Mold – Bane of the Northwest
Mold is a significant problem in the Northwest, and nothing I had really given any consideration to until it severely impacted my life.
Part of my reason for making the decision to move into the city had to do with mold. The complex I was living in is steeped in the stuff; it grows on the balconies and when I was in a basement unit it took over my bathroom and closets.
I suspect what happened is that a particularly stressful period in my life lay my immune system in such a state that the mold entered my system and caused an allergic reaction. It became so severe that I could no longer stay in my unit – coming home meant uncontrollable sneezing, watery eyes, and a nose so raw and itchy it would bleed. So I switched units and had a 6 month reprieve.
I had taken measures to reduce mold in the new unit – Dry-Z-Air, air filtration and bleached paper towels in the single-paned window sills to absorb condensation and moisture. It was mostly effective – until I started the process of moving into the city.
I imagine the spores are lodged in the couch, clothing and mattresses from my former unit. As I moved items my allergies returned full-force – sending me into sneezing fits, making my nose raw again and affecting my energy and moods. Some mold species release toxins which cause a variety of symptoms – dermatitis, depression, fatigue, inability to concentrate and headaches in addition to the more common symptoms I experienced beforehand. In immuno-suppressed individuals and the elderly, it can lead to serious illness and hospitalization.
The entire building has moisture-retention issues that make it impossible for me to stay. If you find mold or mildew in your home, here is what you can do about it:
1) Reduce moisture in the air by using dehumidifiers, Dry-Z-Air, bathroom fans, and ventilating as much as possible when using the dishwasher, cooking and showering. Remove carpets from the bathroom if they retain moisture.
2) Take care of any leaks, plumbing issues and existing mold. Get your landlord on it immediately if you rent. If they don’t, you have the right to take legal recourse. Contact the Tenant Rights Hotline at 206-723-0500
3) Remove mold on surfaces using 3% hydrogen peroxide or 1/2 cup to 1 cup of bleach per gallon of water.
4)Throw away or recycle old books, newspapers, clothing and bedding if it cannot be properly cleaned.
5) Turn up the heat to keep the humidity down.
6) Vacuum thoroughly and remove the vacuum cleaner bag at once. Spores left in bags can grow and spread with further uses.
7) If possible invest in a HEPA filter to remove mold spores in the air and use a HEPA vacuum as well. Check heating and cooling ducts for mold and take care of them at once.
8) For upholstery and other hard to clean items a fungicide spray may help. Make certain it is registered with the EPA. If the mold spores have settled into the filling of furnitures or mattresses and they are too valuable to dispose of a professional needs to be brought in. I have contacted Healthy Buildings for advice and local references for furniture abatement. I’ll keep you posted.
If you have allergies:
Wear a mask, gloves, and goggles when cleaning infested areas.
Avoid carpets and upholstered furniture in your home.
Scour your bathroom and kitchen with bleach freqently and take extra steps to reduce moisture in your home environment.
Seek treatment for your allergies. Accupuncture, homeopathic remedies, and natural immune support have all been effective and are non-invasive to the body.
First, let me say that mold is definately a problem in the northwest. When I first moved here from an arid climate I got migraines and my sinuses were blocked an in pain.
That said, there is a lot of whack advice in your post. Bleach everything? Bleach is toxic too and just as bad for you. Turn up the heat and run air filters all the time? Talk about a waste of resources. Some places are already cleaner and dryer – move. A better way to tackle mold is to build buildings properly – don’t buy or rent places with aluminum framed windows (or leaky windows) and don’t buy or rent basement or daylight apartments/condos.
A lot of allergens are in construction materials, carpets especially – so you got that right. But cleaning a place to death that is build out of chemical sealants and materials isn’t going to help.
Eat well and drink a lot of water. Let em repeat that, lay off coffee and drink a lot of water. That helps your body flush toxins. So does exercise.
If you’re particularly sensitive you should consider moving to a dryer climate! Seattle is wet, it’s in the air. Why fight nature?
Many people can not afford to move or break a lease when they discover mold in their unit. Also for homeowners, selling and moving usually is not an option for a good five years.
Bleach is toxic if you drink it or take deep inhalations of it out of the bottle. Diluted in a gallon of water is not going to kill you, but it will kill the mold. I was trying to offer solutions for those who cannot simply run away from it right away.
That said, taking care of your body is very important to maintaining an immune system that can cope with allergens, but you can drink all the water in the world and it won’t make the black mold on the walls disappear.
Some people have nothing better to do than criticize others. Get a life
Part of our house got infested by mold last winter so we’ve been finding a lot of things that work (and don’t work). Bleach really is ineffective compared to other mold killers that are less toxic. Here are some things that really do work.
1) Borax (mainly only available at Longs Pharmacy in CA) kills mold in cloth, about 1/2 cup per regular load (mix with really hot water before adding to wash to make sure the borax is dissolved completely) it also works a lot better than bleach to wash down things like wood that have mold on the surface, and it doesn’t smell as bad and isn’t toxic.
2) Vinegar straight from the bottle in a spray bottle kills every mold type I’ve encountered,much better than bleach (bleach mostly just bleaches the mold and kills what’s on the surface. The chemical makeup of bleach keeps it from going deep into wood or other porous surfaces). Don’t use it (i.e. vinegar) on anything metal though as it will cause corrosion. Don’t use it though if you can’t tolarate the smell of vinegar.
3)If you can afford about $170 to get a dehumidifier (an electric one, not the chemical type), this will help a lot (you may be able to find them cheaper elsewhere). About one per large room is what you need in humid houses. Usually a bathroom exhaust fan that exhausts the air to the outside will dehumidify a bathroom as fast as a dehumidifier, but a lot of cheaper bathroom fans are useless as they don’t take the air outside fast enough to dehumidify. We got a Maytag dehumidifier from Home Depot. It works great. If you don’t want to have to empty out the water container a lot, get the kind that has a drainage hose attachment. If your room is really damp you’ll have to empty the bucket about once per day. You’ll be blown away by how much water is in your air when you see how many gallons of water per day these things pull out. Set the level to 35% humidity (at the most 40%). As long as you keep the indoor air at 35 to 40% humidity mold won’t be able to grow.
4) A guy at the local mold testing lab (PhD in microbiology) told me that the smell from mold is actually a gas, so even if you get rid of the mold spores and mold in the house, you may still have the moldy smell trapped in stuff, especially paper and cloth and drywall. For drywall, replace it, it’s relatively cheap. For cloth, wash it in borax and laundry detergent (about 1/2 cup each per load). For paper that you must keep (like family photos,etc) cover the bottom of a dry box with about 1 inch deep of baking soda, then put a layer or two of paper towels, then a loose layer of the papers that smell moldy (dry them first by putting them near a dehumidifier so any mold that’s alive on the papers is dead, this only works to eliminate mold gas trapped in the paper fibers, it doesn’t kill mold), then another layer of paper towels, then more papers. Leave a few inches or more of air space in the top of the box so that there’s room for circulation within the box. Then close the box for a week or two. The molecular structure of baking soda attracts mold gas out of just about anything, including paper, and causes the gas molecules to attach to the baking soda, sucking it out of the paper fibers. The biochemical mechanism of the soda will cause some circulation within the box so you do need to leave room at the top of the box for circulation as I said. If after a couple weeks the papers don’t smell unmoldy, change the baking soda and let sit longer. Keep doing this until the papers don’t smell moldy anymore. Be sure to dispose of the baking soda and paper towels when you’re done. This may take some time, but it does work.
5)There are some enzyme based mold and odor killers that work like nothing else to kill mold spores and mold. Getting the air dry is essential though. Slushers used to have a product called Odorkill that worked great to kill any type of mold or odor. About a year ago, they changed the formula though and now it doen’t work as well and, in my opinion, leaves a bad after-odor. It does kill a lot of molds though ( a friend of mine killed active mold in his attic with it that had been impervious to bleach). Check the odorkill website if interested. There is another product called Mildew Stain-away that kills mold in cloth and on some porous stuff like leather. It kills mold and hinders it from growing back. It is a chemical fungicide, not enzymatic, so it doesn’t do as thorough a job as some of the enzyme based stuff. It’s available from Amazon Premium Products online. Mold-away is another enzymatic fungicide too. I’ve heard good reviews and tested it on some black mold, in a small area. It did kill the mold completely. It takes a few days and works best if the area stays damp while it’s killing the mold. It has a nasty smell at first, but the smell goes away after the stuff does its job, I’ve been told. I haven’t tried it in a really large area though so I can’t say first hand. I’ll be using it in the attic of my mom’s house pretty soon so I will find out in a few weeks or so. Try this in a small area away from your living space first to make sure its after-odor doesn’t bother you.
6) My doctor said industrial strength Ozone generators when operated a their highest level will whatever mold the ozone gas can reach, but at that concentration it’s toxic to people and animals, so you have to be able to be out of the house while their going and for a day or two after the treatment, especially if you have asthma or other lung problems. There’s controversy over whether they kill mold or simply make the mold spores staticly charged enough to make them cling to the walls or other surfaces for a few days. I’ve tried it in a few rooms. It makes the room smell like bleach for days, and the smell of the mold will come back if you don’t clean up all surfaces in the room with a mold killer soon afterwards, OR if the mold smell is coming from mold within a wall or somewhere the ozone gas can’t get to. If you have a severe problem though, it will make the mold smell go for a few days to a couple weeks. They cost a LOT though, and ozone, as I said, IS a severe lung irritant and can really do lung damage if not used with the proper cautions.
Hope these suggestions help. If anyone has found other things that they know work from experience, please post them or email me.
Thanks,
Ian
Thanks Ian- your posting is so helpful!
I’m in the process of fighting mold growing on the back of our upholstered couch.
Has anyone tried the Mold-away Ian referenced, and would it be appropriate for a couch?
Is it the product made by Allerair? or a different one? Thanks!