I am working on a newer home and while replacing a bathroom ceiling fan, I discovered that the builder used duct tape to secure the 5″ pipe to the 4″ fan outlet. Needless to say, the joint came apart and the attic now has a lot of black mold on the OSB, insulation and joists.
What is the best way to kill the mold? I am thinking of spraying a bleach mixture from a garden sprayer. Is there a better, less toxic way to deal with the mold and will I still have to scrub it off?
Replies
I wouldn't touch it. Mold & remediation is a big lawsuit area right now! If you miss a square inch, someone in the house gets ill, and there's an attorney in the family, you'll be the target.
Ckeck out the attached web sites from NHBA. Hopefully this will guide you in the right direction. I had a lot of experience with mold on a recent project in Atlantic City. Where we had 12 twins in varies stages of construction when we discover we had a problem.http://www.moldtips.com/cleanup.htm; http://www.toolbase.org/
Edited 2/23/2006 3:34 pm ET by kaftmaster
Luckily (and unluckily) it is in my attic so no one is getting sued. I just want to get rid of it. You are right, however, it is a legal hot potato. No one wants to give an opinion...
Ah - a different issue! Spray 2-3 times with a 10% bleach solution.
Let dry completely, then spray with Kilz2 to seal it it.
Do what Brooks said. Two or three passes with a bleach solution will kill it. Be careful to not saturate any drywall (i.e. the ceiling). Just give it a good shot, wait for it to dry, then hit it again. After the last pass, give it a coat of Kilz and call it good.
I heard the other day that this whole mold thing is another overblown "problem" fueled by people's belief that their world should be sterile and risk-free. Apparently, there's little hard evidence that mold is a health threat.
I can sorta believe that. A few weeks ago, I changed some two year old furnace filters for a customer and they went bananas when they saw the grunge on the old filters. They started asking about electrostatic filtration, etc, etc, etc. I told them I would be glad to give them a bid if I could find filters big enough to seal up their windows and doors, too - lol.
Just as people grow in and out of allergies over the course of their lifetime, I suspect there are some individuals who are very suseptible to mold, some who are somewhat, etc. How many, I have no idea.Along with learning to understand risk, another major advance in medicine should be determining WHO is at risk, at the individual level, rather than assuming the whole population is at risk. Like with Vioxx, sure some people had heart problems, but if we could figure out those specific people, everyone else could still have the benefit of the drug.