you've every battled mod on bread, you'll see the same traits.
With that in mind, personally I would tell your friend to walk away, nay RUN away. Especially after watching on one of our local channels the horror story of a very successfully house 'flip'er. He bought a house from a bank where the disgruntled previous owner had left the water on in an upstairs bathroom to overflow when he was foreclosed on and evicted. The mold only had a short time to grow, but this entrepreneur's final cost to even get up to the ability to sell the house was almost equal to the distressed price of the house to begin with! Let alone, I wouldn't want to live there after that much mold infestation.
Of course that vastly superior country called England uses exactly the same methods:
Once again, the village idiot in all his glory!
+1
If all the walls are covered with mold, I would think it could be in enclosed inaccessible spots as well. If I was going to buy this it would have to be at a price that would cover gutting it, remediating whatever is found, and paying me nicely for going through all that and the risk. Plus, what about the "disclosure" requirements for future sales that Bob is always so worried about.
If you made a business of buying these and could spread the risk out over many homes, had the experience, skills, etc, it could be a nice business. On some houses you buy them cheap and when you start work, you find out the mold isn't as extensive as it might be. On others, it could be much worse. IF you did that regularly, knew how to judge the buy price, etc, I can see it working and you making a nice profit, But for someone with no experience and just buying a house for a one time thing, there is a lot of risk. Either buy it very cheap or how lucky do you feel today?
These are for buildings a hundred years old or more.
Sure harry, anything you say. After all, you're the village idiot!
my buddy decided it was a bad idea. Me and my GF walked thru the house. GF has asthma which bothered her afterward........
so its a no sale on this one. I talked of helping him but cant risk getting ill.
Plus the home appears to have been vacant for 2 years, that long with that much moisture may have attracted termites which love wet wood.
Why people put sump pumps in homes that sit high enough for gravity drains amazes me.......
Harry, the problem is they build in SWAMPS like New Orleans,Louisiana, and on flood plains. A watertight basement would turn into a houseboat.
basements are not bathtubs, they really cant be made 100% waterproof, and even if they are, settiling will lead to cracks and water entry
Good call. The tragedy here is that so many people got thrown out of homes by banks, etc. when it's clear that even non-paying occupants have some value to the property owners.
Someone who's living in a "to be foreclosed" property can protect it from things like mold, vandalism, flooding, squatters and more. Some kids had a major block party in one of the vacant foreclosures a few blocks away and nearly burnt it to the ground.
Our county got very aggressive with banks that were letting properties go to seed because of the lowering of the property values of neighboring homes. They even went so far as to mow the lawns and clean up the properties with county crews. Then they sent the bills to the banks that refused to maintain their foreclosures.
FWIW, I read an article about professional mold remediation today:
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