help with mold in the basement

[G20]

As mentioned if you test you will always find mold. First thing is to address the cause - mitigating moisture. Look into buying a dehumidifier - Amazon sells a very good one priced around $300 - I got one for my basement and it has done a wonderful job at drying it out. No more musty smell in my basement. Secondly if you can see it on your walls, mix some water and bleach in a spray bottle (2 parts water, 1 part bleach) and spray the spots. If your drywall is effected and soaked, the wet part will have to be cut out, but if it's just superficial hit them with the bleach. let it dry and Kilz it.

Grading can certainly help, but if your water table is high and you notice a lot of weeping from your unfinished walls, it's likely cause by the hydrostatic pressure against your foundation walls and this could exist regardless of your grading situtation. One of the most effective ways to deal with hydrostatic pressure is to relieve the pressure. You do this by trenching the inside floor around the perimeter (basically a French drain on the inside) and drilling weep holes that drain to the trench and then to our sump. Between a dehumidifier, trenching and making sure the grading around your foundation slopes AWAY from your house, your basement should effectively stay dry.

 

[Pinecone]

Thank you pinecone for your expertise.

I myself have some, not many, visible blotches of white mold on some of my basement rafters and other organic materials like boxes. I've thrown out those boxes and sporadically clean the small blotches in the basement. I am immuno suppressed but this does not bother my allergies.

Every year or so I will vacuum out my own duct work with a shop vac. I just slowly snake the hose down all of the registers.

Yeah, immunosuppressed is a WHOLE different situation.

But in general, anything that settles in a dust does so since there is not enough velocity in the duct to keep it in the air stream. And due to boundary layer affects, there is no reason for that material to be picked up again.

Now, if there is sufficient material in the air, it will deposit to a certain level, then as more is deposited, some will be removed, but you are at an equilibrium point where there is constant deposition and reentrainment, but the amount in the air stream stays the same.

 

[ebxgsxr]

would a dehumidifier only be necessary if there is a musty odor? i'll be honest, i do not have a musty odor & no visible mold on the walls. i have some small signs of water damage (water staining on the bottom of the wall...not all around, just certain spots). so my wife figures if there is water damage, there is mold. that followed by the in home mold test. which led to her calling for the estimate. so i'm not even sure if i'm jumping the gun or not.

 

[gamefan86]

would a dehumidifier only be necessary if there is a musty odor? i'll be honest, i do not have a musty odor & no visible mold on the walls. i have some small signs of water damage (water staining on the bottom of the wall...not all around, just certain spots). so my wife figures if there is water damage, there is mold. that followed by the in home mold test. which led to her calling for the estimate. so i'm not even sure if i'm jumping the gun or not.

I work for a fire/water/mold remediation company. I always recommend having a dehumidifier in the basement. If walls have dried within a reasonable amount of time(2-4 days) mold usually wont be a problem. As other posters have mentioned, the mold test will always show up positive for mold.

 

[Pinecone]

Dehumidifier is good in below grade spaces. But may not be needed in all cases.

If you see no visible mold growth and have no odors of mold, then just relax. You are fine.

 

[Wolff]

Look in to getting a dehumidifier.

 

[ebxgsxr]

thanks all for your help/input.

 

[G20]

would a dehumidifier only be necessary if there is a musty odor? i'll be honest, i do not have a musty odor & no visible mold on the walls. i have some small signs of water damage (water staining on the bottom of the wall...not all around, just certain spots). so my wife figures if there is water damage, there is mold. that followed by the in home mold test. which led to her calling for the estimate. so i'm not even sure if i'm jumping the gun or not.

No, the musty smell is just one symptom of growth and a high humidity environment. Your basement likely has high humidity as most subterranean basements do, even if they are conditioned.

A humidistat will tell you how high the humidity level is in your basement. A dehumidifier will help to maintain comfortable humidity levels in your basement year around. I have my dehumidifier set to bring down the humidity level to 45%. Aside from mitigating a breading ground for mold, mildew etc a dehumidifier can also greatly increase the comfort level in the room.

 

[Todd v.]

Dry it, bleach it and I've read good things about ozone generators but you have to get the concentration to shock levels to kill mold. They are great at permanently killing odors also.

Sent from my C771

 

[Pinecone]

Ozone is NASTY stuff.

Use bleach.