Quick question – I’ve had some interlocking foam mats on the floor of my workshop for about a year. The floor is concrete with a coat of concrete-paint from HomeDepot. I vacuumed under the mats before I laid them. I pulled up a few to rearrange last night and found a black powdery mold underneath. This got me thinking – I want to lay DriCore in the other 1/2 of my basement, what’s to stop this from happening to those tiles? Are they simply better ventilated? Am I to put down vapor barrier between the concrete and the DriCore? I live in very dry Colorado, but I hate the idea of mold, even trapped mold. Thanks in advance for the advice.
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Greetings espelt,
This post to your question will bump the thread through the 'recent discussion' listing again.
Perhaps it will catch someones eye that can help you with advice.
Cheers
From your description, it sounds more like simple mildew than any dangerous mold.
But anything like that needs oxygen, moisture, warmth, and food to grow. Deny any one and it will not be a problem. what you see mnow was probably feeding on plain old dust.
Sealing the concreete might keep some of the moisture out.
You can also puit down some Boron before closing things up too. Borates prevent rot and molds from growing and are inert and non-toxic to mamals.
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What's the chances that the mats are black rubber and the powder stuff is wear dust?
Just checking.
Martin
Edited 12/3/2004 7:30 pm ET by MARTINK98
Just what I was going to suggest. I have black interlocking mats down on concrete in front of a reloading bench in my basement. I noticed a dry, black powder under them and closer examination of the area indicated that it was the result of friction between the mats and the concrete.
Formerly just 'Don' but not the 'Glassmaster Don' or the lower-case 'don'.
Edited 12/3/2004 8:51 pm ET by Don From Utah
Thanks for all the help. I'll smear some borax on the undersides. I don't think it's wear dust: the pattern was distinct, it smelled funny, was only in certain spots, and they've really not had much traffic on them. ESP
HD, Walmart and such also carry an open-weave rubber mat system - like rubber parquet. Non-slip and let's air circulate. Less comfortable for bare or sock feet. Kinda ugly. Have used as winter mat on painted porch, and concrete pool deck.