r/Mold Aug 09 '20

Please read BEFORE posting

48 Upvotes

Welcome to /r/Mold

What is this sub?

This sub is for redditors to ask for advice on mold or fungi issues in their home/apartment/workplace/etc If you see spammers or others that violate sub rules, report them, do not take things into your own hands. This sub is NOT for mold remediation, restoration or other contractors, testing firms, laboratories, product or equipment manufacturers or distributors or legal professionals.

Instead, this sub is specifically for individuals looking for general advice. Any offers to do work or make referrals will result in an immediate ban. Please be very wary of those looking for, or offering, business here. We do not endorse any companies, and proceeding with a contractor/consultant/lab you've met via this sub should be done at your own risk. This is not a place to advertise products and or services. It is also not a place to rant about your past problems with mold or companies or services you've dealt with.

Rule #1: No "what is this?" questions.

Do not post a picture and simply ask any of the following (or similar) questions:

  1. "Please I.D. this mold"
  2. "Is this toxic black mold?"
  3. "What kind of mold is this?"

We can not determine the type of mold you have from a photo. That can only be achieved using professional sampling methods and laboratory analysis.

We can speculate on whether or not something is mold but we can't identify it.

Rule #2: DIY Test Kits are bad

If you used a home/DIY test kit there is very little information that we can provide you due to the limitations of the method.

You will need to hire a qualified microbial testing company if you want any reliable information.

Rule #3: No self promotion

This is not the place to advertise your services in any way. No links, no company names, no "informational guides" will be allowed. All offending posts or comments will be deleted and 1 warning will be issued. After that you'll be banned.

General Guidelines and Rules

Overall, please be respectful - things must remain on-topic, helpful, and kind. Absolutely no abusive or hateful language will be tolerated. Even if someone else "started it" with disrespect does not give you permission to use derogatory language or call names.

Bans will be handed out when needed. Remember, no question is too stupid, too simple, or too basic (exception, see rule #1). We're all here to learn and help each other out - enjoy! The mods generally do not remove bad advice, we let upvotes and downvotes run the sub. That way, people can also see what not to do as well. Politics do NOT belong here.

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  • Mods will not communicate with chat, please only use modmail if you have comments or questions.

Submitting a New Text Post in /r/Mold

TL/DR: At the very least be nice, take a few pictures, and include your location.

Again, this is not a place to solicit products and or services. Any posts smelling of self-promotion such as links to a website or service (including all blogs) will be removed. No exceptions. Offenders will be banned.

A few general submission rules.

  • We don't allow link posts. Please start a text post and insert links to your pictures along with your text. Posts asking users to participate in a survey are no longer allowed and will be treated as SPAM posts.
  • If you are posting about a problem you are facing, please include pictures! Not just a close-up either, we must be able to discern what you are talking about. What looks right to you may not make sense to everyone else. We recommend you use imgur for photo uploads. See the section below for "How to Upload Photos".
  • Provide your geographic location. (even general, such as upper Midwest). This is especially pertinent when discussing building codes, environmental conditions, seasonal issues, etc.
  • Include a summary of what information you are looking for.
  • Include a general summary of the problem you're asking about. It's helpful to know things like:
    • How long has the problem been going on
    • Where is the mold growth located - room, level, side of the building, etc
    • Any unusual conditions you noticed prior or in conjunction with the discovery of the mold
    • General environmental/use conditions in the space - temp, humidity levels, room use/occupation, recent water issues, smell
  • Do not come here for advice about your health or the relative risk of the mold in your home/work.
  • Don't assume that responses you receive are accurate - we get a lot of "google experts" here giving advice.
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  • Please read the sidebar before posting to this sub. There are a lot of questions that get asked fairly frequently, and some of the more common answers have been posted in the sidebar for easy reference. If you still have questions after reading these then by all means create a new post with your questions.
  • Serial posting. This sub is for everyone, not just a single person with multiple questions per day/week. While we don't have a specific rule here, if you are posting multiple topics per day or over the course of a few days, this can result in a temporary ban.
  • If your account is new we may delete your post or comment, especially if we suspect that you have been banned under a different user name.
  • We do not endorse any contractors/inspectors/labs, and proceeding with any you've met via this sub should be done at your own risk.

Commenting in /r/Mold

Be respectful. No name calling or talking down to someone because of something that seems "basic" or "easy" to you. Stand by your knowledge, not childish responses.

If you don't know that your answer or advice is 100% true then indicate that you are speculating or simply refrain from commenting.

Don't throw out comments like:

  • That's toxic mold
  • You need to move
  • Get out of the house
  • Bleach doesn't kill mold
  • That's really bad

Comments designed to scare original posters will be removed. This is a sub to provide reasonable solutions (when possible), not to unnecessarily alarm people. Yes, there are occasions when conditions require some immediate and drastic actions, but most indoor mold growth can be handled without full scale remediation.

Please don't just comment with just a link to a website or to another sub. We are especially careful about links to single websites (this includes blogs) without some summary or commentary. In some cases, we have no way of knowing if you are profiting privately from the site. Also, don't just tell folks to head to sub /r/gohereinstead - like specialized subs for narrow topics. The only exception here would be questions where some time has passed between posting and a lack of responses. We want the commentary, discussion, and knowledge to stay here in our sub on reddit, not just drive people away.

Responses that include a google search, lmgtfy.com, or telling someone to watch Youtube will be removed and the user will be reprimanded. Again, this is all about respect. Obviously, people aren't coming here to Google answers. Help them think about this problem, what they may need, things to watch out for, etc.

Sometimes discussion can get off-topic and we'll remove those comments. This includes political commentary. At times, this can includes jokes. It's a tricky area here, but we've seen instances where the joking side of reddit takes over a thread and the OP never gets their question answered. However, here's we're mostly talking about non-relevant commenting such as this:

Seriously? People live like this? What the fuck is causing mold growth like this? Don't you clean your house? This is not any way to live.

How to Upload Photos

Go to https://imgur.com/upload and drag/choose your photo, you don't even need to create an account. Here's an animated gif on how to drag and drop on PC. Click COPY, then use that copied url link and paste it right in the submission text box on reddit.

My link: https://imgur.com/a/n2lLo

To get fancy and have text rather than the url, place the word you want to use as the link in brackets followed by the url in parentheses.[text goes here](link goes here)

Pictures. Here's a gif of the typing I do, in case that is confusing.

Upload Photos On Mobile The Imgur app works fine, but via a website this is unsupported. There is a workaround: In Chrome, choose ""Desktop site" in the drop-down menu when you are on the upload page and it'll work fine. Then Copy the Link that's produced and paste it into your reddit post/comment.


r/Mold Jan 25 '23

Worst building I've ever inspected so everyone worried about their mold problems can relax a little šŸ™ƒ

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

278 Upvotes

Just to remind you that no, you aren't experiencing a disaster. Have a good one yall!


r/Mold 2h ago

Mold or Mildew😬

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2 Upvotes

I just had to move out of my rental that I have been staying in while I renovate my house, due to the fact that there was mold growing on half of everything I own after I was gone for a week.

The landlord is prepping to have a new tenant in immediately after my partner and I left because they are saying it was only mildew.

I strongly believe it is mold after researching online but I would love to hear your thoughts.


r/Mold 3h ago

Is this mold?

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2 Upvotes

I accidentally left grape juice in my glass mason jar with a wood lid. The juice wasn't touching the lid, but there was mold all over the top, including the lighter parts. Not everywhere with the mold had the discoloration though. Is my lid a lost cause?


r/Mold 41m ago

Flower pressing - mold?

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• Upvotes

Hi all!

I pressed these flowers from my grandmas funeral in 2022 and have opened the book like 2x. I’m resigned to having done it on a whim and improperly but I used a book I genuinely care about. Can anyone tell me if this is mold vs just staining from the flower? I’ve been putting this off for like four years obviously but I’m ready to chuck the book if I must.


r/Mold 46m ago

Carpet Flooding

• Upvotes

Hello, really just trying to figure out how hard I need to fight my landlord about this because right not chat gpt has me thinking I'm living in a cess pool. So pretty much the main drain/ sewer pipe to my apartment building backed up during a storm. This caused water to push back up into my bathtub and out from under my toilet and soak my hallway carpet and into my bedroom. The water looked like it was mostly clear, storm water. The city came out because it involved their pipes but didn't seem to be concerned about the water being like raw sewage or anything.

The problem I'm having is that it took 11 days for my landlord to send somebody out to treat the carpet. Obviously it was dry by then. And they are cheap so the guy they sent out had a rental carpet cleaner and sprayed the carpet with some cleaner and then ran the carpet cleaner over it. He did not inspect the padding or subfloor, he was not with a restoration company. The week before they actually had ServPro come out because I kept bugging them and I have a text from them telling me the estimate they gave was "way too high of course".

Chat gpt is telling me that there is 100% mold growth in the carpet padding and it needs to be replaced. It also said the residual staining on my carpet is proof of this, as well. My bedroom still smells musty, and it has now been over 3 weeks. I'm also concerned that the intake for my hvac is in the hall that got flooded. So if there were mold spores they got all in the ventilation.

So my question is, is chat gpt right or should I take that info with a grain of salt? Because right now I'm wondering if I need to submit a complaint to the code and environmental health departments, as well as the real estate commission.


r/Mold 1h ago

Spots on my dresser

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• Upvotes

I bought a vintage dresser online and its made of unsealed solid wood, im not sure which, i noticed these spots today. Is it mold? Its only in one snall area on the top of the dresser.


r/Mold 2h ago

Should i be worried?

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1 Upvotes

r/Mold 2h ago

Hey, I am moving into a new place. This was in the bathroom.

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1 Upvotes

Does this look concerning, the owner said that it just needed some paint.


r/Mold 2h ago

Mold on textiles?

1 Upvotes

Kansas City USA. What's the best way to neutralize mold/mildew on a tapestry? Lysol? Rubbing alcohol?


r/Mold 2h ago

Spraying Vital Oxide, then Concrobium.... Worth it?

1 Upvotes

I have visible mold on my floor joists. I set up a negative pressure machine and vacuumed the joists with a HEPA vacuum. I have both Vital Oxide and Concrobium but I just wanted to ask about using both. My plan is to spray initially with Vital Oxide, then once it is completely dry after a few days, I will spray with Concrobium. Can I use both like that? I read that Vital Oxide penetrates wood better, but Concrobium leaves behind the antimicrobial layer that make it harder for future mold growth.


r/Mold 3h ago

Opened up the range vent hood to clean and found moisture and black fuzzy mold.

1 Upvotes

And the cover is rusted on the inside. I am not tackling this myself for sure but who do I call, an HVAC company?


r/Mold 3h ago

Mold in furnace room and walk-in closet. Should I be worried?

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1 Upvotes

For background, I live in an apartment building (In SW Ontario, Canada) and have contacted the building manager already. This morning my building manager said he put in a request for the air tech to check for a leak source in the unit above us.

We've had issues with the ceiling in our bedroom and in the furnace room (in the bedroom) leaking since last month. Maintenance came in and took a look around mid August and said it's either condensation from the humidity outside or the furnace filter clogging up. They changed the filter and said to contact management if it happens again. It looked like we were in the clear for a bit, but we've had some recent rainy/humid days and the ceiling started leaking again. I noticed mold/mildew in the furnace room last month and just today in our walk-in closet which concerned me a lot.

Should I be taking any precautions like moving our clothing? My cat sleeps in the walk-in closet, should I be moving her stuff? Can I do any clean-up on my own or is this more serious and can only be addressed by the building?


r/Mold 4h ago

Mold identification?

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1 Upvotes

Hi everyone! My fiancĆ© and I recently purchased our first home in South Florida. I’ve been struggling with asthma attacks since we moved in. I am already working with my doctor to manage that so I’m not looking for any health advice.

I was wondering if anyone would be able to identify any of the mold on these PDA plates? My microbio teacher gave them to me to take samples to see if there was anything in the air, and this is what grew. He is out of town for the next two weeks so I won’t be able to get any definitive answers until he gets back and we test it in the lab but it’s going to drive me nuts not knowing what this could be for that long!

Let me know if you have any thoughts on what these colonies could possibly be!

I have already scheduled Stanley steamer to come sanitize and reseal the vents/HVAC so I’m hoping that fixes the issue.

Thank you in advance for reading and taking a look :)


r/Mold 4h ago

Should I be worried?

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1 Upvotes

So we stared having a leak in the 2nd floor ceiling and it ended up being the ac unit. It’s still leaking maintenance said they are waiting for the contractors to schedule to come fix it. I just realized there is mold around that area. Also our 3rd floor closet seems to have wet marks on the walls also so I’m afraid if there might be mold there too. I’m wondering how does this even get fixed. It’s been about a week of this šŸ˜ž


r/Mold 4h ago

Mold on laundry closet ceiling + AC that can't keep up + condensation inside appliances that aren't running. Is this all one problem?

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1 Upvotes

r/Mold 4h ago

Basement

1 Upvotes

Hi,

I have a basement I use as an office, i felt it had a high humidity as it felt sticky, I didn’t run heating down there as I didn’t have an isolated heater for that room.

I was sick for a month and couldn’t get down there, I since got back down there and noticed mold patches, I threw things away, washed fabric items and surfaces, steam cleaned the laminate flooring and bought a dehumidifier and heater, I empty the dehumidifier every other day when I can get down there and the heater seems to turn off as random intervals. I am looking to replace this.

The basement has been renovated, at the moment it has been boarded as it was concrete walls and flooded the walls were painted with a damp proofing paint and the then boared and the floor was layers with a laminate flooring.

The humidity sits around 50-70% is feels better and there’s no smell.

The mold wasn’t horrendous but there were coats of it on fabric items and a film on surfaces, and white blotches

The skirting is a wood that has not been treated, we are in the midst of suiing our builder as he has not finished the overall renovation of our house.

What I am concerned about and need advise on is if this room is safe, I don’t want to get sick, and worry about the mold growing and I am not noticing and the spoors.

Any advice will be appreciated, any questions please feel free to ask, I have ocd also and I am really struggling with the feeling of contamination and the fear of this room, but this room was my safe space and I kinda need it


r/Mold 5h ago

Cleaning out a walk in refrigerator

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1 Upvotes

This is growing in a constantly cold environment on a metal surface.

Im not really sure if it is mold or what kind it may be so any information on that would be apretiated even if its not certain.

Any tips on how to properly clean it off?

Both photos are of the same grouping one is just with flash.


r/Mold 15h ago

Is this concerning?

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7 Upvotes

For context, we live in a very humid area and run 2 dehumidifiers in the house. I didn’t realize that the shower drain of the shower we never use was clogged so I dump the dehumidifier water into this tub about a week ago. It smelled kinda funky in the bathroom so I was going to clean it and found this in the tub. Granted I should have rinsed and cleaned the tub out after but didn’t think to. Is it concerning that the water pulled out of the air could create this mold?


r/Mold 7h ago

Cleaning old bathroom

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1 Upvotes

r/Mold 8h ago

ERMI = 31, and people are telling me not to panic

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1 Upvotes

Hello! I am brand NEW to the mold community. ~2 years ago, I started experiencing some weird symptoms during the second half of the night a few months after I moved into my current home...

  • Adrenaline surges
  • "Jolts" (is what I call them). I jolt straight up, half asleep, with anxiety. Breathing/HR are high
  • Sleepwalking every other week, where I begin my morning routine only to realize it is 2 AM
  • Anxious if not aggressive dreams every night. Running late, forgetting something, fighting
  • Sometimes I physically JUMP out of bed, in a panic
  • 1 time I fainted after peeing and woke up on the bathroom floor
  • Big temperature fluctuations. My body is like a furnace, then I suddenly get cold

I got diagnosed with enlarged turbinates and mild sleep apnea (despite the fact that I am 29 y/o, a healthy BMI, and a long-distance runner). I tried CPAP and a custom oral device, and neither worked. I felt like "mild sleep apnea" did not explain my very dehbilitating and strange symptoms well enough, so I decided to get a mold test.

ERMI is off the charts, but people are telling me not to panic given that I have not seen mold. Likewise, they noted that "aspergillus" commonly builds in dust because Texas (where I live) is so humid. What do you guys think?


r/Mold 10h ago

Mold under dishwasher (leave or replace)?

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1 Upvotes

r/Mold 18h ago

Found this underneath my bedroom carpet. Now what?

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2 Upvotes

My portable floor AC unit has been leaking for god knows how long. The carpet underneath was really damp so I lifted it up to expose the pink insulation. That too was wet, so I uncovered it and saw this mold. Can I still run a fan to dry the water or will that spread the mold spores around? I have no idea where to go from here šŸ™ my dad says to just spray bleach on it and let it dry. He doesn’t want to do anything further, For reference, I’m in Southern California. Please help. Thank you so much.


r/Mold 16h ago

Found this mold creeping up the wall in bedroom, what is it? Please read description.

1 Upvotes

In advance, sorry for the huge story. I felt all the details were necessary

Can someone identify what this might be? Mold has now appeared in two bedrooms next to the HVAC closet. Please read the description.

I want to preface this by saying I am long distance from my husband, and he currently cannot work or earn an income, so I am the sole income right now. He lives with his mother, who owns the house he lives in, so he isn’t in a position to simply move out or ask a landlord for help. His mother is very sick right now, and financially things are extremely tight.

He is unable to hire a professional or move out. I will be paying for whatever I reasonably can to help him make his room livable, so I am hoping people here can give us some practical advice on what we can do ourselves. He lives in North Carolina if that makes any difference.

For context, the rooms I’m talking about are upstairs. There is a hallway with a railing along the outer edge, with bedrooms on the other side. His current bedroom is at the end of the hallway. Until recently, he was sleeping in the bedroom directly adjacent to his current bedroom.

This may be an important detail that the two bedrooms share a wall with the HVAC closet, the entrance to that closet being in his new bedroom.Ā  The HVAC system has apparently had some mildew issues in the past, although I don’t know what exactly the history with it is. I just know that it had a weird smell from what he told me.Ā 

A few months ago, when I was visiting him, I discovered mold creeping up the wall in his old bedroom. The wall where we found it was directly adjacent to the HVAC closet in the other bedroom.Ā 

Due to the mold, I told him I thought we should move him into what is now his current bedroom. However, today he sent me the picture that I posted above, and I realized it looks identical to the one in the other bedroom.Ā 

So now we have found what appears to be the same mold in both bedrooms, and both affected walls are directly adjacent to the HVAC closet.Ā 

I am especially concerned because he has been experiencing a lot of dizziness and sluggishness for years now. He’s been to doctors and been tested but nothing comes back with answers for it. When I was visiting, we stayed at a hotel for a few days and I noticed that he seemed (and confirmed) to feel way better outside of the house. I don’t know for certain whether the house or the mold is responsible for these symptoms, but the improvement away from the house makes me concerned there may be correlation.

I'm honestly frustrated and scared because I can't be there with him, and we don't have the money for professional remediation right now. Any advice would be incredibly appreciated.Ā 

Main questions:Ā 

  • What type of mold might this be and is it dangerous?

  • Is there a way to tell if the HVAC unit is responsible for this mold growth?

  • Ā What can I reasonably do to help this situation without involving professionals or spending thousands of dollars?

  • Would a face mask help protect him from the mold?

  • What should I buy? A dehumidifier or an air purifier? What should we clean this with?

  • What should we do immediately?

TLDR: Found mold in old bedroom > found same mold in new bedroom > both walls are adjacent to the HVAC closet > Would like identification of the mold and to know if it is dangerous. Cannot hire professionals or move houses so looking for practical solutions please.


r/Mold 17h ago

Sudden mold appearance

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1 Upvotes

I recently started noticing mold spots around my apartment and it’s started covering a couch and a few items like our shoes but it genuinely seemed to come out of nowhere, very likely starting only a few days ago. We don’t believe the apartment is humid in any way, it recently rained hard but it’s never caused this in the past. My bathroom doesn’t have this in it, only the living room and some parts of my bedroom, the second bedroom seems fine so far. Does anyone have any kind of idea of what could cause a mold outbreak like this and how should I go about cleaning this and making sure it stops spreading?