r/BeAmazed • u/CleanwithBarbie • 23d ago

Miscellaneous / Others The owner had depression and I cleaned her home for free

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u/Taberaremasen 23d ago edited 23d ago

As someone who also has extensive experience in mold remediation/water restoration, there is no such thing as a single unifying "black mold". Nearly every different strain of mold can appear black in color, as well as tons of other colors. White colored mold is probably the second most common, but I've seen green, pink, yellow, purple, brown, and shades inbetween. Black-colored mold is probably the most common, but black aspergillius is not the same as black-colored stachybotrys (the mold from the article written long ago that has everyone still afraid of "black mold"). Stachybotrys is also a lot more rare as it requires a more strict/unique set of circumstances to grow - I think I only ever encountered it like 3 times in my 10+ years in the industry.

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u/Objective_Ecstatic 23d ago

This guy molds! Ermm, I mean, in a good way!…

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u/Im_A_Fuckin_Liar 23d ago

I bought a box of Jello and I’m going to consult him!!

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u/Materva 22d ago

He does seem like a fun guy.

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u/DampCoat 23d ago

And do you this gu…

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u/crooked_toes9 23d ago

You’ve def seen it more than 3 times. Stachy and chaetomium very common after a water loss, particularly on wet drywall. One or the other if not both, always comes back on my labs from water loss projects.

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u/MeanTelevision 23d ago

What is the best way or worst way to remediate it or specifically -- did the way the person described, of bleach and electric fan, sound correct to you?

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u/crooked_toes9 23d ago

Remove and discard contaminated and wet porous materials such as drywall. Effectively dry remaining wooden supports. Clean and treat with a product like Benefect. Do not use bleach. And ideally, you would probably want a certified contractor to do a lot of jobs due to the fact that as you are removing stuff, you are disturbing spores and making them more airborne. Remediation contractors will have hepa filtered air scrubbers to reduce the levels of airborne mold spores during and following the remediation.

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u/MeanTelevision 23d ago

On a property I know of, they consulted with someone and they were going to scrub with bleach and set up a fan. The fan would just scatter spores, I'd think, although those can already float around on their own.

HEPA makes a lot more sense and sounds more professional and insightful for sure.

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u/mr_potatoface 23d ago

Sometimes people will bleach, dry, then paint/seal wood surfaces. That way even if you didn't kill all of the mold or brush all the mold off the surface, the paint will protect. It's not a perfect solution, but it's a cheap and generally effective solution. Most important thing above all else is removing the source of the water and making sure it doesn't come back.

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u/Taberaremasen 23d ago edited 22d ago

What this guy is correct. It is worth note that bleach does kill mold and can be used on non-porous surfaces, but dead mold still contains mycotoxins if not removed. Moldy sheetrock should come out, and the IICRC says you should either abrade mold out of wood, or apply high-strength peroxide and HEPA vacuum up the suds afterwards. Nowhere I worked used the peroxide, though, just stuff like Benefect.

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u/MeanTelevision 23d ago

Thank you.

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u/robsteezy 23d ago

I can answer for you. The old “bleach and fan” works more on surface level early stages. Mold this set requires removal of the drywall, sanding down the affected wooden structures. And then applying antimicrobial chemicals to the wood.

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u/MeanTelevision 23d ago

This is helpful. Thank you.

Taberaremasen can still reply if they wish also.

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u/robsteezy 23d ago

You’re welcome. Pro tip as somebody with tons of experience in this field, people think they can shirk paying a restoration company (which typically is covered by home insurance) and save themselves money bc their friend told them bleach will do the trick. That’s the wrong approach and will lead to the internal structure of your house being severely damaged beyond repair. Wood is porous, so water and microbial travel. Your best bet is reaching out to your insurance, seeing your coverage, and then getting an assessment from a mold remediation service.

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u/MeanTelevision 23d ago

Thank you for the added tips.

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u/esoper1976 23d ago

My grandfather asked me what I knew about mold either when I was in high school or college because I'm smart. I said not much except that it's bad news and you should hire a professional. Apparently one of the church owned buildings had a mold problem and he was hoping to help solve it. He bought some cleaning product like Tilex mold and mildew cleaner to take over to the building to see if it would work. He knew the church didn't have much money and thought this would be an inexpensive way to solve their problem. I'm sure they thanked him and then called the pros.

He got a pension from the church for being a pastor. If he died before my grandmother, she would keep getting it until her death because she had been a sahm and fully supported him in his duties. He had to have someone explain to him why it was not appropriate for him to put in his will that the church should stop sending the pension upon his death even if my grandmother were still alive. He didn't understand why that upset her so much, he thought she would be as happy as he was to save the church money!

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u/Steele_Soul 22d ago

I remember it from the one episode of Forensic Files with the couple that had a fucking mansion they had to evacuate once the husband and kid kept having strange health issues and they finally figured out the cause and the source. They had a leak underneath their refrigerator that they tried to get fixed but the insurance company or some other company kept putting it off and yeah, they lost their home and everything in it because of that shit. They go through the house some time after they had abandoned it and everything in that house was covered in mold. They sued the company that didn't fix their problem when they first called about it and I think they won. It's just devastating that that entire huge house and all the nice stuff in it was destroyed. I always wonder why they got that specific type of mold from something like that.

Then there was that portion of houses in Cleveland that flooded and their basements all had that strain of mold and it affected a lot of families.

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u/FawnZebra4122 23d ago

People often don’t realize that mold comes in a huge variety of colors and types, and what really matters is the moisture issue and proper remediation.

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u/Equal_Canary5695 23d ago

Pink and purple mold sound kind of pretty ngl

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u/Taberaremasen 23d ago edited 22d ago

Here's one of the moldiest things I've ever seen, featuring pink-colored mold. This was in the basement of a home that they used to run a daycare business out of.

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u/draz18 23d ago

Ive managed several mold remediation projects. Stachy was predominant mold species in several. But you are right, not all black molds are the same. Ive seen same aspergillum appear as pink, purple, white and black.

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u/joeyraffcom 23d ago

As someone with no mold experience, that’s mold.

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u/IntroductionFar8113 23d ago

Thanks for this! I'm an IH and have a lot of experience in this topic as well- perfectly stated!

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u/ProofMap8034 22d ago

Thank God you set the record straight on this because I didn't want to have to spend a long time typing