While I was on vacation, the pressure/temperature valve on my basement water heater stuck wide open and discharged hot water onto the floor for several days. Aside from the wasted water and gas, I now have to contend with mold growth on the cieling and musty smell. I have a dehumidifier keeping the air dry, but scubbing this mold off with bleach is not working! Is there something I can spray on this mold to kill it? Will it disappear over time if I keep the air dry with the dehumidifier? |
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Mold requires moisture and organic material to grow. Take away one of those and it will die. Obviously you can't take away the organic material because your house is made of it. Sounds like your basement is very saturated. I suggest you go rent a big dehumidifier to accelerate the drying process, and somehow pipe the water outside. I'm guessing that the dehumidifier that you have now is only up to normal tasks.
Another way to accelerate the drying process would be to get some major air circulation. Like maybe a big fan blowing out in 1 window and the other windows left open. Most people know how quickly the ground dries out when it is windy outside. Fans can also be rented.
Once you get rid of the moisture and active mold growth, then you can deal with the mold stains.
I think you know already know about the necessity of getting rid of the moisture but I also think you need to get serious about getting rid of the moisture.
Edited 10/27/2005 7:07 am ET by Matt
don't know what type of floor or fother finishes you have. but if you have built up floor or carpet over concrete, the dehumidifier isn't going to dry things fast enough. You usually have about 24-48 hours to dry things before a larger mould bloom may start.
Bleach will usuually kill mould but if you have alot of moisture still in the basement, it will come back soon. Hydogen peroxide will kill it also. But the main thing is to dry everything.
If you have carpet over concrete, there are special fans to dry this situation available from rental shops. If you have a built up floor with water under it must come up (real bad news!!!). If you have finished walls with insulation in them and the water got 3-4"or higher, you'll have to remove some of the lower drywall and wet insulation to allpow drying.
Go to: http://www.cmhc.ca and type in mold at their site search bar. A lot of info will come up.
It seems likely you've had the defective valve on the HWH replaced. I hope you've also addressed the problem of why the overpressure valve blew open in the first place, and have corrected that. Until you take care of that, anything else you do is just a stop-gap measure as the problem is likely to repeat itself.
As Matt mentioned, once you dry out the area the mould should stop growing, and you'll be able to scrub off the dead mould spores. If the basement was never damp before this and you've squared away the hot water heater, you should be okay afterwards.
The key to drying things out is lots of warm, dry air moving through that area, and opening up any covered areas where water could have pooled so you can pump/bail/mop that standing water out. Any soaked framing needs to be left exposed until it dries out, usually a week or so given sufficient ventilation.
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