Anyone want to see a little mold?

[Desk Jockey]

We just finished up a pretty nasty mold remediation project today. It wasn't very big but it was heavy contamination. Vacant house had water intrusion that had sat unattended for sometime. That allowed mold to amplify and grow uncontrolled and got pretty bad in places.

 

[dgardner]

Wow! What caused the sharply defined horizontal limit? Was there vinyl or wainscoting there?

 

[Nate The Great]

That would just wipe right off.........

 

[Desk Jockey]

I'll have to ask inthe AM Dan. My guess would one of two things. Either a horizontal 2x4 or moisture level only rose that far a tappered off to dry. I have several other photos at work and I don't believe the are as defined of an edge.

 

[Desk Jockey]

i also wonder if maybe that was the joint line for the drywall but it doesn't look quite high enough. ??

 

[tres davis]

That is some nasty looking stuff

 

[Desk Jockey]

yea it was bad. We also finished a large commercial mold remediation project this week. It was 10x the size but the levels were no where near as bad as this.

 

[tres davis]

How many air scrubbers on the commercial one?

 

[Desk Jockey]

I think 20 until testing and a protocol was written then reduced to 15-Drizair HEPA 500's.

 

[Nate The Great]

I think 20 until testing and a protocol was written then reduced to 15-Drizair HEPA 500's.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Then you'll like this. We also had 15 of them on a large residential fire.8,000sq/ft home, we could have put 3x it and you still wouldn't have seen two in one view. Large beautiful home.

Air scrubbers are very handy tools to have. Fire, Water, Mold, Environmental Dust control.

 

[Desk Jockey]

They said this one creeped them out it was so contaminated.

That hallways does look a little spooky.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Wow! What caused the sharply defined horizontal limit?

Dan I spoke with the guys and it is the drywall joint that caused it. The mold has hard time jumping the capillary break, so you get that sharp edge.

It will do it sometimes but generally stays on the bottom side of the joint.

 

[dgardner]

That makes sense. Thanks for checking!

 

[Desk Jockey]

I thought maybe it didn't like the joint compound but they told me its not the compound. Its the break between the pieces that inhibits its growth.

I learned something too!

 

[Bob Savage]

i also wonder if maybe that was the joint line for the drywall but it doesn't look quite high enough. ??

When you hang drywall you start at the top ceiling edge and cut the lower piece to fit to the floor, so the cut piece is always at the bottom since it's rough edge will be below the base trim and will not show.

 

[Desk Jockey]

When you hang drywall you start at the top ceiling edge and cut the lower piece to fit to the floor, so the cut piece is always at the bottom since it's rough edge will be below the base trim and will not show.

Thanks Bob. That makes sense.

 

[TimM]

That would just wipe right off.........

Mix up a little Bleach and water mixture and it will be good as new.

 

[1st choice restoration]

What's ur procedure to clean that up? Gut drywall and flooring? Clean studs?

 

[Desk Jockey]

We just follow protocol from the CIH. This job was removal of all framing that had lost structural intgrity. So it was a mix of removal & sanding. Sometimes just wire brush & sand sometimes just chemical application & HEPA vac. Whatever is in the protocol

 

[Desk Jockey]

These are from one of the commercial remediation jobs we recently finished up. You can see how nasty it can get when moisture gets trapped behind vinyl wall paper.

 

[Nate The Great]

Must be a mainland thing.. We rarely if ever see a place with wallpaper...

 

[Desk Jockey]

Really? Its popular with commercial buildings, hotels, etc.

The vinyl makes for easy maintenance and it really isn't a problem until it comes to water intrusion. Then since it doesn't breathe, you get some really nasty microbial activity and higher levels.

 

[Nate The Great]

I remember one of my pops friends gave him a wallpaper poker/roller that you'd use to dry wallpaper basically making tiny pinholes to let the moisture escape.. I've only see the tool buy never used it.. I think it rusted out from the dust and we tossed it..

 

[Desk Jockey]

I remember one of my pops friends gave him a wallpaper poker/roller that you'd use to dry wallpaper basically making tiny pinholes to let the moisture escape.. I've only see the tool buy never used it.. I think it rusted out from the dust and we tossed it..

Best place for that tool.

You perforate a wall and someone will have to slim coat it. If you make the environment dry enough, the the moisture will move to the lower vapor pressure without perforation.