Hi all,
Sliding over from knots to ask the experts. I am in the process of building my own shop and I ran into a possible snag. The structure is up, roof on, windows in, no insulation yet, but I noticed the other day that I have small black dots on some of the 2 x 6’s. It appears to be mold. It appears to have formed from all of the rain. Anyway, question is, how do I get rid of it before I start to insulate and before it becomes more of a problem?
Thanks for the help,
Eric
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Don't bother. Mold requires moisture to grow, and there won't be any more moisture in the walls if you've built the house correctly. The only way it could harm anybody is if spores get blown into the house, and there won't be any airflow through the stud spaces if you finish building the house correctly.
UD
Couldnt he spray some diluted bleach on it to kill it though?
Though I heard that once.
Doug
That black mold stuff is nothing new. I remember seeing it on the first house I ever worked on with my father back in 1955. I've seen it inside walls 70 - 80 years old that I've demoed.
The only thing new is that people are paying attention to it.
You might rub some bleach on the black stuff with a paper towel and rubber gloves. Or you could just forget about it.
-- J.S.
Call the HAZMAT Team! Run for your lives; it's KILLLER MOLD!!
EEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKK Mold!!!!!!!!
Open a cheese factory! Produce Pennicillin!
Forget about it and finish your shop........come'on, tell us what you've been reading.
Suddenly, there are alot of Eric's in here.
Eric
Try some bleach in a garden type sprayer, or a spray bottle if you've got Popeye arms...I'll bet you're going to keep your shop clean after it's built, too<G>
Don't worry, we can fix that later!
The expert sites are moving away from the idea of using bleach, mainly, I believe, because it's nasty stuff to breathe.
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/molds/moldresources.html#Basic%20Mold%20Cleanup
I got tired of reading and didn't see anything about breathing bleach. Detergent doesn't always get rid of mold residue, in my experience, bleach almost always makes it disappear. Got anything more on the breathing part? Don't worry, we can fix that later!
I don't know of anything in writing; that understanding is based on (i) regularly monitoring the on-line resources (esp the EPA and the NYCity site on mold) and (ii) assertions from various experts in mold remediation and cleanup in the several seminars I've been to on the subject.
Bleach will kill actual mold growths (which we can see), but doesn't kill the mold spores (which we can't see.)
Basically the same effect as scrubbing with standard detergents.
I like either automatic dishwashing detergent or TSP, but don't have scientific evidence to back up those preferences; just my experience that they seem to do a better job at delaying incidents of regrowth.
This time of year, if I'm not vigorous ion cleaning my maion shower, I get mold growth fairly quickly in my main shower. (& I'm not about to win the Good hoiusekeeping seal of approval{G})
If i scrub with auto dish detergent, it seems to keep it clean longer.
Edited 6/10/2004 10:43 pm ET by Bob Walker
I ask because I have aluminum windows that sweat a mite in the winter, which turns into mildew. Simple green just smears it around, clorox wipes it out. I'll try the dishwasher detergent, what's you're favorite?
Thanks Don't worry, we can fix that later!
Any of the powdered detergents. I don't know if the liquids have the same ingredients (eps the TSP).