Guest guest Posted August 26, 2010 Report Share Posted August 26, 2010 The key word here is " if " . My condo was remediated twice and still has mold and unless I can continue to pay my mortgage, hoa dues, rent, dr bills, medicine, suppliments, along with all my other financial obligations all on a fixed income till the condo sold there was just no way I could keep paying my mortgage. > > Houses and condos with previous water damage and mold are > successfully sold all the time. If handled properly there is no > reason to take a loss. > > Carl Grimes > Healthy Habitats LLC > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 26, 2010 Report Share Posted August 26, 2010 Air sampling shows that spore are in the air. The can be derived from either or both active growing colonies or dead colonies. Dead and live spores are allergenic and also contain the mycotoxins. The color comes from pigments produced by the fungus. As Carl said, mold may not be visible. That is to say it may be too small to see, it can be under the carpeting, in wall cavities, etc. Carpeting is a great collector of all forms of debris (dust) including spores, bacteria, pollen, etc. Re: [] Re: Dehumidifier Does air sampling show actively growing mold? I would guess the answer is that it doesn't matter since starved mold can still be allergenic, but I'm still wondering. At this point I'm not sure what the point is of mold testing, if I know no more than I did before the testing. What makes the color that we see from mold? The chemicals it produces when growing/feeding? So does that mean one can have a mold problem and it never be visible (obviously, it can be in wall cavities and roofs; beyond that, I mean, can, for instance, carpet have a " mold problem " that is invisible?). On Aug 25, 2010, at 10:41 PM, " Carl E. Grimes " <grimes@...> wrote: Not all mold is visible. Mold growth is a micro-organism meaning it is too small to see. The spore has to germinate like a seed in the ground. Then it sprouts and starts growing roots, trunk, branches analogous to how a plant grows. The it starts making seeds, what we call spores. All of this is still too small to see. So you can have actively growing mold generating VOCs (the musty smell) with no visible mold. Also, not all musty smells are the same and not all " musty-like " smells are from mold. ----- Thank you, Carl. The basement is a problem. It is running about 70% humidity and we have to dump three diff humidifiers (a med size one and two small - 3 different sections of the basement) at least once a day and should twice to keep the humidity low. It goes up to 70 within a few hours of not dumping the water. We forgot to run humidifiers too late this past summer which resulted in a musty smell but there has been no mold found with 3 inspections. Im not sure how that works with musty smells. So we need something that will cover the basement. The wood floors on the main level above the basement have registred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 26, 2010 Report Share Posted August 26, 2010 Tug, The key words were " if handled properly " . Did you get a Post Remediation Verification inspection and report? Do you have the documents from the remediation company(s)? Was there an initial inspection by someone other than the remediation company? That's the beginning. Then it needs to be properly disclosed to meet both legal and moral obligations. This is not as expensive as it sounds. Certainly not as expensive as two failed remediations and losing your home. Carl Grimes Healthy Habitats LLC (fm my Blackberry) [] Re: Dehumidifier The key word here is " if " . My condo was remediated twice and still has mold and unless I can continue to pay my mortgage, hoa dues, rent, dr bills, medicine, suppliments, along with all my other financial obligations all on a fixed income till the condo sold there was just no way I could keep paying my mortgage. > > Houses and condos with previous water damage and mold are > successfully sold all the time. If handled properly there is no > reason to take a loss. > > Carl Grimes > Healthy Habitats LLC > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 26, 2010 Report Share Posted August 26, 2010 Thanks, Carl.. my hsband is taking the carpet up in the landing when we leave. Ive instructed him to wear the n95 masks. I wish I knew what the musty smell is.. is there a way to find out? he thinks its fomr the dog sleeping on the carpeted landing. Im not so sure a bout that. It got verydamp and the smell saturated the bedding I had on a bed we had in one of the rooms. I threw it all out when i realized it was not easily washing out. Robin > > Robin, > > I'm surprised the floor was 20% moisture content when it was > only 70% RH in the basement. BTW, moisture content of wood > cannot be directly compared to RH of the air. Either the reading > was incorrect or there is another moisture source directly on the > wood. > > Not all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 26, 2010 Report Share Posted August 26, 2010 Carl, even though my insurance doesn't cover mold they sent out an industrial hygienist who performed several air samples along with various other tests and he verified there was still a substantial amount of mold in the crawl space. Before that I hired a mold remediation company to see if there was any more mold, after he did a series of tests he said there was and wrote up a report. Believe me I did everything possible to save the property, what would have been ideal is to get the property remediated a third time and rent it out for the time it took me to detox and build up a resistance (if thats possible) to mold but when I approached the mortgage company with the idea they said absolutely not. That's when they gave me the option of a short sale or a foreclosure. It just didn't make any sense that they wouldnt work with me to try and save the property especially with the all the foreclosures on the market today. It seems like ever since I've moved here Carl I've had nothing but bad luck maybe thats why at times I become so eager to pull up stakes and move. Knowing that I have nothing to take with me only makes it easier. > > Tug, > > The key words were " if handled properly " . > > Did you get a Post Remediation Verification inspection and report? Do you have the documents from the remediation company(s)? Was there an initial inspection by someone other than the remediation company? > > That's the beginning. Then it needs to be properly disclosed to meet both legal and moral obligations. This is not as expensive as it sounds. Certainly not as expensive as two failed remediations and losing your home. > > > Carl Grimes > Healthy Habitats LLC > (fm my Blackberry) > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 26, 2010 Report Share Posted August 26, 2010 This I too agree with this. You can legally sell your home with mold given all the proper disclosures. That will avoid liability issues later. Have an attorney do your disclosures for you in an addendum. Seek legal advise in your own state as Real Esate laws vary from state to state.    God Bless !! dragonflymcs Mayleen ________________________________ From: sue <svican@...> Sent: Thu, August 26, 2010 1:18:34 AM Subject: Re: [] Re: Dehumidifier  Find an attorney who specializes in residential real estate sales in your city, as Carl says, houses can still be sold. I spoke with several real estate attorneys, you can Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 27, 2010 Report Share Posted August 27, 2010 Carl, Jeff and list, Thanks. When you spoke of a merv 8 - 11 filter that was for the hvac system right? Otherwise have never heard of one for a dehumidifier. Wouldn't that still mean you could be dealing with bacteria in the home while the dehumdifier is running? Or does the high merv filter capture most of the bacteria? Does anyone know if there is a way to clean or maintain the dehumidifer coils? Sorry, if I missed something here. Thanks,Sam Most dehumidifiers are refrigerant based, meaning they have a coil which is chilled so the humidity will condense on the coil as the fan blows air over it. (This should sound similar to HVAC air conditioning coils). So, yes, there can be a build-up of bacteria. Jeff has more expertise on this than I do so I'll defer to him for more details, especially about the filter. He recently posted at least a MERV 8, with MERV 11 better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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