| Author | Message | ||
     Shannon OReilly Citizen Username: Soreilly Post Number: 31 Registered: 9-2005 |
Hi All, We have a mold problem in our basement. Not all that shocking, except that we (myself, husband, and my son) are now being impacted- clothes in the dryer stink like mildew, even if we take the clothes out immediately. If I spend more than 3 minutes downstairs I come up with itchy eyes and "feel" mildewy as well. I have used Tilex Mold & Mildew remover in the basement, but can't really notice a difference. So, now I am looking for a company who can come out and either give the basement walls a good scrubbing (and apply Killz) or at least identify the irritants in the basement (something other than mold?). Any thoughts/suggestions? Thanks | ||
| cody Citizen Username: Cody Post Number: 1118 Registered: 5-2001 |
Cleaning might not be enough, if the mold is behind or inside the walls or under the floor. Do you have a raised floor in the basement? or panelling on the walls? carpeting? (could be in the backing of the rug/floor tiles) I don't have the name of a company that would come out and locate it, but I think they come under the heading of environmental cleaners. In the meantime, would running a dehumidifier in the basement help? With the symptoms you are describing, there could be a significant accumulation somewhere in the basement. Good luck in finding someone - and quickly. Please minimize the amount of time you spend down there until someone is able to check it out. Mold is nothing to take lightly. | ||
| Shannon OReilly Citizen Username: Soreilly Post Number: 32 Registered: 9-2005 |
Thanks Cody- we do have a dehumidifer...which has made a difference....up till now. Thankfully, the basement is completly unfinished...bare bones. | ||
| Arsenal Citizen Username: Arsenal Post Number: 109 Registered: 8-2004 |
Would mold really cause freshly cleaned cloths to stink like mildew? | ||
| peteglider Citizen Username: Peteglider Post Number: 2181 Registered: 8-2002 |
In a basement -- its high humidity with lack of venting that will cause condensation and dampness. Using mold/mildew cleaners will only help temporarily. Heres a couple of thoughts -- How's the outside drainage -- does any water seep in or do you have wet walls? You may need a (much) larger dehumidifier. Those would be the first thing to address. Also, insulate all water pipes in the basement (do they sweat?). How about the dryer vent --- no moist air leaking there (this might be a good time to replace the vent tube/vacuum out all the lint)? Finally, there are air exchange systems -- but they are pricey, and I'm not sure how well they work in a basement setting. /p | ||
| Former Cowgirl Citizen Username: Formercowgirl Post Number: 187 Registered: 3-2006  |
To respond to Arsenal: Yes, mold in the basement can cause clean laundry to stink. We were having mold issues til we got our dehumidifier last month. Our basement had the worst mold/must stink and i could not leave laundry down there after it was done, nor could I dry the clothes i didn't want in the dryer down there. They would stink in no time. We hired two companies to come out and evaluate our basement and give us estimates. While we have some minor wall leakage and minor ground water, neither company found a major issue. A 50 gallon dehumidifer seems to have done the trick for our mold so far. Also we bought a powerful fan to keep the air circulating in there. We were told that the box fans that sit on the floor facing each other help bring up the ground water into the air and funneling it into the dehumidifier. If you aren't seeing any visible water, you might need a stronger or newer dehumidifier. Do you SEE the mold or just smell it? Ours was visible fuzzy mold on the floors like you get on old cheese in the basement. PL me for more info on the companies we had give us estimates. | ||
| namaste Citizen Username: Namaste Post Number: 25 Registered: 6-2002 |
You might also want to consider a more powerful dehumidifier. We are in a 1908 house with a completely unfinished stone foundation basement on a sloping street. We have installed exterior and interior French drains and doubled the power of our sump pump. We've also used one or sometimes two residential humidifiers faithfully. Even with those going all the time, we'd have perma-damp spots on the floor in just a handful of places -- maybe three or four inches in diameter, not really wet, but dark -- plus the same damp appearance around the columns. This year, when the latest regular dehumidifier conked out, we bought a much more serious one. . . and it's changed everything. Ours is a Santa Fe model by Sylvane, but since we've only had it a few months I'm not ready to tell you to go out and buy that one. Basement is dry as a bone, even during this last wet week, and gone is that faint, mildewish smell that used to crop up on those very wet days. (Our problem was never so bad that we had visible mold.) Good luck. | ||
| 7wits Citizen Username: 7wits Post Number: 4 Registered: 8-2005 |
Hello - We just had some mold remediation done in the new house we just purchased. We used Venti-vac (609) 689-1101 They did a good basic job - cleaned all the walls. After that, we painted a mold resistent water sealer on all the walls and floors of the basement... We used Shockwave 9000 (can be found on the web). Hopefully this will solve our problem. |
