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Mold Specialist inspected my house

Yesterday? I finally found a mold specialist in my state (a friend suggested some other search terms and he came up right away with them.. I had no luck at all with all the terms I tried). The guy was advertising free mold inspections.

I emailed him not believing it would be free to get a mold specialist out to my little country town to do house inspection. Anyway 24 hrs? later he phoned and asked if i wanted him to come and do free inspection :)

On walking in.. he commented that the mold smelt very strong (I cant nowdays smell it at all, I used to.. so I guess ive got so used to it that I cant notice it anymore). He then went right around my house, all the rooms, looking at walls etc (nothing really thou to currently see here except some little patches of yellow mold starting to grow back on the bathroom roof and if looked at real close, some black mold starting to grow again there too).

I'd thought black mold was only in America but this guy informed me that its here in Australia too and all black mold is bad. He said the amount I had in the past (I had a whole ceiling covered in black mold), it would of certainly have been affecting my health. He strongly advised me to go to my doctor and have blood test done for mold spores and also said he'd ring my doctor if needed to support I need that test.

To add to my good luck, it turned out that this guy also works for the government housing guys as contractor at times (Im in a government housing place), so he said he would ring them too. He said my house was very bad and it needs treatment for the mold.

He asked me how I'd cleaned the mold off the mold covered ceiling in the past (2-3 years ago) .. and then told me the pure bleach I'd used everywhere (so much i was then ill) wouldnt have killed it at all due to it still being in the air etc. hence still throu my house and still probably affecting me.

Apparently Ozone is used to first before getting mold off of things.. ozone is put in the roof, walls, everywhere to kill the spores. Once its dead, then its cleaned off of surfaces. He said then they cover the walls etc with a special substance which stops molds from growing.

No idea what will happen from here, he said he cant make the gov. housing people fix it but he said he was fairly sure they may do when he rings them. (im concerned about how I will react to the cleaning stuff, but this needs to be done).

Comments

That is great Tania! You really need to get out of the mold asap. Is it possible you can stay on the couch with friends? Or that the housing company gives you a replacement house ?
I know that is daunting, but on the bright side there have been many people that made tremendous progress once they got rid of mold.
 
hi Tania,

thanks for taking the time to post all about what's happening with you. you sure are tenacious in dealing with the tough details in your daily life. it's good to know that you're able to get a bit of help... especially on the mold issue. surely your days are difficult enough in dealing with this disease without adding mold on top of it. it was good to hear about the person who's inspecting and will speak on your behalf; sounds perfect.

often ,when somebody talks about the problems which are affecting their lives, it's hard to offer a solution . . . and i just want you to know that i am hearing you loud and clear, that to me it feels like you're doing your very best under extremely hard conditions, and that i'm hoping for all the best to come your way.

congratulations on having a new grand-daughter!
 
Hi Tania,

I'm glad that you found out what's going on with your home.

Here are a few things to consider with regard to remediating it:

* Toxic mold does not just grow on the surfaces of things. Especially with drywall, it eats away at the material and also may be present on the reverse side (which you cannot see). Removal of affected areas is usually considered to be appropriate, in the U.S.

* If you do anything to "kill mold," such as using ozone, a lot of dormant spores will be released into the air all at once. Dormant spores carry as much toxin as live ones. Thus, if you kill the mold with ozone (or other products like Thieves Oil), you may get a big hit of mold that will have a long term effect on you. Again, removing the affected areas is the best solution. If you feel that you must just use ozone, I suggest being out of the home during and for a good amount of time (e.g. several days) after the procedure, and having Hepa filters running during it.

* If you have that much mold in your place, you likely have some sort of water problem (such as a pipe or roof leak). Even if you get rid of the growing mold, it will likely pop right back into existence if the water problem is not addressed.

If you have more questions, you might want to contact the Yahoo group called SickBuildings. They likely will suggest measures that go far beyond what you likely will get from the people doing the remediation, but they still might be a good resource for you.

Best, Lisa
 
Hi Tania,

Wow, I'm so sorry to hear about the mold problem in your house. It sounds pretty bad. I hope you can either move out of there or get it properly fixed. Personally, I would move out.
I'll be thinking of you.
 

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taniaaust1
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