|
Read mold
consultant Phillip Fry’s answers to mold victim questions about toxic
black mold and household mold health, mold inspection, mold testing, mold
removal, mold remediation, and mold prevention.
Mold expert
Fry explains do it yourself and professional mold cleaning, mold removal,
mold killing, and mold maintenance and prevention.
"The way to control indoor
mold growth
is to control moisture.”---U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
[EPA]
For more mold questions and detailed answers from mold
consultant Phillip Fry, please visit--
[Mold Advice] [Mold In Schools] [New-Home-Builder] [Realtor Mold] [Apartment-Mold-Respiratory-Infections] [Attic-Mold] [Basement-Black-Mold] [Home-Mold-Inspection] [Sewage-Leak-Mold-Problem] [Real Estate & Mold] [Hospital-Mold] [Real People & Mold] [Workplace-Mold] [Pet-Health-Mold] [Mold-Cross-Contamination] [Mold-Resistant Paint] [Grout-Mold-Growth] [Support-Beam-Mold] [Mold-Mildew-in-House] [Purchasing-New-Home-Mold] [Condominium-Flooding-Mold-Problem] [Standing-Water-Wood-Rot-Mold] [Leaky-Roof-Water-Damage-Mold] [Bedroom-Mold] [Leaky-Plumbing-Mold] [Rental-Home-Mold] [Garage-Mold] [Leaky-Pipes]
For
mold inspection,
mold remediation, and
mold prevention for your real estate property anywhere in the world,
please contact
mold consultants Phillip Fry and Divine Montero by email
manager@moldinspector.com or by phone 1-480-310-7970.
Mold
Answers from Mold Expert Phillip Fry---
Q.
Dec. 16, 2011, from Canada. We are living in a house that has mould
growing all the way through, on walls and the roof and also on our
belongings. We have been cleaning this for the last 2 years and 6
months. The landlord and real estate just don't care. My 5 children and
myself are always sick, These are just some of what we are experiencing:
Really bad headaches, Fevers, Runny noses, Constant coughs, Sneezing for
half an hour at a time, Hives, My 6 Yr old son has bowel problems, My
9Yr old daughter has constant kidney infections and uti's, Bleeding
noses, Ringing in the ears, and There is much more. Do you think this
could be making us sick as i can't afford to pay anyone to inspect the
mould, Please give me some advice. The mould is pitch black.
A.
What you describe are commonly-experienced mold-caused health problems.
Your family's serious mold-related health problems mean you need to move
somewhere safe as soon as possible. Read about
landlord mold liability.
Landlords owe a legal duty to provide tenants with habitable housing,
and mold in rental units makes units uninhabitable. The problem is that
landlords don't care about the mold health problems of their tenants. If
you sue a landlord, it will take years in court and cost many thousands
of dollars in attorney fees. In the interim, your family's health is at
very serious risk. Please read all about mold health on the 400 pages
of http://www.moldinspector.com.
You can use low-cost Tenant to Landlord legal notice forms available at
http://www.moldmart.net to try to get positive action from your
landlord. You should also read these two of mold expert Phillip Fry’s
mold ebooks: (1) Mold Health Guide; and (2) Mold
Legal Guide, only $15 each for email attachment delivery to you
from Mold Mart.
Q.
Oct. 21, 2011. HI! On Wednesday October 19th 2011 our hot water heater
started leaking and flooded a good amount of our laundry room and master
bedroom. We are renters so we immediately called our landlords who were
out of town at that time. After several phone calls they finally sent
someone over to turn off and drain the hot water heater tank. Our
landlord came the next evening, Thursday October 20, 2011 (once again
after me calling) and replaced the tank. The baseboards bowed and peeled
away from the wall in places as well as some of the paint above the
baseboards has started to peel off b/c of the water damage. I asked the
landlord about getting someone in to dry the walls out and check for
mold. He laughed and said mold wouldn't form that quickly nor was there
enough water damage. ( Though he wasn't here to see how much water there
was and I do have pics of all of the water) He said he would let the
walls air dry and then re caulk the baseboards. What are our rights as
tenants to have the walls professionally dried and tested for mold? I
have 3 young children ranging in ages 7 to infant as well as a husband
who has a low immune system due to Chrone's disease and am worried about
the mold affecting them as they are the ones who are at risk to have
side effects from mold growing. Please help me on what to do or if we
can get out of our lease b/c they will not send anyone to professionally
dry and assess the damage.
A.
Your landlord's inadequate and untimely drying step (or lack thereof!!)
is unfortunate because mold will begin growing within 24 hours of the
carpeting and padding (if any) being continually wet, plus if water
penetrated into the inside of the wall there will be internal mold
growth inside the wet wall. With your husband's health problem and your
having young children living in the rental unit, you have good reason to
be concerned. May I suggest that you send a certified letter with return
receipt to your landlord asking that the inside wall cavities be tested
(where flooded) by a Certified Mold Inspector, Certified Environmental
Hygienist, or Certified Industrial Hygienist. In your letter explain
that mold begins growing after just 24 hours of wetness and explain
about your husband's medical condition and your having young (and
therefore mold vulnerable) children in the rental unit. Put prominently
on the letter that you are sending a copy of the letter to the local
building inspector and local city or county health department (find out
inspector and health officials' personnel names and addresses and put
that contact information onto the bottom of the letter beneath your
signature as a "cc"). You would be helped big time if you read
carefully two of my mold advice ebooks: (1) Mold
Health Guide;
and (2) Mold
Legal Guide,
only $15 each for email attachment delivery to you from http://www.moldmart.net.
If I may be of further help, please email me. Best wishes, Phillip Fry,
Certified Environmental Hygienist, Certified Mold Inspector, and
Certified Mold Remediator
Q.
August 11, 2011. I have lived in my home for 5 years. This past Dec I
started getting sick with respiratory problems. I tested positive in April
for Histoplasmosis and my most recent lung testing showed positive for 2
different mold colonies growing in my lungs- Aspergillus and Penicillium
mold species. I have been oxygen dependent for several months now and am
concerned as to what the possible causes could be. We had this house
inspected prior to purchase and see no mold growths anywhere within it. I
have been confined to this house for nearly 8 months other than hospital
visits. Is it possible this is growing in our home and we do not know of
it. I have been on chemotherapy and immunosuppressant drugs for RA since
Oct of last year and know I cannot fight infections like others do. Any
advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so very
much!!!
A.
I'm sorry that you are suffering such mold-related health problems. Some
of the likely places you are being exposed to mold are: (1) your
workplace; (2) mold growing inside your vehicle's air conditioning and
passenger interior; (3) mold growing inside your home window air
conditioners and/or heating/cooling equipment and ducts; and (4) mold
growth hidden inside your home walls, ceilings, floors, attic, crawl
space, basement, and/or garage. Your first step should be to use our do it
yourself
mold test kits to test the outward air flow from your vehicle's
air con/heating system when you operate it, the air flow out of each of
your home heating/cooling duct registers, and surface mold sampling (using
the combination of Scotch tape lift tape sampling with the each tape put
into one of our mold test kits) of horizontal surfaces like tops of
kitchen cabinets, top of refrigerator, top of wood trim around windows and
doors, carpeting, etc.
You should also use the mold test kits to mold test the outward air flow
from heating/cooling duct registers and surfaces in your workplace.
You can buy
mold test kits. You should also
buy and read carefully two of my mold advice ebooks:
(1) Mold Health
Guide; and (2) Do It Best Yourself Mold Inspection, Testing, Remediation,
and Prevention, only $15 each for email attachment delivery to you from http://www.moldmart.net.
I'm here to help you get through this mold problem. Please
email me any followup mold questions you may have---Phillip Fry,
Certified Environmental Hygienist, Certified Mold Inspector, and Certified
Mold Remediator
Q.
July 31, 2011. I work at a daycare and there was white mold that kept
growing in small areas in one room. This last week the entire room got
covered with mold, along with 2 others. the owner of the building had
someone come in to clean the carpet, but the humidity of the place
averages around 70%. i not only work there but my daughter goes there.
I'm worried about my health, her health, and the kids i take care of
there. is just cleaning the carpets going to get rid of the mold? it was
white, fluffy looking mold. is that harmful, because the owner said its
the same as breathing outside air? Please help!
A.
High humidity means big time mold growth. The daycare center should be
using air conditioning and dehumidifiers to keep indoor humidity to 40 to
50% to discourage mold growth. The white mold you see growing is likely to
be the unhealthy Claodosporium mold. One way to control mold growth in
carpets is to sprinkle the carpet with large amounts of boric acid powder
(available at http://www.moldmart.net )
and then do use a hand-held, hard bristle brush to mix the powder
thoroughly into the carpet fibers. Your health and the health of the
children and other workers is at a big-time risk because of this mold
growth. You would be helped in dealing with these issues by reading my
indepth mold advice ebooks Mold Health Guide, Mold Legal Guide, and Do It
Best Yourself Mold Inspection, Testing, Remediation, and Prevention, only
$15 each for email attachment delivery to you from Mold Mart. Your daycare
owner can get immediate mold relief for his building by using a high
ozone generator to do ozone blasting of the center’s heating/air
conditioning equipment and ducts and any window air conditioners, plus
ozone treatment of all rooms.
Q.
May 22, 2011. Dear Mr. Fry, We bought a home in
Henry County, Georgia
through the
Neighborhood Stabilization Program
as part of the Stimulation Program in 2010 that President Obama offered to
counties to help rehab foreclosed homes. The county bought the homes with
federal money, refurbished them and then sold them without profit to
families like ours (we have a special needs daughter)...We have been in
the house since Janaury 2010. Our daughter was 4 1/2 when we moved in.
She has been sick constantly since we moved into the house. It is a ranch
home, with the
hvac
system
in the crawl space. She almost passed away three times in the last 7
months from respiratory infections. This last infection started in
February and landed her in the children's hospital on 4/17/11 with Bell's
Palsy and her kidneys shut down. It hit me like a ton of bricks when
after 24 hours she hadn't been
gasping
for air,
nor needing her sinuses to be suctioned out...why wasn't she symptomatic
in the hospital? The specialists said she had pollen allergies, but I said
to my husband the house had to be making her sick. How could pollen have
done this to her since February? We were planning her funeral. So, we
took her out of the hospital bed into the pollen outside and she didn't
sneeze or cough, she had no trouble breathing all night. So, the
specialists called in an allergist and she smelled mold on our clothing
and our suitcases in the hospital room. I called a couple of friends in
the construction business and my home owners insurance company to the
house. They found all kinds of mold in the crawl space, around the hvac
system...We put the petrie test kits, two of them, in the home, while
Maggi was in the hospital. One in a closet with the door shut. It grew
mold in a few days. The other, we put on the furtherest air conditioning
vent from where the hvac sat in the crawl space..in our kitchen...for 10
minutes with the air on full blast..it grew
black
mold,
and gray mold within 24 hours, filled the dish. The allergist could smell
mold in my scalp. My question is, how do I find the right company in my
state to trust to come out and do quality testing for my fight for the
county? They knew my daughter was special needs and told us the home had
been inspected by the county, HUD, the NSP and the contractor...and that
we had nothing to worry about...thank goodness our allergist is ready to
fight with writing letters and documenting Maggi's exposure to toxic mold
and will state that it was killing her. Had I not noticed her change in
symptoms and thought of it being the house, the allergist would have never
met Maggi and she said if we had brought her back home thinking it was
pollen, she would have died within a week. We are in an apartment and she
has done a complete turnaround. I have contacted my congressman and
before we spend the money we don't have on a company to do the proper
testing and I hire a lawyer, do you suggest or know anyone in Georgia or
how I should go about finding a qualified company I can trust with my
daughter's life? Your site is fantastic. We are only weeks after almost
losing Maggi and only weeks away from her 14th surgery. Your site helped
me so much tonight and I hope you read this email. Visit her website
www.maggiblair.com, she is a sweetheart---Donna Blair
A. To keep
the cost of mold testing affordable, have a friend who has some
professional credentials like a nurse, government official, building
inspector, etc. do lift tape sampling of the worst mold growth
areas inside the
crawl
space and
heating/cooling ducts (just inside the register). Learn how to do lift
tape sampling by reading the instructions posted on
http://www.moldmart.net .
The person taking the samples should provide a notarized affidavit that he
or she took the lift tape samples (how many and where in your house). The
lift tape samples can then be send through me to a very good USA mold
analysis lab. You were very wise to move out of the mold hell into the
apartment in which your daughter's health is already improving. Your
daughter's special med needs and the terrible mold health problems you
have experienced so far suggest that it is very unsafe for her to be
living
in the house.
If you have no choice but to live there, take the following measures: (1)
your daughter should always wear a N-95 breathing mask (cheap at a
pharmacy or home improvement store), changed for new one daily, to
minimize her inhalation of airborne
mold
spores; (2)
especially with this being warm now, leave all windows open and use box
fans n the windows to continually exhaust indoor air to the outside to
minimize the accumulation of indoor airborne mold spores; (3) clean the
ceilings, walls, floors, and the surfaces of all furniture, etc. through
out your home with borax laundry detergent, a natural mold cleaner, in
warm water at least monthly to get rid of landed/deposited mold spores;
(4) follow the do it yourself
mold removal
steps and other mold advice relevant to your situation that is explained
in my ebooks Do It Best Yourself Mold Inspection, Testing,
Remediation, and Prevention, Mold Health Guide, and
Mold Legal Guide (normally $15 each) delivered to you by
email attachment If I can be of further help, please email me. Best
wishes---Phillip Fry, Certified Environmental Hygienist, Certified Mold
Inspector, and Certified Mold Remediator
Q.
I would much appreciate any thoughts you might have on the mold shown in
the photos attached. Should we be worried about mold still in the carpet
or below? The home is located in Seattle, Washington. June 4, 2010.
A.
Your pictures show advanced mold growth in the carpeting. Your highest
priority is to find the water source that enabled the mold to grow in
the carpeting. If this carpeting and padding are on a concrete slab,
your first item to inspect for is water wicking up from the ground
beneath the concrete into the concrete, making the carpeting wet and the
mold growth as a consequence. Next, check for siding or plumbing leaks
in the wall close to the moldy carpeting. Last, check for any water
problems from above (ceiling)---such as, are there water stains on the
ceiling above the carpeting? Only after you find and fix the water
problems should you take the next steps----(1) remove and discard the
carpeting and padding; and (2) scrub the concrete floor mold spot
location with boric acid formula (available at
Mold Products
http://www.moldmart.net), plus scrub at least 3 feet of
concrete beyond where the moldy growth was in the carpeting.
Q. On July 1st of 2004 my husband and I closed the loan on our new home. The home was built in 1982 and appeared to be in excellent
condition. We had the customary inspections done and felt we had made a good purchase. About a month ago, I noticed mold on the garage
doors. I did not think too much about it because it was the wet winter time. My husband and I come and go to work in the dark so we did not
notice what was happening to our home. We now have a very large mold problem on the outside of our home. Our siding is wood and apparently
was painted 3 months before we purchased it. What can we do? It is quite frightening to see this happening to our beautiful home. [Feb. 14, 2005]
A. You need to use a power planer, grinder with wire brush attachment, and sander to remove all of the surface mold growth, all paint, and
any underlying mold growth [very likely to exist]. Then, spray with a Mold Home Remedy Recipe. Then, paint with at least two good coverage's
of a top-quality, oil-based, semi-gloss exterior paint. Learn the twenty-five steps for safe and effective mold remediation. Every few months use
high pressure sprayer to wash off any accumulated organic dirt and mold spores which have landed on the surface of your siding. As a precaution,
mold test all-around the interior of your home, including its heating and cooling system.
Dampness Problem in the Basement and the Possible Mold Growth
Q.
Having new home built and are scheduled to close July 25th.
We have noticed in the basement along one
long interior wall is concrete
but I refer to it as interior as it is not the true outside concrete wall.
It is the basement
concrete wall along the
inside back of garage.) Since
the found-
ation was poured in January, it remains damp half
way up the
wall. It is now July. We
live in Pennsylvania.We have had a lot of
rain and noticed a couple of days ago that the dampness in this area is
even darker. We spoke with the project manager this morning who indicated
this condition has been noted and they believe that since they have not
graded a final time yet that water is getting down into this area and
causing the dampness on the wall. Their remedy first is to power wash the
basement floor and then put fans in the basement to dry everything out and
to grade the dirt. When we spoke with him on the phone this seemed
reasonable however when we looked back at the house plan this is not an
exterior concrete wall. Our thought is why would the dampness be on the
interior wall. Grading will take place outside the exterior wall. Should
we be concerned? Could fixing the problem as he has stated be sufficient,
do we need to have the house tested for mold [growth], or should we get
some type of document from the builder that says if the problem does not
clear up they will be responsible? [July 11, 2003]
A.
You must get this water problem fixed to your satisfaction
before buying the home or you are going to have sufficient water intrusion
to enable big-time mold growth in your new home. The wet wall will drive
up indoor humidity levels, thus making mold be
able to grow through out your home,
especially after continually recirculation airborne mold spores through
your heating or cooling equipment and ducts. The wet wall can
also ultimately have mold growing on it as organic dust and dirt lands on
the wet wall, providing food for airborne mold spores to grow after
landing on the wet wall. You need to have the wall and water problem inspected
by a qualified professional such as a licensed physical engineer, basement foundation
contractor, and/or home inspector. You must discover for sure what is
the cause of the water problem and what is the solution that will work. If
the problem is simply the grade that the home builder says will take care
of the problem, delay the closing until a few weeks after the grading is
done. Better yet, ask your attorney to negotiate a holding of some of the
purchase funds of the house into an escrow account to cover future water
problems. Keeping water and high humidity [exceeding 50 to 60%
indoors some or regularly] out of your home is of the utmost importance to your
family's health and financial well-being.
Q.
I own an older home that "had" a moisture problem in the crawl space that
has been rectified and now has a fulltime
dehumidification system. I have
plans to improve drainage around the perimeter as well as repair leaking
flashing around a chimney. The house will also have all of the carpet
removed and get a thorough cleaning/painting /rehab. I'm just looking to
make sure these mold levels are not dangerous, nor extreme...that this can
be overcome with cleaning/drying ...normal mold remediation measures.The
mold lab analysis of the two do it yourself mold test kits I used show the
following molds: (1) Penicillium: 125 mold spores in the indoor test, and
14 outdoors; (2) Chaetomium: 3 mold spores indoors, and 0 outdoors; and
(3) Cladosporium: 11 spores indoors, and 3 outdoors.[Dec. 8, 2004]
A.
When indoor mold counts are much higher indoors than the outdoor control
test, you know you have a serious indoor mold infestation problem. Your
test results show a big indoor problem with
Penicillium, the third
most dangerous indoor mold. You alsohave a indoor mold contamination
threat from both dangerous
Chaetomium and
Cladosporium. Crawl space mold can easily grow
into the insides of the
walls and floors above. You need to have a
Certified Mold Inspector use fiber optics inspection to visually
inspect inside floors and walls for hidden mold growth. Airborne mold
spores from the crawl space mold can travel in air currents
to mold cross
contaminate your entire house and its heating/cooling system. Use the Mold
Inspector or do it yourself
mold tests kits [like you have used so far] to
mold test the air of each room, crawl space, basement, attic, garage, and
the outward air flow form each heating/cooling duct register for the
possible presence of elevated levels of
airborne mold spores, in
comparison to an outdoor mold control test. Mold test kits are available
at a large hardware, home improvement, or safety store. You very much need to use
thoroughly the 25 steps recommended for safe and
effective
mold remediation
|