Mold?

If you have a microscope you might be able to tell more about the substance. If it is mold or mildew you can scrap off most of it with a putty knife then wipe the boards with a rag moistened with diluted household bleach. The boards should be useable if they have not rotted too much. It's best to store stock up off the floor.

I recommend taking a sample of it to a testing lab. It could be ultra deadly stachybotrys. It may already be too late for you... sorry.

x-no-archive:yes

Would planeing it from 1 inch down to 3/4 without doing anythign else be ok?

If it is mold, depending on what type, you probably would NOT want to be breathing the dust from planing those. If you really must do this, do it outside AND get a very good-quality respirator designed for mold remediation. On the other hand, your blue substance could be chalk. If you're sure it wasn't there before and just appeared at some point, it's almost definitely some type of fungus (of which mold is one type). Andy

Chlorine bleach, which is a sodium hypochlorite decomposes to sodium chloride and chlorine gas when it dries. Unless you use a very strong solution there won't be much residue once the wood is dry.

But chlorine bleach will often turn mold black, so try it on a small area first.

ROFL. stachy is overrated :)

I'm mostly a lurker, but I just wonder why you don't want your posts archived? On some ngs that basically says "don't respond"

- just a step above "reply by email." When someone says DAGS, why don't you want your posts to come up? You've asked some good questions. You are already using a hotmail account. If you don't want that one to stay in the archives, might I suggest that you make another one - they are free.

Anyway, do what you want, of course -just wondering.

George wrote:snipsnip