OP back. I went to the house, and in my very uneducated opinion, it looks like “common mildew” or mold or whatever that sometimes winds up on the walls in bathrooms, for example. It doesn’t look “hairy” at all, so I think that’s a good thing. I’m meeting with the pro tomorrow, but it doesn’t look as bad as I was expecting.
Based on my limited research, it seems like most insurance policies don’t cover this, because it’s a gradual problem and not something that all happened at once (like a pipe with a slow leak, vs. a pipe bursting and damaging a bunch of stuff within a very short period of time). I hope I’m wrong, but I will certainly call insurance co. If the mold guy thinks it’s worth it.
Plus…the house has been unoccupied…and no AC or heat on…which the insurance company will likely say contributed to the problem. When my inlaws had the mold problem, they traced it back to a moving a storage place that was supposed to be air conditioned and humidity controlled…for just this reason. The moving company paid for all,the remediation, and cleaning. The homeowners said NO.
I would not contact the insurance company. They will cancel you if you have not been occupying the house at least one night per month. Not keeping the HVAC on is waste and insurance won’t cover it.
You can do the testing yourself as a poster recommended above. Crank up the AC and get a dehumidifier working in the basement. For clean up don’t use bleach, use Concrobium. I had a slight mold problem in the first floor of my beach house after a hurricane. I used this stuff in a garden sprayer. The sprayer costs about $14.00. Concrobium is sold at Lowes and Home Depot. There is also a room mister that can be rented for a huge mold abatement. That’s what the pros use and then charge you thousands.
http://www.concrobium.com/products/concrobium-mold-control/
I found out about this stuff from clean up after Hurricane Katrina. It might save you from having to rip out walls. If you do rip out walls sometimes you can cut them 32" from the floor. That way you can use a 4x8 sheet of bead board to make wainscoting around the room.
There are 3M masks with replaceable filters you can get at Home Depot. Don’t use the paper masks. If you are deathly allergic to mold don’t attempt to do it yourself. I saw a lot of scams after our flood and I think most abatement companies are criminal. It’s neither hard nor dangerous work.
OP back.
Thanks for the suggestions. I do not plan to do this myself. The first company came, and they gave a rough estimate of $8K. Basically the wood paneling needs to be ripped out of the entire basement, and they have to treat everything. I will get another estimate or two, but I expected it to be several thousand. On the “positive” side, it looks like it was caused because of no protection over windows, along with no AC/dehumidifier, and huge amount of rain we got this year. I’m glad those things are easily fixed.
Did you look at see if the insurance company covers mold or water damage?
I haven’t checked with ins, company yet. I plan to ask the mold guy. I forgot when we were at the property.
We had mold in our unfinished basement 6 years ago. Our homeowners insurance covered the repair (less deductible), and they helped find a contractor that specialized in the work. I have also recently talked to a mold inspector. Generally they have to inspect the WHOLE house, and they may find mold in other places you would rather not know about, especially if you are planning to sell (eg, bathrooms, etc.). I’d call your insurance company FIRST, and do what they recommend. Honestly, I’d avoid the mold inspector.
Also, in our state, mold needs to be disclosed in the disclosure documents related to a house sale.
Finally, you probably are going to have to run a dehumidifier in the basement for the rest of the summer/fall, and next spring. I didn’t want to pay for a big one, so I run 2 room sized ones in opposite ends of the basement. One with a hose that drains into the drain in the mechanicals room, but the other I empty by hand at least once day (would have to put a hole in the sheetrock to have it go to the drain). Or I could have bought a bigger dehumidifier, but I chose not to go that route due to expense. Also, even the one draining with the hose gets a full bucket about once a week and shuts down (I think it must dehumidify a little faster than the hose can drain sometimes, and eventually the bucket fills up). So you have to check on it quite often even with the hose.
Thanks for the advice. I’m trying to figure out how to deal with dehumidifier in an unoccupied house, we empty ours almost daily at some times of year.
During the spring and fall when there’s little demand for A/C, even set at a low temp, we run dehus in our basement and one unoccupied upstairs area. They sit on the counter and drain through a short hose into the sinks. As an added precaution, I put each dehu on a large disposable foil baking tray and turned up the edges 1" all around except for a small spout I formed that runs into the sinks. They’re set to low fan speed and 40% RH, which works well for us.
At a previous house, dh cut a hole through a wall in a closet, caulked the dehu drain hose in place and ran it through the garage to a drain. We’ve also set a dehu in a large shower stall and run the hose to the shower drain.
My only caution about running dehus continuously is that someone needs to flush all toilets and run water in all drains about every 2 - 3 weeks to prevent the traps from drying out and letting sewer gases inside. The water was shut off to two bathrooms a couple of years ago, and water in one toilet plus the adjacent sink & tub drains evaporated. It took a few days to get rid of that odor.
Just reporting another side of this, throwing this out also for others. Did they specifically say black mold or Stachybotrys? I don’t want to underestimate what you’ve got, but black is less common than others. Other molds don’t always present the same health risks (it depends.) For our dark mold (in a previously leaky corner,) I sprayed it with pool algicide (diluted, I think, would have to check the google recipe) and solved the issue. A prior attempt with bleach did zip.
And, if it IS black mold, you don’t want to be looking too closely, breathing the air around it, spores are an issue. In fact, spraying it with bleach can trigger them to release. Sorry you are dealing with this.
I now realize you have walls, we were dealing with what we call here a rubble foundation, unfinished basement.
But also, about dehus, why is this area moist? In our case the grading where the house met the yard was off, which a homeowner can fix in a few hours. We also had a downspout feeding into old ceramic pipes, which degrade (i.e., the water flowed into an underground broken pipe and then found its way inside.) We diverted the downspouts- again, simple.
More than you wanted to know, maybe.
How do you know it’s black mold? Does it look black? Aren’t all mold black? Sorry for asking dumb questions but I might have to deal with this later this year.
@lookingforward, I’ve only had one estimate so far, and they didn’t specify if it was black mold or not. It looks white/gray, so I’m hoping not. What the estimator said is that one downspout was not running out from the foundation, plus there are no covers over the very old basement windows. According to my “wants to be a weatherman” husband, we had more rain this June than ever, which didn’t help. He didn’t think any re-landscaping was necessary.
We had “white mold” which was found in our basement during an inspection for termites. It was in the same MD area that the OP’s house is. It cost about $300 for the Home Paramount guy to come and spray.
If it’s behind panelling, you could have someone who charges less remove the panelling and then have the expensive mold guys come. It’s worth getting a second opinion for that much money!
P.S. you can run a hose from your dehumidifier right into the laundry sink in the basement if you need to.
What is the climate? In warm climates, where there is no freezing, you can set up a flexible plastic pipe hooked to,the dehumidifier that goes directly outside…maybe watering a nice plant. My husband set this up for his sister. It involved drilling a small hole for,the pipe from the inside to the outside. Most dehumidifier a have an option to pour outdoors.
OP here. I have had 5 people come and look at the place. At least three of them mentioned the figure $7K. One suggested I might want to just leave it as it, because it’s not going to get much worse, as we are getting out of the most humid season. But it smells bad, and I can’t imagine anyone NOT being turned off by that. But, I suspect I may get a creative proposal from this guy, to do a “good enough” job. He also thought he might know of investors who might be interested in considering the house for purchase. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
OP here. Looks like we will be selling the house to an investor with the mold as is. But if anyone cares, estimates were from 6-12k to remediate.
Best wishes to get it closed ASAP. Also make sure that if the state has a disclosure law, you’re covered. A realtor should know, if you’re using one.
OP back. The purchaser actually started clean up and demo to the house, so it looks like sale will really happen. It should be a done deal by the end of September. The main reason for the mold was apparently simply water getting in through the old windows, because they did not have window covers on them.
The Windows didn’t have “window covers”? What does that mean?
What kind of covers do windows need?
They are basement windows, with “wells” beside the house. Often people put some kind of cover over the well, which prevents water from building up and running inside.